Inhalants and solvents

drug-info-inhalants
Friday, August 28, 2009

  1. What it is

    Inhalants are substances produced from organic chemicals. There are several types of inhalants including nitrates, volatile substances, fuels and aerosols/gases.

  2. Health effects

    Short-term effects
    Inhalants enter the blood stream directly from the lungs. The effects on the user are felt immediately as chemical contained in inhalants are fat-soluble and rapidly reach the brain and other body organs.

  3. Dependence, addiction and overdose risk

    Prolonged use of inhalants increases the likelihood of tolerance development. This means that user's body adapts to the effects of inhalant use and needs more and more to achieve the desired effect.

  4. Law and penalities

    In New Zealand as most inhalants are common household products, readily available to the public, so it is not practical to make them illegal.

  5. Drug trends

    Inhalant use in New Zealand is not widespread and research indicates that inhalants are tried and used by very few people. Those who do are generally young teenagers and most users fall in to the experimentation category.

  6. Reducing the harm

    The Drug Foundation’s message is clear: no drug use is the safest drug use. But we realise there will be occasions when people ignore warnings and use drugs. In order to limit the harm from their drug use, we provide information about effective methods of drug harm minimisation. Such information directly benefits the person using drugs, and also protects the wider community.

  7. How to get help

    There are a number of treatment organisations that can help. If you feel that you or anyone you know needs help, then you can call these services in strict confidence.

  8. Links

    www.mentalhealth.org.nz/ Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. (2002) Solvent and Inhalant Problems.

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