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Although under-publicised, glue-sniffing is as dangerous as ever — but it can be beaten with hard work

Solvents kill. They kill around 70 people every year, more than hard drugs and ecstasy combined – and they can kill first time. Last October, promising 17-year-old Cardiff schoolboy Martin Kane died after experimenting with lighter fuel. Like one in three victims of solvents, he had never tried it before.

Sylvia Dawson is determined not to let her son go the same way. Matthew, 18, has begun to withdraw from solvent abuse after two-and-a-half years. He had first experimented with glue along with some friends at school, “just for a lark” - but when they stopped, Matthew carried on.

“I didn’t know anything about it until about three weeks ago, when my neighbour saw him with his head in a bag and told me,” Sylvia says. “I hadn’t recognised any of the symptoms and when I accosted Matthew with it he was first inclined to deny anything and then he admitted that the had been on solvents for two-and-a-half years and he said he hated it, he hated himself for doing it, but he felt completely dependent, and he felt he was wasting his life.”

Matthew belonged to a tight-knit group of high-achievers at school. They were all on the rugby team, and top of their class. He’s no longer in touch with them after having to drop out. He got a job at a local carpet factory, where readily available glue added to his problem, as did solvents around the house. His father, Jack, was a builder and kept Butane gas in the garage, which Matthew sniffed - Butane is highly dangerous, and was single-handedly responsible for 52% of solvent related deaths in 2000.

Jack Dawson died, suddenly, of a heart attack, around six months after Matthew began to use solvents. It made him reluctant to admit to his glue-sniffing for fear of further upsetting his mother, and distracted Sylvia from her son’s problem.

“It stopped me from possibly noticing and asking questions, partly because of natural grief but partly because I didn’t know what an adolescent boy was like, and I thought it fitted in so well – spots, mood swings, the lot,” she says. “Looking back, the difference in his behaviour before and after was so dramatic that I shouldn’t have actually said ‘oh, that’s adolescence’ – I don’t think adolescence should be that dramatic.”

Solvent abuse wasn’t tackled by a school drugs education that Sylvia describes as “very inadequate”, nor was it included in any conversations she had had with Matthew about the dangers of drugs. As glue-sniffing is rarely mentioned in drugs campaigns or the media, Sylvia didn’t believe it was still a major issue.

“I thought it was a problem that belonged in the 60s, when you heard a lot about glue sniffing,” she says. “I didn’t realise 70 or so… children, really… die of it every year and that more die from this than die from all the hard drugs and ecstasy all together. And I didn’t realise that it could kill on the first go, so there’s no real room for experimenting. I warned him against heroin and cocaine, told him never to be tempted and he assured me that he never would be. We never talked about solvents.”

In fact, when Sylvia phoned Matthew’s school, she was told by the headmaster that they don’t cover solvent abuse as they’re so easy to get hold of that is would only encourage experimentation.

Sylvia is not convinced it’s the best way. “They’re experimenting anyway,” she says. “If they don’t know they mustn’t run and do exercise – that’s what’s killing them. That and asphyxia.” She would like to see the issue of solvent abuse tackled at PTA meetings, but the school disagrees.

Matthew and Sylvia are now working with solvent abuse prevention charity Re-Solv to help Matthew stop abusing solvents. He has left his job in the carpet factory to concentrate on getting better. He is withdrawing from solvent abuse at home, where Sylvia is happy to trust him not to start up again, though she cannot directly help him herself. “I’m not giving him any treatment particularly, but he is withdrawing in the house. My job is to give him the occasional meal and see if he eats it. I have to rely on him, and I do believe him because he was so fed up of his previous life,” she says.

Sylvia is visibly pleased with Re-Solv’s work. “They are helping a lot. You can’t have a tablet to get over the withdrawal symptoms, so all Matthew has to do is to work through the weeks without sniffing anything. Re-Solv were wonderful. They sent round a boy who had been an abuser himself at one time, and he’s now off solvents. He came and had a private talk with Matthew for about an hour and Matthew now has his telephone number and this boy is now Matthew’s mentor,” she says.

“It’s very good because Matthew can draw hope from the fact that this boy is now ok, and also encouragement from somebody who really understands what he’s going through. It seems to be working awfully well.”

Giving up solvents is not likely to be an easy process. Withdrawal symptoms can include headaches, irritability, nausea, tiredness, disturbed sleep and attention problems.

Matthew is about halfway through his six-week withdrawal period. After this, he plans to return to his academic studies – he intends to study Physics, Maths and Chemistry at college. He is aiming to eventually be a mechanical engineer.

Matthew is one of the lucky ones. He may have wasted over two years of his life, but he hasn’t lost his future.

Contact Re-Solv on 0808 8002345, or visit www.re-solv.org

(This was a practice coursework exercise; Sylvia Dawson was played by a member of CJS staff.)

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