Inhalants

What Is It?

Inhalants are volatile substances or fumes from products such as glue or paint thinner that are sniffed or "huffed" to cause a high. Inhalants affect the brain with great speed and force and keep oxygen from reaching the lungs. Animal and human research shows that most inhalants are extremely toxic. Perhaps the most significant toxic effect of chronic exposure to inhalants is widespread and long-lasting damage to the brain and other parts of the nervous system. The intoxication produced by inhalants usually lasts just a few minutes; therefore, users often try to extend the "high" by continuing to inhale repeatedly over several hours, which increases the risk. 

Street names

 Whippets, poppers, snappers, air blast, moon gas, oz, poor man's pot, bolt, boppers, bullet rush

Facts:

Inhalants can kill you the first time you use them.  Chemicals like amyl nitrate and isobutyl nitrate ("poppers"), and nitrous oxide ("whippits") are sometimes sold at concerts and dance clubs.  They can permanently damage your body and brain, even if you only try it once.

Chronic inhalant users may permanently lose the ability to perform everyday functions like walking, talking, and thinking.

"Huffing" concentrated amounts of chemicals from paint and gas can directly induce heart failure and death.  Long term effects of chronic abuse include brain, liver, and kidney damage.

Effects

Side effects: Most inhalants produce a rapid high that resembles alcohol intoxication. If sufficient amounts are inhaled, nearly all solvents and gases produce a loss of sensation, and even unconsciousness. 

Long-term effects: Irreversible effects can be hearing loss, limb spasms, central nervous system or brain damage, or bone marrow damage. Sniffing high concentrations of inhalants may result in death from heart failure or suffocation (inhalants displace oxygen in the lungs).

Scope of drug

In 2009, 2.1 million Americans age 12 and older had abused inhalants. Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Web Site). The NIDA-funded 2010 Monitoring the Future Study showed that 8.1% of 8th graders, 5.7% of 10th graders, and 3.6% of 12th graders had abused inhalants at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.

 

Sources:

http://www.nida.nih.gov/DrugPages/Inhalants.html
http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/facts/drugs-inhalants.aspx#