Inhalants are very common drugs that are easy for anyone to get their hands on. Some common names or nicknames for inhalants are: poppers, snappers, rush, buzz bombs, and whippets.
Inhalants include a wide variety of breathable chemicals that produce mind-altering results. The three main categories are volatile solvents, aerosols, and anesthetic gases. Adolescents, especially those without much money for drugs, usually try inhalants.
Inhalants are generally taken by sniffing, huffing, or bagging. If someone sniffs, they just breath in the substances vapors through their nose. If the substance is taken through huffing, then the vapors are being inhaled through the mouth. If the substance is taken through bagging, the vapors will be inhaled through a bag.
Effects of inhalants vary from one substance to another. The effects the user may experience depends on the substance that is used: bizarre thoughts, floating sensation, light-headedness, possible hallucintations, dizziness and numbness, euphoria and grandiosity, drowsiness and weekness, fear, guilt, lonliness, altered shapes and colors, distorted space perception, nausea and excessive salivation, sensation of spinning, moving, floating, distorted perceptions of time and distance, and inebriation similar to alcohol intixication. In general, persons under the influence of inhalants will appear confused and disoriented. Their speech will usually be slurred.
Volatile solvents and aerosols usually cause elevated blood pressure. But the anesthetic gases usually cause blood pressure to become lower than normal. The pulse rate, however, usually is increased by all three categories of inhalants.
Inhalants' effects are felt virtually immediately. Commonly abused inhalants usually produce effects that last just a few seconds for some, and up to several hours for others. Some inhalants will depress the central nervous systom to the point where respiration ceases. Others can cause heart failure. Some inhalant overdoses induce severe nausea and vomiting, and the unconcious user may drown in his or her own vomit. Thus, there is a significant risk of death due to inhalant overdose.
Long term abusers can suffer from permanent damage to the central nervous system, liver damage, bone and bone marrow damage, and greatly reduced mental and physical abilities.
| dizziness | incoordination |
| involuntary eye movement | nausea |
| sneezing | coughing |
| nosebleeds | slurred speech |
| slow reflexes | tremor |
| muscle weakness | blurred vision |
| coma | euphoria |
| loss of appetite | impaired judgement |
How to tell if a person is abusing inhalants:
Signs that someone may be using inhalants:
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