Publisher's Synopsis
The first time I heard the words DUST OFF was in Vietnam. You see, I was a helicopter pilot and the lifting of the wounded or dead soldiers was called DUST OFF. Now, some thirty-seven years later, I get the following information sent to our ministry... "First, I am going to tell you a little about my family and me. 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 would not 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 won't. 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 did not 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 down stairs 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 did not 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 is 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 could not hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cannot hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle was wrong. It is not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It is 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 is why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cannot hurt you. IT KILLS YOU! The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It is 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 OVER DOSE. It is Russian Roulette.
