Sad story about 'dusting'

[fsstnotch]

Got this in an email today

'Dusting'

First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for it's crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taug ht in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnigh t. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never hear d of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellan t from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said so.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills y our lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decrease s the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU.

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE . It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit". That's why th e straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known .

It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk a bout it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Tho r. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school c omputer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it. April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can' t help but wonder If I died and went to Hell.



This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.

A little awareness goes a long way!

[cdnus]

There are no words.
I sincerly hope your family will get past this some day.
Best wishes to you all, & thank you for taking the time to warn us of this danger.

Craig

[fsstnotch]

Craig,

Thankfully this story does not involve my family. I recieved this in an email from a family friend whom is a police officer. I guess it was going around his office. It is a very sad story! I just posted it here to get some more awareness!

Certainly explains why I was carded to buy compressed air at Walmart back in November.

[cdnus]

fsstnotch
I was just hoping that my condolences would make their way back to the original writer the same way his letter reached you .

Thanks
Craig

[4RE KLR]

Josh,
Thanks, I had no idea.

It is absolutely amazing what all will get kids high nowadays.

What a loss!

[fsstnotch]

Gotcha Craig! Will send!

[Mark IV]

Actually real I'm sorry to say....


http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/dustoff.asp

[fsstnotch]

Yep, the snopes link was actually included in the email I recieved.

[AMF]

Truly a tragedy.

I obviously don't know what kind of parents the William's were, but it's scary to think that they're probably good parents and with the situation described....it's really not a matter of "bad parenting."

You could be doing everything right with respect to parenting and still have it happen to you or your family, just because you're unaware.

I guess the only message you could teach your kids is the old saying...."if it doesn't seem "right" then it probably isn't." Which is more of a general way of thinking.

I'm certain there are other harmful things out there that kids will come up with (that parents and most people remain unware or uneducated about) so the only real way to arm kids is to encourage them to be critical thinkers and not do what the other kids are doing, even though it may SEEM safe or harmless. Again, if it seems out of place, then it's definitely worth a little scrutiny or investigation before jumping on board.

It's just scary to think that you could do everything right and still have this happen. God bless their family. I hope they get the message out to more people. (if you read the snopes investigation, there are a number of people this has happened/is happening to....this isn't an isolated case.)

[Ron61]

That is really sad and I feel for the family. But it seems that everything you can buy in a store any more, some kids can manage to turn it into a way to get high. I keep my cans of air in a desk, but I also have no kids to worry about. I just got one of my cans out and looked at the contents and warnings and it has warnings about getting it in your eyes and inhalation. Both say to see a doctor immediately. I hope that this message will get through to at least one kid.

Ron

[4RE KLR]

Whipped cream for crying out loud.

I agree it may not be bad parenting, just that you don't know what you don't know!

We like to think we are very involved with our children, does that make then exempt, hell no, that is why we are involved.

I think this thread is one of the most informative threads I have read on CC since I joined in 2000.