LETTER: 'Huffing' Chemicals A Terrible Scourge



I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Tom Richardson, and I have just moved here from New Jersey back in March of this year. I have found the State of Tennessee to be beautiful, but regardless of this, we have a growing problem and it seems to be getting worse. If we continue to ignore it, this problem will just spiral out of control.

I am talking about drugs, alcohol and chemical abuse. I realize our young people will experiment with these substances, but the most dangerous I believe are the ones they are “huffing” or inhaling. They include gasoline, paint thinner, toluol, spray paint and similar products.

I was watching a First 48: Missing Persons program on TV recently and one segment on the show was about a young college student in Chicago who disappeared and the police had no idea where this young man was. They finally found him in a dormitory storage bin, where he died from suffocation as a result of too much nitrous oxide.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time we as parents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters let Tennessee know its time to pass legislation to control the sale of items that contain these chemicals, along with over-the-counter drugs such as the cough and cold medicines young ones are taking to get high (Cloricidin Cough & Cold or Triple C’s).

If we continue to just sit back and do nothing and wait to see what happens, we’re taking the chance of losing our own young family members to this terrible scourge.

TOM RICHARDSON

Woodbury, TN