420

A storyappeared on CNN.com last week concerning two twin girls from Francebagging and chewing mothballs in order to obtain a high. Quoted:

The18-year-old French woman was hospitalized with scaly skin on her legsand hands, appearing unsteady and mentally sluggish, doctors said.

Theyfound the condition puzzling, especially since the woman's twin sisterdisplayed similar, but less severe, symptoms and there was no familyhistory of the problem, the doctors reported in this week's New EnglandJournal of Medicine that

Several days later, doctors discovered the cause: a bag of mothballs stashed in her hospital room.

Mothballs. Makes you kind of nostalgic, doesn't it?

WhenI think of mothballs, I think of my grandmother's house, whichrelentlessly harbored the all-too-familiar scent throughout my entirechildhood. However... I must admit that, not once, did I ever imagineactually picking one of them up and consuming it or sniffing it until Igot that "fuzzy feeling".

Kids sure are getting imaginative these days with their legal drug use.

Mothballs,used to prevent moth larva from getting into clothing, containparadichlorobenzene, a substance also found in air fresheners andinsect repellents that can cause liver and kidney failure, and severeanemia.

Although only three cases of getting high withparadichlorobenzene have been reported in medical literature, "sinceyoung people usually deny practicing self-intoxication, the incidenceof this type of recreational activity is probably underestimated,"Feuillet and his colleagues said in the Journal.

Read the full story here or check out Jack Schafer's take on the story.

For more stories like this, read:

The Choking Game (CBS News)
'Dusting' Gives Teens Cheap High (KCRA News)
Sudden High, Sudden Death (Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg Times)
Softly Into That Good Nitrous (Phoenix News Times)
Michigan Teen Dies From Huffing Air Freshener (WNDU-TV)http://www.nooked.com/news/itemtrack...0ccffb57277fd4More...

Lolo69

I am a journalist and wrote a story on "The Choking Game," where kids choke each other with their thumbs and/or use a pet leash, rope or other apparatus to choke themselves to the brink of unconsciousness. Kids who play the game alone will faint and accidentally choke themselves to death. Untold statistics are the hundreds of children who have maimed themselves for life, becoming brain damaged or paralyzed by cutting off their own oxygen supplies.

I interviewed the mother of a 14-year-old girl who died playing this game, alone, in 2001. A school-wide intervention assembly revealed that virtually almost every kid in the school had played the game or knew someone who played it. Most were straight-shooters and well-educated D.A.R.E. graduates aware of the dangers of illegal drugs.

The mother told me that she wished her daughter was experimenting with pot or other drugs, because more avenues were available to help her. Instead, this beautiful child, thinking that she wasn't doing anything "illegal" killed herself playing this dangerous game.

The family remains haunted to this day. As a casual pot smoker, you can be damn sure that I included this woman's comments about D.A.R.E. and its hysteria agenda, as well as her comments about wishing her daughter had been engaged in casual pot experimentation.

Perhaps if this little girl was experimenting with pot, she'd still be here today.

Lolo69

Regarding mothballs, I remember being about four and coming across some in my neighbor's flower garden. My little friends and I thought they were candy. Fortunately, an older kid came by, alerted the neighbor and our parents, and we were sternly lectured on mothballs being poisonous, etc.

You can be damn sure, with so many little kids in the neighborhood, that my father went over to talk to this neighbor and the mothballs were removed.

Richi

"Kids sure are getting imaginative these days with their legal drug use."

"The mother told me that she wished her daughter was experimenting with pot or other drugs, because more avenues were available to help her. Instead, this beautiful child, thinking that she wasn't doing anything "illegal" killed herself playing this dangerous game."

It’s quotes like this that really make ya wonder…

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