Don’t Become a ‘John Doe’

DR. WALLACE: My best friend and her boyfriend have found a new way to get high. They inhale typewriter correction fluid. They say it gives a great high, is not habit-forming and is relatively safe. I've tried marijuana, but I don't have enough money to buy very much of it. I know that you will encourage me not to get high on this fluid. That's not what I'm looking for. All I want to know is if it's relatively safe. No lectures about drug use. Save your time. I've heard all about it from my parents, teachers and others, so I don't need to hear it again from you. Do you get the message? I sure hope you do! - Nameless, Baltimore, Md.

NAMELESS: I got your message loud and clear, so I'm not going to respond to your request for information on sniffing typewriter correction fluid. Your information will be found in the following letter to me from a Kingman, Ariz., police officer. He wrote to me several years ago after working on a case involving three teens who sniffed correction fluid. His message is also loud and clear but very tragic. Get this message. I sure hope you do. If not, you could become a "John Doe."

DR. WALLACE: I am a police officer working exclusively with students ranging from preschool through high school. Recently, I was witness to a tragic incident involving a young lady and the practice, so-called, of "whiting out" (sniffing typewriter correction fluid). Our agency was requested to check out three kids acting strangely in the rear of a local shopping center. I was the responding officer and found two girls and a boy about 15 years of age. Their nostrils and upper lips were covered with correction fluid and all of them had reached their "high."

Their intoxicated actions included being stuporous with a total disregard for their personal well-being. One girl, who appeared to be the promoter of the incident, (I will refer to her as Jane Doe) laughed repeatedly and kept assuring her friends that the police could do nothing, but I arrested each of them for the use of the inhalant. At the police department, I spoke to Jane and her friends. Jane's friends were receptive to my warnings, but Jane closed her ears.

Less than a week later, I responded to a medical emergency call at a local youth spot. When I arrived, Jane Doe lay on the floor of the girls' restroom — dead. In her hand, she still held the plastic bag that she had used to inhale her last breath containing the fumes of correction fluid. Jane Doe died of respiratory failure. — Allan Mullen, Kingman, Ariz., Police Department.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@galesburg.net. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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