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"A child's life is like a piece of
paper on which every person leaves a mark."
-Anonymous
Any of
you that have children, know children and/or care about children need to
read this ASAP. It could very well safe a child's life!
*********************
First I'm going
to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a
Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate.
We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation
in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was
certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because
he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train
with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no
way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell
on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about
drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids
at least once a
week if they used any drugs. Makes
them promise they won' t.
I like building
computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005.
I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust
so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST
OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A
few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I
talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their
computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the
10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer
store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I
bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down
beside my computer.
On March 1st, I
left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and
kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs
to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up
in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to
him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her
like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up.
She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had
the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new
can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.
I am a police
officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had
never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the
autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his
system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM.
I found out that
using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even
have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off
name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them
dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do
this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was
cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt
you. His best friend said no.
Kyle was wrong.
It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2.
Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy
gas. Heavier than air. When you
inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out.
That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your
brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. IT KILLS YOU.
The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level
that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go
randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you
die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or
not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your
breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit."
That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his
eye's were still open.
The experts want
to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we
tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's
why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. no strong odor. It
doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he
died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes
frostbite. If I had only known.
Its easy to say
hey, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are
always effected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a
hole in my heart and soul that can never be
fixed. The pain is so immense I cant describe it. There's nowhere to run
from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed
to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One wont talk
about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I
cant even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe
because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and
talked to our kids about them.
After Kyle died
another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system
next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student
using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another
student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent
school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there.
They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell
everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it.
The probation officer told the media
after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know
that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have
been in my house.
We need to get
this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new
and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much,
except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.
April 2nd was 1
month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And
every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in
the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in
heaven but I cant help but wonder
if I died
and am in
Hell.
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This
Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to
everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.
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