Inhalants are gases and fumes that are inhaled to perform a quick and temporary high. Inhalants are normally abused by pre-teens or teenagers because they're the easiest to get hold of. You don't have to go on the street corners to find them, In fact you could possibly find a number of inhalants in your house.

Inhalants are products such as Hair sprays, deodorants, glues, paint liner sprays etc. When used for their purpose, they are perfectly safe. But when handled in the wrong way, these products are deadly.

There are four types of Inhalants:

Volatile Inhalants - liquids that vaporize at room temperature

Nitrites - one of the most common used, mainly used as sex enhancers.

Gases - found in household or commercial products and used as medical anesthetics

Aerosols - sprays that contain propellants and solvents.

Inhalants effects are similar to alcohol, when inhaled the drug is then absorbed by the lungs. Once they enter the blood stream, the chemicals from the inhalants travel to the brain and other tissues throughout the body. Inhalants have a depressing effect on the nervous systems functioning. The short term effects of inhalants are:

Euphoria, Hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, slurred speech, relaxation, lack of motor coordination, red watery eyes, violence, Inflamed nose, diarrhea and even death.

Because the inhalants effects are very quick and mild, the abuser usually thinks that they are safer than other drugs such as heroin and cocaine, however this is wrong because inhalants short and long term effects can prove to result in very harmful and fatal consequences.

Inhalants are highly addictive, and people who start to abuse them may end up turning into long-term users of the drug,

This then makes them vulnerable to health problems such as:

Brain damage, depression, muscle weakness, headaches and nose bleeds, loss of sense of smell and hearing.

Just like other street drugs abusers can die from inhalants even on their first use,

The user can end up choking on his/her own vomit (Just like alcohol). When the vapours are inhaled from a plastic bag, the user can then get suffocated. When people are high on inhalants they lose concentration and coordination, this puts them in risk of accidents. Abusers can become depressed when they're not using inhalants, this can lead to suicide.

Inhalants affect different parts of the nervous system and can cause a variety of psychological, emotional, sensory and motor problems. If the inhalant ends up destroying the myelin sheath. This may then result in problems in the normal transmission of impulses through neurons and cell death.

Inhalants can cause irreversible changes on the body that range from hearing loss to bone marrow damage.

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