Parents Beware!!!

I received this e-mail from a friend of mine in Utah and I felt it important to share this with all of you. Please take this seriously as I certainly have.

Please read this story and be aware of the dangers of DUSTING. Some of
you might have this in your classrooms or at home. It is very
dangerous. Thanks, Officer Carter and Harwood

D U S T I N G

First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name
is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide
for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we
were #2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police
K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired
at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with
us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked
the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor
wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so
you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at
least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they
won't.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one
in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers.
They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I
bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to
blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of
them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said
they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I
yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the
3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of
Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March
1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down
and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went
downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He
was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over.
She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would
sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was
never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He
was pale white and had he straw from the Dust Off can coming out of
his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a
nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the
coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of
Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between
midnight and 1 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives
down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas, heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out that's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU!

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in, if not you die within 2 seconds of finishing 'the hit.' That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.

It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this.

I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there.
So rather than tell everyone about this 'new' way of getting high they found, they hid it.

The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some 'professionals' do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to Hell.

This Officer is asking for EVERYONE who receives this email to forward
it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers. Even if you do not have children, you can still forward this to friends & family who do.