Risky Business Draft

     Today, may be tempted to go out and drink alcohol or do drugs. This may concern any parent, but they do not realize what could be going on in their own home. Instead of having to go through a hard time of finding someone who holds the actual substances, teens have easy access to the items that are already in their own home to get high. People may not be aware of this, but it is a problem in our society.
   The abuse of household items is not a common issue that is talked about, and people do not think of it as a problem. Teens have easy access to the items that are around them in their daily lives, which does not lead to any suspicion of doing drugs or drinking alcohol. The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition says that they talk to about 100 to 125 parents whose teens have died from using inhalants without knowing of the situation. The symptoms that are shown from using household are about the same symptoms shown when doing drugs, this means teens can get away with taking in inhalants without being suspected of doing drugs.
   Teens may do whatever it takes to find someone who sells drugs, but when they can not wait any longer to feel the "buzz," they will look throughout their household for substances that can do so. The National Institute on drug abuse reports that teens of the ages twelve to seventeen are most susceptible in using inhalants. In the past couple of years 3.9% of adolescents have abused inhalants compared to a 1.6% of people of the ages eighteen to twenty-five. Surveys show that 14.9% of eighth graders, 12.3% of 10th graders, and 9.3% of 12th graders have experimented with household items. Studies show that future surveys will show an increase in abuse of household items.
   Household items are easy to get, cheaper, and can give you that feeling of being high, but there are consequences when taking in theses products. Inhalants such as paint thinners, glues, and cleaning fluids can cause irreversible health problems. Nitrites can affect the brain which include slurred speech, lack of coordination, and euphoria.  The chemicals found in different types of inhaled products can cause short-term effects such as nausea and vomiting, long-term effects include liver and kidney damage, hearing loss, as well as bone marrow damage. Inhalants that have high amounts of chemicals can cause heart failure within minutes when sniffing the products.
     It's simple as sniffing a product that has high amounts of chemicals that can damage your health or even kill you. Parents worry about what their teens do when they go out, but they should really worry about what goes in their own home. Adolescents of the ages twelve to seventeen look through their cabinets for items that allow them to get high. Although this is not a common topic to talk about, it is a problem that is going on in our world today.