Street Names: Glue, gas, sniffers, aero, butane, (petrol, paint/stripper, aerosols, nail varnish/remover, fire extinguishers)
Looks Like: Various bottles, tubes, tubs, canisters – household items or found in garages, garden huts etc.
Category: Downer
Effects:
- Solvent use can make someone feel giddy and light headed
- Loss of co-ordination, a bit like being drunk.
- A user could lose consciousness or feel sick and drowsy.
- Some users have hallucinated and may become less inhibited and behave loudly and with aggression.
- The effects of solvents appear quickly, however disappear after 15-45 minutes.
- Long term use can cause tiredness, forgetfulness, poor concentration, weight loss, depression, running nose/eyes, rashes around mouth/nose.
Risks:
- Regular users may develop a dependency and build up a tolerance needing more to get same effects.
- Choking on vomit if unconscious, suffocation from bags over head/cloths in mouth.
- Can cause brain, kidney and liver damage.
- Can also freeze the throat, your heart can stop causing sudden death
- Makes the heart sensitive to adrenalin which causes major problems in the event of the heart stopping as adrenalin is used by doctors to get the heart beating again.
