Claude Mills, Staff reporterMore young Jamaicans, unaware of the dangers, are getting "high" by inhaling a variety of household and office products, including glues and thinners.
According to a recently released study on patterns of substance abuse, done by Dr. Ken-Garfield Douglas of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI), some 13.9 per cent of post-primary students in 1997 were using the products - up from 10 per cent in 1987.
Local experts in the study of the subject are worried about the trend of drug abuse, attributing the "emerging problem" to lack of knowledge.
"The abuse of inhalants among in-school adolescents is an emerging problem," said Ellen Campbell-Grizzle, director of Information Research of National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA). "There's a knowledge gap. (The youngsters) don't recognise how insidious and potentially harmful inhalants can be especially since they are in the homes and offices, and are relatively inexpensive."
The study, which was published last year, focussed on long-term trends in prevalence of use of various types of substance among students from grades nine, 11, and 13 between 1987 and 1997. The dangers of the inhalants include causing sudden death.
Inhalants are highly destructive, and while they may not be as addictive as crack cocaine, inhalant abuse can cause 'Sudden Sniffing Death'," Mrs. Campbell-Grizzle said.
"Sudden Sniffing Death" (SDS) occurs when there is a collapse of the cardiovascular and brain system, and eventual death. There have been reports of this occurring in the (United States), but not here. We don't have that data about death here," she added.
The inhalants abused include cheap and easily available products around the house and office such as glues, adhesives, typewriter correcting fluids and thinners.
According to the study, inhalants had the second highest prevalence among current users at 9.6 per cent, behind alcohol which was at 28.8 per cent. The research also indicated that 15.8 per cent of students had used inhalants and 9.6 per cent of them had used the substances in the last month.
But the problem have gone largely unnoticed, or at least it has not been openly discussed. That has led to varying views on how to counter it.
Keisha Morgan, an adolescent facilitating officer of Addiction Alert told The Sunday Gleaner that "we don't talk much about inhalants in our sessions anymore because we are concerned that they may be curious and if we give them too much information, they may go out and experiment."
Addiction Alert is a non-governmental organisation responsible for helping substance abusers.
However, Mrs. Campbell-Grizzle does not agree with that view. She said that more current and accurate information is being offered to the public and that was a good idea. The NCDA offers "resistance education", and on request, the organisation conducts one-day clinics in schools.
"We use highly literate role models and after we work with them for one day, they are pretty au fait with the different drugs out there, and of the rights of children to say no to drugs," she said.
Nagging trend
Another nagging trend is the abuse of non-prescription drugs. A survey of 2,417 Jamaican high school students in 1997 by the departments of Educational Studies and Medicine at UWI, showed that a large number of students were addicted to non-prescription drugs.
The survey showed that about 75 per cent of these students abused drugs such as bismuth, paracetamol and aspirin. Alcohol abuse was 50.2 per cent and tobacco at 16.6 per cent.
In January, The Sunday Gleaner published a story which revealed that several street-side vendors are involved in a lucrative "open air pharmacy" on the sidewalks of downtown Kingston.
The higglers provided prescription drugs to persons who wanted to avoid going to a doctor to get medication for an illness. The abuse of antibiotics, doctors said, could lead to the development of resistant strains of bacteria in the population.
The illegal trade left the health sector baffled about how so many different kinds of prescription drugs could have found their way on the streets, and concerned about the health risk involved in the abuse of these drugs.
