::I think you missed the point I was making... if you have a chemical solvent that people have been working with for many years without serious health problems  i.e. inhalation of low quantities daily over a period of ten years, you would likely be surprised that some teenager inhaling a higher concentration a few times would incur permanent brain damage.  If the substance in question was this toxic, it would no longer be readily available to the general public.  Certainly long term abuse of solvent inhalants have been associated with permanent brain damage, but long term abuse of medical inhalants also result in health problems.  Again, it isn't my intention to claim the safety of inhalants, as they are indeed not safe, primarily because they tend to cause problems due to lack of oxygen reaching the brain.  My intention was the point out that our focus shouldn't be, "Hey!  All these idiots are abusing dangerous chemicals and suffering brain damage as a consequence", but instead, "Hey!  Why are these people abusing these dangerous chemicals?"  If you had the choice of your teenager smoking a little marijuana, or huffing gasoline from a gas can, which would you choose?  The teenagers are huffing because safer alternatives are unavailable.  Instead of fighting the drugs (marijuana, shrooms, lsd, cocaine, etc), we should focus completely on giving people healthy alternatives to drugs, and make sure if they're going to use drugs, that they do so responsibly.