by Mark Brazel

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 14, 2009

I'd like to start this article with a little story. My goal in writing to this article is to keep your attention as this topic is one of utmost importance to parents and school officials everywhere. Dusting and huffing are two of the most unseen and unrecognizable forms of getting high and I hope to make others more aware of the signs. Read on.

About a month or so ago, I was on the job as a deputy sheriff for my county. Having been in this line of work for nearly fifteen years, I have seen a lot of things, unfortunately more bad than good. What bothers me most is when I see children suffering. It's heartbreaking. I was in one of the cities in my jurisdiction to pick up another local detective as we were working a case together. As I neared the police station where he was waiting, I saw a young girl riding a boys bike down the road. My attention was drawn to her as she "stood out" from most kids. First of all it was a very cold windy day with high temperatures in the teens. To see her riding a bike concerned me but as we all know, kids are hard-headed at times and will do things that many of us would not attempt. She was wearing an unzipped black leather jacket which was obviously too big for her small frame. It appeared to be a man's biker type jacket with chains and zippers everywhere. She had short "fire orange" hair, and was wearing outdated glasses and clothing which was in much disarray as if she had been wearing it for days. As she approached my squad car, I looked at her and she immediately put her head down as if I wasn't there. I was trying to determine her age and had intentions of asking her why she was not in school. I got a relatively decent look at her and determined she may have been somewhere around the age of eighteen. I did not stop her and she continued riding her bike towards the business district of town. For some reason, I had genuine concern for this girl. I don't know why, maybe this job just makes me see things a little clearer, because I have seen so much. On the other hand I had no legitimate reason to intervene.

I continued on to the police station and picked up my colleague. About thirty to forty minutes later, my colleague received a cellular call from his telecommunications center. A call had been placed by one of the local stores reporting a young girl who had just left the store after buying two cans of "Dust-Off." "Dust Off" is an over the counter aerosol spray can of compressed air. It is most commonly used to dust off computer

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