I JUST GOT THIS IN THE MAIL
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.
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 downbeside my computer. On March 1st, I left for work
at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife wentdown and kissed Kyle goodnight.
At 5:30 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. It's just compressed
air. It can't hurt you. His best
friend said no. Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also
contains a propellant called R2. It's 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 can't 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. It's Russian Roulette.
You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You
usually die as you're 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 eyes
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 daysbefore he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant
causes frostbite. If I had only known.
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 program in place. So rather than tell everyone about
this "new" way of getting high that was discovered, they hid it. The
probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and 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. This Officer
is asking for everyonewho receives this email toforward it to everyone in their
address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.
