Posted on March 31, 2010

Huffing among the teen sect is becoming a growing problem, one that more parents and teens need to be aware of to avoid serious complications and even death. Naples News recently reported on the finding from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that found 3.9 percent of adolescents abused inhalants in 2007.

Teens aren’t the only problem group, as it turns out. Naples police arrested Jennifer Marie Fernandez after she was found passed out in a puddle of vomit behind an office supply store with two empty cans of dust remover.

Fernandez had been arrested twice before in the past year after passing out from dust remover in bathrooms at McDonalds and Wal-Mart. She is one of three women in their mid-to-late 30s arrested on charges of huffing dust remover in the same county.

“I would imagine that these women are probably addicted to huffing, that it is their drug of choice, and they probably started out with that being their drug of choice and kind of followed it,” said Christine Holmes in the Naples News. Holmes is a licensed mental health counselor and director of substance abuse and specialty services at the David Lawrence Center.

While three women does not signal a pandemic, it does highlight that the problem of huffing is bigger than once anticipated. In fact, roughly 20 percent of people who seek services at the David Lawrence Center have tried inhalants, yet fewer than 1 percent are actually addicted to huffing.

This low number could have something to do with the side effects that include drooling, vomiting and headaches. Even hard core drugs don’t offer such results. But you don’t have to be addicted to be harmed.

“For some people it could be their 1,000th huff. For some people it could be the first huff that kills them, causes brain damage, causes hearing loss, paralysis, muscle spasms,” Holmes said. “Huffing is like playing Russian roulette. You’re actually killing brain cells and ceasing oxygen from going to your brain. And you’re poisoning yourself.”