Watch your kids w/ "DUSTOFF" A computer cleaning p

My cousin email me this story, so as the bottom of it requests. I am passing it on to others. A real tragedy.



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 wont.

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. Its 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. Its 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 it's 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 effected. 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.
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This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to
everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.
Foxborough Police Department
40 South Street
Foxborough, MA 02035
Phone: 508-543-4343
Fax: 508-543-