Deadly Helium Huffing and new Addiction Treatments
A 14 year old girl died recently from inhaling the inert gas helium. Though it has no psychoactive properties — the girl and those she was partying with likely were also combined drinking and pot smoking with super-cold helium straight out of a cylinder. We discuss this, and huffing in general, and also reported new off-label uses of the the stop-smoking medication Chantix (varenicline) for the treatment of other addictions.
Smoking in the news
Smoking in public is facing ever-greater restrictions; individuals, and the tobacco industries are pushing back in court. Meanwhile varenicline (Chantix) has been found to have serious cardiovascular side effects. And the state of Oregon mandating no smoking or be disqualified from state-supported treatment programs.