OFF THE WIRE, BECAUSE THIS IS FROM A L.E.O BUT I`M DOING THIS FOR THE PARENTS WITH KIDS
Latest Drug in Middle School - 'Dusting'
First, I am going to tell you a little about my family and me. 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 would not 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.
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 three 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 did not have the three packs, 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 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 did not 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 kid's ages nine through 15. They even have a name for it. It is 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 the previous month. Kyle showed his best friend... Told him it was cool and it could not hurt you. It's just compressed air. It cannot hurt you. His best friend said so.
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. 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. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. 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. Moreover, that is why it is more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It does not 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.
It is easy to say hey, it is my life and I will do what I want. However, it is not... Others are always affected. 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 cannot describe it... There is 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 will not talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. In addition, my wife, I cannot 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 t 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 do not have a drug problem there. They do not 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 would not have been in my house.
We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off is not new and some 'professionals' do know about. It is just not 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. 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.
This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers!
Esau E. Villarrial
Special Agent
Office of Internal Affairs-Central Region
5016 California Avenue, Suite 210
Bakersfield, Ca. 93309
