knightwolf68
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2003
- Messages
- 1,910
- Reaction score
- 1
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2212205,00.html
Tale of abuse: waiting to inhale
Denver area No. 1 in paint, glue sniffing, but ranks low overall
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
August 27, 2003
Metro Denver is the glue-sniffing, paint-inhaling capital of the nation, but overall, it ranks second-lowest in drug abuse among 21 metro areas, a federal survey indicates.
While metro Denver has shown a decrease in overall drug cases at emergency rooms the past several years, it ranks first among the 21 metro areas in inhalant abuse
The survey by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, an agency of Health and Human Services, looked at drug-abuse cases in emergency rooms at selected hospitals, then extrapolated overall numbers.
Metro Denver was the only city with more than 50 inhalant-abuse cases at emergency rooms in 2002. Denver had 76, more than it had the previous two years combined.
The overall numbers are better news for metro Denver.
Only San Diego had a lower rate of drug-abuse mentions in emergency room cases than did Denver. San Diego's rate was 24 per 100,000 population, while Denver's was 28 and the national average was 40.
And Denver was one of just four metro areas that showed a double-digit decline - 14.9 percent - in drug-abuse mentions between 2000 and 2002. Nationally, use climbed 3 percent.
Denver's use has declined 9 percent since 1995, while the nation's rate climbed 5 percent.
In Denver, LSD showed the biggest drop in use, 92 percent, in the past two years; date-rape drug GHB declined 65 percent.
The emergency rooms at Denver Health, PorterCare, Littleton and Swedish hospitals haven't seen the huge bump in inhalant abuse the survey indicated, but that doesn't mean the doctors there are complacent.
Inhalants, which can range from glue to spray paint to cleaners, often are abused by the homeless and others in poverty who "aren't taking care of themselves," said Dr. Kenon Heard, toxicologist with both University Hospital and the Rocky Mountain Poison Center.
"These products contain other substances besides what they're inhaling to get high," said Heard. "Things like methanol, wood alcohol" can be very dangerous.
Inhalants can cause euphoria, but they also can kill you or leave you disabled, said Dr. Stephen Cantrill, director of emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center.
Inhalants can cause permanent kidney damage and, used in the long term, can kill a lot of brain cells, Cantrill said. "Every time you use them, you get a little dumber."
Metro Denver showed an 85 percent increase in heroin abuse from 1995 to 2002, the DAWN report said.
Denver Health has no heroin abusers as inpatients, Cantrill said, but "We know clearly when a new shipment of heroin is in. (Users) don't know how powerful the new stuff is, so we have a lot of overdoses until they've figured it out."
In Denver and across the nation, there was a huge increase in the abuse of topical agents. Dr. Judy Ball, project director for DAWN, said much of that increase is likely from abuse of dithenhydramine, found in Benadryl and other antihistamines used by allergy sufferers. It is occasionally abused for its stimulant or hallucinogenic effects.
Heard said methamphetamine remains, after alcohol, "the biggest drug abuse problem in Denver." Alcohol is still far and away the major drug of abuse in metro Denver and across the nation.
I was :jaw: about this !! I said to myself can't be !!! can't be !!!
Tale of abuse: waiting to inhale
Denver area No. 1 in paint, glue sniffing, but ranks low overall
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
August 27, 2003
Metro Denver is the glue-sniffing, paint-inhaling capital of the nation, but overall, it ranks second-lowest in drug abuse among 21 metro areas, a federal survey indicates.
While metro Denver has shown a decrease in overall drug cases at emergency rooms the past several years, it ranks first among the 21 metro areas in inhalant abuse
The survey by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, an agency of Health and Human Services, looked at drug-abuse cases in emergency rooms at selected hospitals, then extrapolated overall numbers.
Metro Denver was the only city with more than 50 inhalant-abuse cases at emergency rooms in 2002. Denver had 76, more than it had the previous two years combined.
The overall numbers are better news for metro Denver.
Only San Diego had a lower rate of drug-abuse mentions in emergency room cases than did Denver. San Diego's rate was 24 per 100,000 population, while Denver's was 28 and the national average was 40.
And Denver was one of just four metro areas that showed a double-digit decline - 14.9 percent - in drug-abuse mentions between 2000 and 2002. Nationally, use climbed 3 percent.
Denver's use has declined 9 percent since 1995, while the nation's rate climbed 5 percent.
In Denver, LSD showed the biggest drop in use, 92 percent, in the past two years; date-rape drug GHB declined 65 percent.
The emergency rooms at Denver Health, PorterCare, Littleton and Swedish hospitals haven't seen the huge bump in inhalant abuse the survey indicated, but that doesn't mean the doctors there are complacent.
Inhalants, which can range from glue to spray paint to cleaners, often are abused by the homeless and others in poverty who "aren't taking care of themselves," said Dr. Kenon Heard, toxicologist with both University Hospital and the Rocky Mountain Poison Center.
"These products contain other substances besides what they're inhaling to get high," said Heard. "Things like methanol, wood alcohol" can be very dangerous.
Inhalants can cause euphoria, but they also can kill you or leave you disabled, said Dr. Stephen Cantrill, director of emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center.
Inhalants can cause permanent kidney damage and, used in the long term, can kill a lot of brain cells, Cantrill said. "Every time you use them, you get a little dumber."
Metro Denver showed an 85 percent increase in heroin abuse from 1995 to 2002, the DAWN report said.
Denver Health has no heroin abusers as inpatients, Cantrill said, but "We know clearly when a new shipment of heroin is in. (Users) don't know how powerful the new stuff is, so we have a lot of overdoses until they've figured it out."
In Denver and across the nation, there was a huge increase in the abuse of topical agents. Dr. Judy Ball, project director for DAWN, said much of that increase is likely from abuse of dithenhydramine, found in Benadryl and other antihistamines used by allergy sufferers. It is occasionally abused for its stimulant or hallucinogenic effects.
Heard said methamphetamine remains, after alcohol, "the biggest drug abuse problem in Denver." Alcohol is still far and away the major drug of abuse in metro Denver and across the nation.
I was :jaw: about this !! I said to myself can't be !!! can't be !!!
interesting stats from the Denver metro area uhmm i should see what the stats are around here in the DC metro area
keep the faith things will get better in due time 
