By the fourth grade, about one in 25 children has tried an inhalant; by the sixth grade, the rate is one in 10; by eighth grade, it is nearly one in five, Johnston and other researchers report. Inhalant use among eighth-graders is second only to cigarettes and alcohol in drug use.
Inhalant abuse (free registration required). I've heard of it but I never thought it was so widespread. One in five eighth-graders have tried it. That so blows me away I can't fathom it. My daughter is in eighth grade. Do I think she has done such things? No. But this makes me wonder. I guess awareness helps combat such things and now that I'm aware I can be more conscious of it. It would be nice to be an ostrich though once in a while and not worry about such things but that doesn't help.
The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own-even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being. Katherine Anne Porter
The part I don't understand is this: with all the "drug education" that takes place, it can't be that they don't know what can happen to them. Why do they want it? I think that the reason for that desire is the answer to the drug problems in the USA
I've been tracking kid ODs from alcohol--swilling booze is the bigger risk I think for our kids. We need to educate them that rapid consumption of liquor ("beer bongs" "pounding" "jello shots") runs the risk of death from alcohol poisoning.
I'm not so worried about methamphetamines among my kid's friends, but I might be more worried if I lived in a rural county in the West where it is making rapid inroads.
It is not just having a good close relationship with your own kid, it is knowing your kid's friends and their parents. I don't let Al go to a house unless I've at least spoken to the parents on the phone.