Any Solution?
| Published date | 01 March 1982 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058202900102 |
| Author | Ian Gascoigne |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
ANY SOLUTION?
Glue and Solvent Sniffing
Ian Gascoigne
Probation Officer, Loughborough
What are we to make of ’glue-sniffers’-should we be
reacting with medical or moral panic, or be taking things
more slowly and seeking to understand the habit? The author
argues strongly for the latter course, and offers notes and
observations to help us approach that understanding.
It was John’s frequent arrival at the
similar to alcohol intoxication, but more
office
smelling
of
Evo-Stick
that
transitory-lasting from a few minutes to
prompted me to find out something
half an hour only. Continued inhalation
about his present habit of glue-sniffing.
on one occasion may result in visual
The progress from a compulsive interest
hallucinations
and
unconsciousness
in Space Invader machines to the new
similar to the effects of anaesthetics.z
habit was, I thought, downward.
John tells me he experiences feelings
The literature was divided between
of euphoria and exhilaration and that
providing the basic pharmacological
he gets ’out of his brain’, although it
information and the more sensational
doesn’t always have predictable and
’moral panic’ of several daily papers.1
1
reliable effects.
This is because the
These portrayed ‘glue-sniffing’ as a
interaction between drug and organism
form of mass teenage decadence, inevit-
is complex and variable: the variety of
ably leading to catastrophic and sordid
solvents used and the various quantities
consequences. Evidence cited to support
entering the body make the prediction
this view included the murder trial of
of effect impossible.
Neville Waite at Cardiff Crown Court.
None of this seemed to help my own
Several
anxieties about John’s behaviour, but led
...
daily papers... port-
rayed glue-sniffing as a form of
me to believe in the importance of dis-
criminating between what chemicals do
mass teenage decadence ..
and what people do. Both are important,
but they must not be confused.
It is unclear whether repeated inhal-
Glue and solvents
ation of solvents
are drugs (eg Evo-
results in chronic
Stick,...
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