Under 21? Lowe's Won't Sell You Some Products

WMUR ^ | May 13, 2003 | Associated Press

[Living Free in NH]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Lowe's Home Improvement Stores have introduced a nationwide policy that puts age requirements on customers buying some products that can be used as inhalants.

Last weekend, the chain backtracked on its original ban of 2,000 products, cutting the list to about 1,200. The change came after some consumers complained about not being able to buy basics such as latex paint and motor oil.

Law enforcement and many consumer advocates praise the move as a significant step toward reducing "huffing," the practice of inhaling toxic vapors from household products to get a quick high.

National groups say huffing causes 100 to 125 deaths a year, as well as health effects ranging from hearing loss to brain or kidney damage.

A Lowe's spokeswoman said the policy was created to bring some order to a patchwork of state laws regulating inhalants.

[discostu]

Interesting, thanks for the report from the frontline.

[Willie Green]

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, 14 year-olds getting married and starting families, how did our youds become so much dumber in the intervening years.

Charles & Caroline Ingalls didn't have a boob tube in their home.
That's the appliance that dumbs down the kids and turns them into obese little couch potatoes.

[_Jim]

the follow-up question would be does your state already put this stuff

Once it's in "Dad's toolshed" that's a moot question ...

[discostu]

There's no question it messes you up. The high from huffing comes mostly from not getting enough oxygen to the brain, it's apoxia and many fighter pilots can tell you apoxia is pretty fun assuming you get it together before you die. I think what we're seeing is poor desperate addicts who can't afford better (paraphrasing from Richard Kimball, our man in the emergency room). Seems like we're blaming the symptom and hoping it will magically irradicate the problem, not unusual in modern America.

[discostu]

I still think it's because we're telling them they're stupid. We expect nothing from our teenagers and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why should they start acting like responsible adults only to be told they're irresponsible kids?

[discostu]

True enough.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Well, you have to empathize with the poor stores. Lets say Jr. goes into said Lowes, buys several cans of spray paint, and attends a huffing party with his friends. And lets say that Jr. dies from said event. Now, how long will it take some lawyer to file a lawsuit against Lowes? Or the spray paint manufacturer? I feel bad for dad having to buy for his daughter, but Lowes is dealing with reality in modern day Amerika.

[discostu]

Oh yeah you can't blame the stores, they're trying to protect themselves from lustful lawyers and dumb laws. All that stuff got completely out of hand in Tucson about 6 years ago when the city council decided all cigarettes need to be where minors couldn't steal them... it still leaves me stunned that the stores get blamed because kids shoplift.

[CFW]

Brothers die after possible overdose

By AMY LEIGH WOMACK
Published , April 11, 2003, 12:00:01 PM EDT

While many students are making plans for graduation, the family of two brothers -- both seniors -- are mourning the deaths of their sons.

John Adams, 26, and Zach Adams, 24, were found dead, sitting on a couch in their Laurel Oaks apartment in the early morning hours of April 5, according to an Athens-Clarke County Police report.

Responding to a call made at about 2:30 a.m. by a woman at the complex, officers found eight used cans of Redi Whip on the floor of the dining room.

They also found drug paraphernalia on the coffee table in front of the two dead students.

Earlier that evening, officers were dispatched on a welfare check to the complex -- made by an anonymous caller from the McDonalds on Prince Avenue, according to the report.

The caller told the police someone had "possibly overdosed." No apartment number was given.

Officers knocked on the doors of apartments one through four and spoke with the residents of all but one of the apartments.

About 30 minutes later, another anonymous call was made from the Welcome Pantry on Barnett Shoals Road, according to the report.

The second caller told the police there were two dead bodies at the top of the stairs at 150 Ramona Dr. No apartment number was given.

Officers reportedly responded and checked the stairs. Everything appeared normal.

An officer then patrolled the Welcome Pantry, but was unable to find the caller.

About 90 minutes after the first call, another call was made from the Welcome Pantry with the same information as the previous call, according to the report.

Again, officers patrolling the convenience store were unable to find the caller.

More than two hours after the initial call, a woman reportedly called 911 and said there were dead bodies in the students' apartment.

Witnesses told the police they saw a man outside the students' building at about 2:30 a.m., who told the female caller that the two students had overdosed in their apartment, but that he "could not get involved."

The man reportedly said he had called the police several times, but that they hadn't believed him.

The witnesses said they went inside the apartment and found the dead students and called the police.

Carole Middlebrooks, coordinator of alcohol and drug addiction education at the University, said she has been told the students were drinking, smoking pot, taking Xanax and huffing propellants from whipped cream cans.

"That's probably what killed them," she said.

Richard Rose, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said there's no indication that the students' deaths were anything other than accidental.

"My understanding (from the students' parents) is that they have had some drug problems in the past and had been recovering for seven years," he said.

[Willie Green]

We expect nothing from our teenagers and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why should they start acting like responsible adults only to be told they're irresponsible kids?

"Expecting" something requires establishment of standards and corrective measures when those standards are not achieved. It is a progressive process that develops additional responsibility as children mature. One should not expose children to challenges and expectations for which they have not yet developed the skills to achieve. Telling the children that they are not ready for certain challenges is a necessary part of the training process. Laissez-faire does not work in child raising.

[discostu]

"drinking, smoking pot, taking Xanax and huffing propellants from whipped cream cans."

Nice combo. The CO2 from whipped cream is a little different, though not much. Often it's even legal on it's own as wippets, I never had the lung power to reinflate the balloon so it wasn't my thing.

[Pagey]

If you think this is an oddity, Ponder This: w/in 3 years,you won't be able to buy a Long Handled Tool (A Shovel,an Axe,a Mop or a rake for your yard) that has a wooden handle in 'Lowes' or 'H.Depot', just for starters. Mark my words,it is already well underway.I found out that companies that do business with them, already have to supply a letter from the companies they buy their wood from, guaranteeing it isn't from 'Old Growth Forests' and they do check.This is environmentalism gone awry IMO.A few people making alot of noise and the big boys have absolutely caved in.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

This past fall, I had to buy a can of chrome spray paint for a kid in my graduating class who had not yet turned 21. He needed it for a class project and none of the hardware/home improvement stores would sell it to him.

My 17 year old brother could not buy spray paint or superglue for an AP Physics project a few months ago. My father was with him in the store, and they refused to sell it to him if it would "be in his posession." So, dad took $10 from brother to pay the cashier, carried the bag out the door, and promptly handed it to my brother. This was at a local True Value hardware store.

I rarely get carded when buying alcohol anymore, and some moron cashier at Lowe's is going to make me show ID to buy paint?!? I am moving into my own place in a month and have a lot of furniture painting and refinishing to do. I'll be seriously ticked off if they try pulling this on me...

[discostu]

Which is exactly what we do with kids now. Any of them that act immature and stupid we leave to their own devices, any of them that try to excel and take on responsibility are rebuked and told they're not mature enough for that. We reward laziness and stupidity and punish energy and maturity. I'm not proposing laissez-faire, I'm saying we're making our own problem by constantly drilling into kids heads that they cannot behave as adults so they shouldn't even try. If we want kids to grow up and be smart we need to place challenges in front of them and start expecting them to rise to the occassion. You can never develop the skills to succeed at a challenge until that challenge has been placed in front of you. Kids can't learn to catch a football without footballs being thrown at them. Kids can't learn to buckle down and do their work (school or otherwise) without work to do. They can't learn to be adults without needing to be. Telling children they're not up for a challenge teaches them to not strive, failure provides many important lessons too, the job of parents is to be there to help pick up the pieces and keep the failure from being catostrophic.

If anything the model we're following now is the one that's more laissez-faire. It's like we expect adulthood to develop like fermentation, if we just leave the kids on the shelf in the cellar long enough they'll become grownups. It's a good way to make wine, a bad way to make people. We learn via experience, we need to experience adulthood in order to embrace it. Instead we teach kids that adulthood is to be avoided because they're "just not ready".

[sharktrager]

Well, I have, in fact, seen people who were huffing addicts. This is not an invented problem. It is real.

[headsonpikes]

"GASOLINE!"

Exactly. In Northern Canada, kids huffing gasoline while their parents get drunk is the Number One social problem.

Gasoline will always be generally available. Making gasoline illegal to possess is 'a bridge too far', imo.

Prohibition CANNOT be the solution to substance abuse.

[LouD]

At 18 I can legally vote, enter into contracts, go to war (you know-unimportant stuff). But I wouldn't be allowed to buy a drink or a can of spray paint. Sure, that makes sense.

You know, I'm way past that age but I still feel that the 18 to 21 year old group, dumb as they are at that stage in life, are treated unfairly in this regard. IMO, we should decide if majority begins at 18 or 21 and stick with it.

I'm with you. Where I grew up, the drinking age was 18. 21 days after my 18th birthday (also the day I enlisted, I might add), it was raised to 19 - and then again for two subsequent years, until the drinking age was 21. There was no "grandfathering" of rights. So every year, for three consecutive years, I could legally drink for three weeks - But if I didn't finish the six pack before midnight on the 21st day, I was a criminal.

[Noslrac]

Hah a long time ago when I was a kid the parents got me a model airplane for christmas and gave it to me christmas eve..I worked on that thing for a few hours. That christmas was the worst ever. I sure didn't like the feeling, and don't see what anyone could like in it and I didn't "huff" it...I was just glueing the plane together.

[Squawk 8888]

I know what you mean. I remember making a balsa/tissue plane, the dope I used made me sick as a dog. Probably why I'm not a druggie- I always associated the term "dope" with that experience.

[Noslrac]

I couldn't sit up without feeling like I was going to fall over and puke it was horrible..and christmas.