Dusting

D U S T I N G

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. My wife asks all our kids at least
once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't. 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 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 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. IT'S 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 it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no
strong odor. It doesn't 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's easy to say hey, it's my life
and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. 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 can't describe it.
There's 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 won't talk about it The other will only sleep in our room at
night. And my wife, I can't 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 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 n't have a drug problem there.
They don't 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 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.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th
birthday. And 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. I
know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to
Hell.

This Officer is asking for EVERYONE who receives this email to forward
it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers. Even
if you do not have children, you can still forward this to friends &
family who do. .

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