• Inhalants Facts (Whippets)

    Street Terms: Whippets, poppers, snappers, air blast, moon gas, oz, poor man's pot, bolt, boppers, bullet rush, satan's secret, buzz bomb, shoot the breeze, snotballs, Texas shoe shine, highball, thrust, hippie crack, toilet water, huff, toncho, laughing gas, locker room, and more.

    What is It?

    Inhalants are volatile substances or fumes from products such as glue or paint thinner that are sniffed or "huffed" to cause a high. Inhalants affect the brain with great speed and force and keep oxygen from reaching the lungs. Animal and human research shows that most inhalants are extremely toxic. Perhaps the most significant toxic effect of chronic exposure to inhalants is widespread and long-lasting damage to the brain and other parts of the nervous system. The intoxication produced by inhalants usually lasts just a few minutes; therefore, users often try to extend the "high" by continuing to inhale repeatedly over several hours, which increases the risk.

    In addition to these physical and mental health problems, recent research shows that inhalant use is associated with symptoms of depression. Between 2004 and 2006, an estimated 218,000 youths aged 12-17 used inhalants and also experienced depression in the past year. The same research showed that depressed teens were more than three times as likely to start using inhalants as teens with no symptoms of depression. The reverse is also true, showing that teens often started using inhalants before depression began.

    "Huffing" concentrated amounts of chemicals from paint and gas can directly induce heart failure and death. Long term effects of chronic abuse include brain, liver, and kidney damage.

    Research shows that inhalant use is associated with symptoms of depression. Research has shown that depressed teens are more than three times as likely to start using inhalants than teens with no symptoms of depression.

    Risks

    Slurred speech / Lack of coordination / Dizziness / Lightheadedness / Hallucinations / Delusions / Loss in control / Lingering headache / Confusion / Nausea or vomiting / Hypoxia (suffocation, asphyxiation) leading to brain or other organ damage / Muscle spasms and tremors / Addiction / Liver, lung, and kidney problems / Muscle weakness / Prolonged abuse can negatively affect a person’s cognition, movement, vision, and hearing / Fatal injuries from falls / Death from choking on vomit / Heart attack from irregular or rapid heart beat / "Sudden sniffing death" (heart failure and immediate death, even with first time use)