FROM STAFF REPORTS

It's a silent epidemic -- kids who "huff" to get their first, cheap high. In Maine and elsewhere, those as young as age 8 are getting intoxicated by inhaling or "huffing" gases or vapors from common household products found in every kitchen, garage, convenience store and school.

Marking pens, computer keyboard cleaners, whipping cream aerosols, nail polish remover, correction fluid, gasoline and spray paint, are just a few of the products kids use to sustain a dizzying, fleeting sense of euphoria, hallucinations and delusions.

The common items are easily hidden in plain sight, making them substances of choice for first-time users.

National surveys show that more than 2 million kids have used some form of inhalant to get high. In Maine, use peaks in the eighth to 12th grades, according to the Northern New England Poison Center in Portland.

Inhalants are cheap and even free. Kids mistakenly think they're legal. There's no dealer involved. Other than rags, plastic or paper bags, cotton balls or a sleeve, no complex paraphernalia is needed.

But highs can come with a stiff price, including permanent brain injury and sudden death, even for first users, according to the poison control center.

SCHOOL-TIME HIGHS

Brian Robert Buzzell II of Waterville has permanent memory loss and slurred speech as a result of huffing.

Now 21, he first used inhalants at 13, while an eighth grader at Lawrence Junior High School in Fairfield. He and eight schoolmates bought whipping cream cans at local supermarkets and used them to get high. The cans' pressurized propellent, nitrous oxide (N20), is an intoxicating agent.

They stashed the cans in their backpacks. Between classes, they'd race to the bathroom and huff, Buzzell said.

"I was like a vegetable. When I'd go into my next class, I'd stare out into space. I wouldn't do the work."

Buzzell, who stopped huffing at 19, said while he was getting high he would have sudden nose bleeds, frequent headaches and blurriness in his eyes.

"I could hear something in my head. It felt like my brain cells were dying -- a popping sound. I was 15 when I started noticing memory lapses.

Now, Buzzell said, he will be in the middle of a conversation and forget why he placed the call. "It happens all the time," he said.

His mother, Dawn Buzzell of Fairfield, took him to doctors when his memory problems surfaced, he said.

"A doctor at the emergency room said I was killing my brain cells." Chest X-rays showed his lungs were congested from heavy smoking and huffing.

Withdrawal from inhalant use was difficult, Buzzell said. Symptoms included shakes, cold and sweating, vomiting and diarrhea.

As bad as those side effects are, things could have been worse for Buzzell and his friends.

Annually, there are 1,000 estimated deaths in the United States from inhalant abuse. In Maine, inhalants are related to roughly one to two deaths about every two years, according to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Augusta.

"The number of deaths is probably an underestimate," said Portland's poison control center director Dr. Karen Simone. "Unless you see evidence right where the death is, it is often unclear why they died. These deaths are probably underreported," she said.

Most inhalant deaths are caused by irregular heart rhythms or "Sudden Sniffing Death" and explosions or fires caused by vapors escaping in a small enclosed area, she said.

For Buzzell, things began to turn around about one year ago, after he took a 20-week course on anger management with licensed counselors Maxine Wolph-Johnson and Donnajean Pohlman at Anger Management in Waterville.

"I've never had a kid admit to me they are addicted to inhalants," said Wolph-Johnson, who had been a substance abuse counselor for 16 years at Lawrence.

"What I have seen is that people now in their 20s are telling me, in retrospect, they were badly addicted to inhalants," she said of clients like Buzzell.

Today, Buzzell is on a slow road to recovery. Currently on disability, he has plans to get his general equivalent diploma. He works out regularly at Champion's Fitness Center in Waterville, to feel better and keep in shape.

"I want to go back to work," he said.

ADOLESCENT BRAINS

David Aho, clinical director of Phoenix Academy of Maine in Augusta, a residential treatment center for adolescents, said huffing has an affect on brain function, especially adolescents.

Kids' decision-making abilities, reason and judgment are affected, he said.

"That is why we have some healthy, good kids who do something dumb, get busted or killed. That has a lot to do with that brain development."

At Lawrence, Buzzell's addictive behavior did not escape notice.

"I got caught being high quite a bit -- a lot of in-house suspension and detention," he said.

His treatment was strictly punitive. He was not referred to a counselor. Instead, he was put in a small detention room at school with about 20 other kids, to do his school work.

"It was horrible. If I didn't do it (work), I got longer and longer sentences. I did the ninth grade three times," he said.

At that time, Wolph-Johnson was at Lawrence; she does not recall counseling Buzzell, who dropped out of Lawrence High School when he was 16 years old. "I just got undone for a while," he said.

"He must have been one of the kids who fell through the cracks," said Wolph-Johnson.

NO SIMPLE PROFILE

Phoenix Academy director Aho said addiction is the most democratic process there is.

"It doesn't matter how smart, how rich, how good looking, how fat or thin. Addiction grabs on to whoever it wants," he said.

"There is no valid profile. People who think kids are never going to abuse, because they aren't the kinds of kids who do that are mistaken. Parents can't rely on that," he said.

Huffers are just as often girls as boys.

"Females had significantly higher rates of lifetime use of inhalants, but no significant different existed between genders, according to the 2006 drug and alcohol survey.

Wolph-Johnson, who also provides evaluation services for students found using drugs or alcohol at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, sees an underlying pattern in young addicts.

"For a user in general, a key factor is a kid looking to be accepted. A kid wants to be part of the group. If it gets them friends, if it makes them feel normal. If it means having friends and a peer group -- that's more important than anything," she said.

She sees a need for a strong, school referral policy.

"A drug policy at schools is not enough. If a teacher suspects something, she needs to be backed up so she's not accused of finger pointing at a kid.

"From my experience, if a user is suspected, generally, schools do not have a procedural policy that is clear and backed up by administrators. Teachers don't know that if they follow through and call the family, they will be supported. Teachers need a method for referrals and direction sanctioned by administration," she said.

GATEWAY TO DRUGS

Huffers typically experiment with other drugs. During his high school years, Buzzell said he had also smoked pot and drank alcohol.

"I would suspect that this (inhalant) abuse is one of the more difficult symptoms to find. In the middle school, we see more of that; at high school, there's alcohol and prescription drugs," said Skowhegan High School substance abuse counselor Dan Riley.

"Older kids are going for heavier drugs, like cocaine and heroin or marijuana," he said.

In Maine, alcohol is the primary drug of abuse, accounting for nearly 60 percent of clients admitted for substance-abuse treatment; cocaine, heroin and other opiates continue to be on the rise, particularly among young adults, the report said.

Lynn Ascrizzi -- 621-5731

lascrizzi@centralmaine.com