Inhalants

9 . inhalants

Some examples of inhalants: • Common household items, such as paint thinners, cleaning fluids, gasoline, glue, whiteout, and felt-tip markers • Aerosols, which are sprays that contain propellants and solvents and include spray paint, deodorant, vegetable oils, and fabric protector • Gases, such as nitrous oxide, butane lighters, propane tanks, whipped cream dispensers, and refrigerants • Nitrites, which relax the muscles and are sold on the street as “poppers” or “snappers”

How are inhalants used: Inhalants are breathed in through the nose or mouth in a variety of ways, such as: • “Sniffing” or “snorting” fumes from containers • Spraying aerosols directly into the nose and mouth • “Bagging” – sniffing or inhaling fumes from substances sprayed into a paper or plastic bag • “Huffing” from an inhalant-soaked rag stuffed in the mouth • Inhaling from balloons filled with nitrous oxide Signs of Inhalant Abuse

• Chemical odours on the breath or clothing • Paint or other stains on face, hands, or clothes • Hidden empty spray or solvent containers and chemical-soaked rags • Drunk or disoriented appearance • Slurred speech • Nausea or loss of appetite • Inattentiveness, lack of coordination, irritability, and depression Who can use inhalants: Because inhalants are usually found in the household, they attract younger children (under age 12), or adults who cannot afford the price of alcohol or street drugs. Inhalant abuse reaches its peak during the seventh to ninth grades, and can be a gateway to abusing other kinds of drugs. Poverty, a history of child abuse, poor grades, and dropping out of school are all associated with inhalant abuse.

Risks of inhaling: Within minutes of inhalation, the user feels effects similar to those produced by alcohol, including lack of coordination, dizziness, euphoria, and difficulty speaking. Intoxication from inhalant use only lasts a few minutes, so abusers often try to keep the high going by continuing to inhale repeatedly over the course of several hours – which is very dangerous. With repeated inhalations, abusers can lose consciousness and even die.

Using inhalants can lead to uncontrollable use. Some of the symptoms that long-term users exhibit are weight loss, muscle weakness, disorientation, inattentiveness, lack of co-ordination, irritability, and depression.

Medical consequences of inhalant abuse: Inhalants are very dangerous, and in some situation can lead to brain damage, organ damage or death caused by choking. Inhalants damage brain cells beyond repair, and therefore can lead to permanent abnormalities in thinking, learning, and memory. While inhalants may seem safe because they are found in household items that youdon’t have to buy on the street, they are in fact extremely harmful.

10 . oxycontin & fentanyl

Fentanyl is a serious medication. When it is prescribed by doctors to help patients who have chronic pain, it is very closely monitored. but once it falls into the hands of drug dealers, there is no way of warning the user of its danger. Even scarier, it is impossible for drug users to determine on their own if the drugs they have bought contain fentanyl.

Opioid analgesic medication is prescribed for people experiencing chronic and acute pain. Any opiate-based narcotic can be extremely addictive. This means that somebody taking it needs to be carefully monitored by a doctor to prevent abuse and potentially debilitating withdrawal symptoms.

Over the last 15 years, Canada has been experiencing a prescription drug crisis. This started with OxyContin, which spawned the first wave of addiction and overdose deaths throughout Canada in the early 2000s, leading to Health Canada launching a review on the dangers of this drug in 2004. This led, in 2012, to OxyContin being removed from most public drug plans, making it much more difficult to obtain. The replacement medication was produced in a tamper-resistant form that made it more difficult to crush, chew or snort to get high. However, in the years that followed, the popularity of other opiates such as hydromorphone, fentanyl, and even heroin rose dramatically, leading to a prescription drug crisis in Canada.

In recent years, a disturbing trend has emerged across Canada. People obtaining prescription opiates and heroin to get high are sometimes unknowingly consuming fentanyl, sold as fake OxyContin pills or laced with other substances that people are buying. Because fentanyl is so powerful - it’s estimated to be 80 times as powerful as morphine and hundreds of times more powerful than heroin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - the risk of accidental overdose is high. The consequences can be deadly, and across Canada there has been a sharp increase in overdose deaths due to fentanyl.

Equally as disturbing is that many of the people overdosing on fentanyl are recreational users experimenting with drugs, rather than hard core users or people with an established addiction. Their tolerance is lower, and their bodies and brains are completely unprepared for the powerful dose of opiates. In almost all cases, these users have no idea that they are taking fentanyl.

The only sure way to avoid fentanyl is to avoid all opiates that are not directly prescribed to you by your doctor. Buying drugs on the street means taking a risk, and there is no reliable way of knowing what they contain.