Drug Types 27ing with—or even preventing—their ability to function in society. Admittedly,
some users avoid serious outcomes, just as some car drivers run red lights
without harm. Escape, however, does not mean that danger should be disre-
garded.
Generally, adult drug users shun most inhalants except as a choice of des-
peration if nothing else is available. Inhalant users tend to be teenagers or
younger, perhaps because other drugs of abuse (even alcohol and tobacco) are
harder for some young persons to obtain. Sniffing is often a social event with
acquaintances rather than a solitary pastime. As the 1960s began, the average
age among 130 glue sniffers in Denver was 13.^45 In this group 124 were male;
most were lower-class Hispanics in trouble with school or law enforcement
authorities; many had emotional problems. Another study found glue sniffers
to have personalities matching those of alcoholics.^46 Gasolinesniffers are often
emotionally deprived teens from troubled families, typically living lower-class
lives in rural areas, often members of native populations whose cultures have
been devastated (American Indians in the United States, aborigines in Aus-
tralia, Island peoples in the Pacific). Case studies ofbutanesniffers tell of
lonely persons with difficulties at school or at home. A psychological test of
59 inhalant abusers^47 found them to be impulsive persons with little respect
for authority. Most research finds inhalant users to be unhappy persons mar-
ginalized by society. Yet not all researchers find that inhalant users are social
misfits from dysfunctional families; some appear to be ordinary persons,
though still youthful.
That difference in findings—most researchers saying inhalant abusers are
social misfits, with some researchers contending inhalant abusers are normal—
deserves an attempt at explanation. Many inhalant researchers work where
inhalant abuse has been publicized as a major community problem, and those
places tend to have populations of socially marginalized people. Researchers
commonly study persons receiving medical attention for inhalant abuse, and
sometimes the medical attention is received involuntarily by court order. Such
persons may be no more typical of inhalant users than hospitalized alcoholics
receiving court-ordered treatment are typical of most alcohol users. And the
definition of “user” may influence understanding. A user who sniffs several
times a day is not the same kind of user who sniffed with some friends once
or twice over a period of several years. Although most research finds inhalant
abusers to be troubled outcasts, it is possible that such typical findings are
due to the demographics of the population being studied.
For information about specific inhalants, see alphabetical listings for:bu-
tane,ether,freon,gasoline,mothballs,nitrite,nitrous oxide,TCE, andtol-
uene.
NOTES
- W.P. Czerwinski, “Amphetamine-Related Disorders,”Journal of the Louisiana State
Medical Society150 (1998): 491; R. Reeves, “President’s Health the Great Coverup of
JFK Years,”Kansas City Star, Oct. 11, 1992, K4; R. Reeves,President Kennedy: Profile of
Power(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 178, 243, 648n. 146; T.C. Reeves,A Question