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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...0ccffb57277fd4

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