Canadian Village Fights A Children's Addiction
Tribal Effort Against Gas-Sniffing Shows Success, So Far
By DeNeen L. Brown
SHESHATSHIU, Newfoundland and Labrador -- The dark end of the graveyard
still calls him.
That is where Phillip believes his dead brother, Charles, told him to
go when he was sniffing the gasoline. That was before social workers
apprehended Phillip from the woods, put him on a bus and sent him to a
locked-door treatment facility for children who were addicted to
high-octane gas in plastic bags. There they were watched 24 hours, given
all the time in the world to sleep off the fumes.
Two years after the abduction, Phillip, the 13-year-old who was seen
nationwide with a green bag sealed to his lips, is back in his
community, in his father's house. He says he doesn't sniff gas anymore.
But sometimes he can still hear his dead brother, Charles, calling him,
and he can still remember the night when his brother burst into flames
after a bag of gasoline he was sniffing spilled near a candle. Charles
ran toward him, ablaze. But the fumes on Phillip were strong, and he ran
away from his brother because he didn't want to catch fire, too. Now, he
is haunted.
Phillip was one of the youngest sniffers then, stumbling in and out of
the woods outside this hillside settlement of an aboriginal people in
Canada's north called Innu. He huddled with other sniffers, inhaling
fumes to forget problems. When the children began sniffing on the
streets in broad daylight, not running when tribal leaders glared at
them, the community knew it had a crisis. Chief Paul Rich made a public
appeal to the government to do whatever it took to help 39 children in
the village known to be sniffing gas. The government...»»
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Suggested Reading
Uppers,
Downers, All Arounders
By D. Inaba
A non- judgmental, current, and highly visual,
textbook /reference book on the physical and mental effects of psychoactive
drugs.
The 500-page book covers all aspects of drug use
and abuse including current theories of addiction, neuro-chemistry,
treatment, dual diagnosis, and prevention.
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