Vet fights inhalant habit
BOISE – Aaron D. Draper doesn’t remember standing in a field off Overland Road last summer, surrounded by dozens of cans of compressed air he’d just stolen from Wal-Mart.
He doesn’t remember sticking those 42 cans in his mouth and breathing in the aerosol fumes over and over.
All he remembers of July 19 is waking up at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center that night.
“I’ve tried to block out that day,” Draper said recently, dressed in his inmate’s uniform at the Ada County Jail. “I remember the police officer told me he wanted me to stay at Saint Al’s (instead of going to jail), because I did so much damage to my (heart).”
Draper is addicted to “huffing,” a practice in which people breathe in the propellants found in household spray cans to get high. Huffers can even abuse something as seemingly benign as a can of compressed air.
The buzz occurs because of hypoxia, when oxygen is denied to the brain. Effects include lung damage and poisoning by the chemical propellants.
Draper looks older than his 28 years. He is a U.S. Army veteran who served as a flight medic in the mid-2000s, a career choice he said led to his huffing addiction.
He has been through rehab at least twice and will enter again when he finishes his jail time for theft this winter.
“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “I know the dangers of it. … I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I was more embarrassed than anything for asking for help.”
It’s difficult to determine how widespread huffing has become for soldiers in Iraq. But reports over the past several years indicate it’s a problem that has gotten the military’s attention.
A 2008 story that ran in Knowledge, which calls itself the official safety magazine of the U.S. Army, reported that 47 members of the armed forces had died of inhalant use since 1998, more than half of them soldiers.
The Department of Defense issued a release in October 2010 warning soldiers about huffing.
Draper said he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2005 IED attack in Iraq and has post-traumatic stress disorder. He suffered minor shrapnel wounds, but the real damage was to his brain.
Draper suffered migraines and memory loss. The 800-milligram Motrin pills the military prescribed for his headaches weren’t working.
That’s when he was introduced to huffing a can of compressed air.
“It takes everything off your mind,” Draper said. “It was very prevalent in the military. It’s readily available, and there is no drug test for it. It’s so fast-acting (that) it doesn’t leave a trace in your blood and urine.”
Draper hopes this next stint in rehab is more successful than the previous two. He feels he has a story to tell teens: Don’t try inhalants. Ever.
“I want to be done with it,” he said. “(Huffing) ruined my marriage, it ruined a lot of my friendships. It’s almost ruined my relationship with my parents.”