Special Drive In City Against Whitener Addiction

The menace of whiteners (volatile solvents) is on the increase in most areas of Hyderabad.

According to V Satyanarayana, IPS, DCP South Zone, an increasing number of youth were getting addicted to intoxication through sniffing/inhaling volatile solvents including hydro-carbon products like thinners, nail polishes and adhesives, which are used for fixing rubber materials.

The intoxication lasts 8 to 10 hours, and during this state many of those intoxicated resort to committing offences like snatching and pick-pocketing, and sometimes make cuts on their bodies with sharp-edged blades and resort to attacks on the common public with such sharp edged items.

Most of the whiteners are volatile solvents and chemicals in a liquid or semi-solid state, that dissolve into other substances (for example, nail polish remover). Many products readily found in homes or workplaces - such as spray paints, markers, adhesives and cleaning fluids - contain volatile substances that have psychoactive (mind-altering) properties when inhaled.

People do not typically think of these products as drugs because they were never intended for that purpose. However, these products are sometimes abused in that way, especially by young children and adolescents, and are the only class of substances abused more by younger generation.

Generally the solvent (whitener) addicts are orphans, kids who have run away from their homes or the homeless. They sleep on the footpaths, bus stands and railway stations.

A special drive was being launched against this addiction to curb its impact both on the inhalers and those that they attack, the DCP mentioned.