The war on drugs has a new target. While cops and parents worry about marijuana, crack and heroin growing numbers of young kids are doing serious damage to their bodies and even dying from using inhalants, many of which are commonly found around the house and at school. Inhalants are everyday items that contain toxic gas or liquid, such as aerosol air fresheners kept under the kitchen sink, butane cigarette lighters left on the coffee table, and Freon stolen from a neighbor's air conditioning unit. Some teen-agers have poured gasoline into a plastic bag, put their head inside and inhaled the fumes. Teen-agers sometimes suffer permanent brain, bone marrow, liver and kidney damage, McCaffrey said.
Freedom has nothing to fear from the truth.