STICKY MATTER FOR SOCIETY TO DEAL WITH

GLUE-SNIFFING is considered child's play among substance abusers; it is mostly teenagers getting their kicks by inhaling from a plastic bag containing a dollop of glue.

That glue-sniffing is not considered a criminal offence undermines the seriousness of this addictive habit.  It means that glue-sniffers, unlike drug users, can indulge in this habit openly without fear of legal reprisals.

Perhaps that is why over half a million students nationwide are getting high on glue, petrol, lacquer or other solvents.  Glue-sniffers are mostly impressionable teenagers--students and dropouts--some as young as 13.

Furthermore, it is all too easy--and cheap--to get into.  Anyone can buy a can of glue used for patching tyres or repairing shoes.  Other inhalent addicts sniff tyres, old rubber slippers, kerosene or erasers.  In desperate cases, addicts have resorted to sniffing cow dung.

Glue-sniffing is not usually fatal, although it can cause dizziness, disorientation and even hallucination which can cause a person to endanger himself.  But prolonged glue-sniffing can cause brain and lung damage.

More frightening is the fact that glue-sniffing is often the first step towards hard drugs.

The deaths of three teenagers in Cheras last week, apparently from glue-sniffing, have renewed calls to empower the authorities to detain and send addicted glue-sniffers to rehabilitation centres.

It is not a new recommendation; a similar proposal in 1993 came to nought.  One of the difficulties cited in implementing such a law is that it would be inappropriate for the Government to control the sale of solvents needed in various development projects.

In this latest proposal, there are plans to control the sale of the solvent toluene to prevent its misuse.

Whatever the outcome of these proposals, the onus is still on parents to make sure that their children do not start sniffing glue.  Peer pressure cannot be underestimated, so it pays to know your child's friends.

In Kuala Kemaman, where drug abuse among youths is rampant, a villager with seven children says all he can do is make sure that curfew is strictly enforced, especially for his sons, and that his children do not mix with the wrong company.

"Chat with them a lot, sembang selalu, and include them in all your activities" is the advice.

Parents also have to be in the know, and be savvy about the influences their teenagers are subjected to, be it glue, Ecstasy or Internet pornography.  Tell-tale signs of glue-sniffing include unusual breath odour, slurred or disoriented speech, glazed blood-shot eyes, mood swings, and irritability.

Parents and teachers need to talk openly about glue-sniffing.  Adults naively think that they are protecting their children by avoiding taboo subjects like sex and drugs.

Teenagers will come to know of such "temptations," and parents can only hope that they have taught their young ones enough to resist such temporal pleasures.