I felt this is so important and it should get out. I was amazed when I read this.
DUSTING - Not worth the high.
September 25th, 2008
This is soo important. Copied from an email so the formating is a mess.
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 the 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.
Cst. Dan Kostuik, #3217
Calgary Police Service
Serious Habitual Offender Program
403.206.8737 office
403.804.9221 cellular
403.974.6172 fax
