Inhalant Addiction: A Pre-teen's Dangerous Escape

Riley Foster became an inhalant addict or more commonly known as a “huffer.” Riley was only 12 year old and inhalants are the largest amount of drugs used by this age category. Riley would sniff gasoline in his garage for hours at a time. The first time he tried inhalants he blacked out but still wanted more. After using drugs, Riley’s attitude became aggressive and frustrated much more. His mother found him in the garage slurring words and stumbling while he ran out of the garage to the woods and was found by his father. On his way to the hospital, blood ran down his nose and he had overdosed where he now is sober after months of rehabilitation. His mother stated that she did not even know inhaling was an option something that occurred in children. She was scared for his life.

He would continually blackout and overdosed on the legal household substance of gasoline. Pre-teens have more access to household products such as cleaners and hairspray etc. so they are more likely to use these instead of other drugs such as marijuana. These kids do not have the access that older kids may have to get their hands on hard drugs.

When this happens, the heart is affected, induced to speed up the beating process and eventually will stop beating altogether. The dangerous part about these substances is that they affect younger teens in different ways. They cause more damage to the still developing bodies of these kids and can cause affects lasting later in life including damage to important organs such as the brain and studies also show girls being more affected than boys. Memory can be one of the biggest detriments. Sometimes tolerance is not an option however withdrawal symptoms can develop for people trying to stop use because it is both a physical and psychological