[Youth CND — nothing to do with nuclear…]

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Youth CND — nothing to do with nuclear war, he says. Y: t there are nuclear warheads on the US ROOPIS_OUT NOME Techs are starting back either next week or the week after. There are likely to be long queues of Join the Labour Committee on Ireland. new students all waiting to register - and buy a left wing paper. Make sure you're there, armed BM Box 5355, London WCIN 3XX USED glue bags litter the alleyways and disused garages of many council estates -glue sniffing (GS) is a common occurrence in the inner city areas.

It is easy to stereotype the users as skin head NFers. This is partly true, but ordinary kids also sniff glue. GS is the youthful equivalent of dope or alcohol. Many try it but few allow it to adversely affect their lives. Boys sniff more than girls. Girls may try it with groups of friends, or sometimes to 'please' their boyfriends, but they do not DELI ULI target the coutt. uh. By Satvingler Sangh leving Ple: three-quarters Be rent shinses in a 10p shan sal itr.net. all alea •1/ lu NO 11:3 case. life that Vr. a Thes sies.

INSIDE LIFE YTS.

YCND groups are to march behind the West by an East London Community Health tend to be regular sniffers. Boys and girls usually outgrow the habit by 18.

Young kids tend to be frightened of GS but social pressures prompt most working, class kids to try it before they reach twelve.

The most popular way to glue-sniff (in East London anyway) is to put Evostick into an empty crisp bag. One deep breath will keep you high for up to 40 minutes.

Boredom

- So why do youngsters sniff glue? Well, why do adults drink and use drugs? When I talked to kids about it, the most frequent answer is sheer boredom. In Hackney and Tower Hamlets with unemployment at 20 to 25% and all the local industries eroded, school has little relevance to youth. They see older brothers and sisters slog away to get qualifications, and then be on the dole for a couple of years. They start getting into trouble at school, so they stay off whenever they can.

There is then nothing to do except hang around the streets or go to a squat where GS alleviates the boredom.

How can we help kids stop sniffing or stop them starting? It is useless for an adult to just tell kids not to sniff because it is dangerous.

• Accident On one estate, a group of kids got together after one of their friends had a serious accident while high on glue" This accident frigh ¡ened the children enough to want to discuss it, and what glue does to you.

We began to talk together with the youth who had had the accident about GS. We got literature from various sources, although very little was aimed at kids. They decided to do some posters about sniffing (some shown here) and as we did them, we discussed the whole cult of GS.

Deaths

It is impossible to'scare' or reason with them why they should not sniff glue as there is no substantial evidence of permanent damage. Most deaths have been from acciOne of the most useful things was to teach the kids some practical first aid. Because of the adult reaction to GS, when something does go wrong, kids tend to run off in panic and leave the person who has had an accident alone. When help arrives, it may be too late.

Hi:] dents.

Suffocating is always a risk. Putting glue in polythene bags, large or small, is very dangerous.

Just teaching kids to dial 999 or get some help from an adult can remove some of the risks.

GS usually only gets prominence in the papers when something tragic has happened. Kids are branded as delinquent or trouble-makers if they are known glue sniffers. Thus the victims of the system are blamed for its problems. The moves in Scotland towards making GS an offence will just bring kids into collision with the system for trying to forget the deprivation and despair that faces them. Under conditions where government policies put kids on the dole with no hope for the futured if it did, something else would just replace it.

OBLI …LL

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Socialist Organiser no.145 September 8 1983 Page 14 •Fighting -RACISMdam