UAE | General
In the high lane: Can of worms
It's shocking. It's alarming. As youngsters in the city resort to substance abuse at underground parties just to look cool, XPRESS brings you this report to raise awareness and sound off parents and authorities on the urgency to rein in teenagers before it's too late
- By Muby Asger, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 July 1, 2010
- Image Credit: Xpress/Pankaj Sharma
- Readily available, butane gas is a regular feature at underground parties frequented by teenagers. photo for illustrative purposes only
Dubai : "I was 16 the first time I tried ethyl chloride."
"My friends and I used to put paper bags over our head and inhale correction fluid."
"What's the fuss about alcohol? It only makes me feel sexy."
"If I had known butane gas could kill, I'd never have tried it."
These aren't statements thrown out there to scandalise. These are the shocking true confessions of Dubai-based teenagers.
Babek, an 18-year-old Iranian, born and brought up in Dubai, recalls the first time he was invited to a party two years ago where kids were huffing (teenage lingo for deliberate inhalation of toxic gas, vapour or fume in order to become intoxicated). At the time, ethyl chloride, an over-the-counter drug available at most pharmacies in the city, was the rage. "Alcohol was near-impossible to find. We were at a party and desperate to get high one way or another. Someone said he read on an online forum how kids in the US were getting high on legal substances. One of them was a numbing spray used for minor injuries and muscle sprains."
At just Dh25 a can, it was easy money to cough up. Babek got coaxed into giving it a shot. Afraid to look bad in front of his friends, he sprayed a generous amount of ethyl chloride onto tissue paper, held it to his mouth and inhaled deeply. "I had to repeat it two or three times for it to kick in. At first I had a loud sound in my ears, like the noise a chopper would make if it was flying five inches away from me. Then my entire body started buzzing. I believe I had mild hallucinations. Eventually, everything around me started spinning and I got hyper-excited. For some reason, I couldn't stop laughing. If someone hadn't slapped me to bring my concentration back to the now, I might have gone deeper and deeper on that trip."
Fortunately for Babek, that incident made him realise he wasn't cut out for drugs. "I went home and puked my brains out. The gas, once inhaled, feels extremely cold in the throat and chest, and I couldn't shake off that frostbite feeling until I vomited it out of my system," he says.
Party hot spots
Babek recalls another party where he saw a teenage boy doing so much of ethyl chloride that he just sat there dazed, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "We knew he'd gone too far. If someone hadn't started slapping and shaking him, there was a good chance his body would have gone into shock," he says.
The teen reveals that Karama is a hot spot for these activities. "I've been invited (and I always declined) by school friends to hang out near the Lamcy roundabout in Karama, and huff in public. It's the daredevil's approach to being cool. At parties, it's [ethyl chloride] among the most popular drugs," he says.
Gasoline, available almost everywhere and to almost everyone, is a vapour that teens have been using to get "high" for years. It's cheaper than water in Dubai and, according to most teens questioned, "does the job very quickly".
Another gas that's been doing the rounds at parties is butane. Available at stores that sell camping gear, butane is believed to have caused the death of Anton Tahmasian, the 16-year-old who died at a graduation party two weeks back.
"Axe deodorant is a thing I've seen many friends inhaling," says Lizelle, a pretty 15-year-old blonde South African girl studying in Dubai. "People spray the deo into an empty Masafi bottle and immediately put their mouths over the bottle and inhale deeply."
Ian, another South African student living with his family in Dubai, tells tales of helium balloons and legal cough syrups, the latter supposedly meant to give one acid-like hallucinations. "Naturally, with parents on the prowl, it's impossible to organise a party overnight," he admits. "Finding a venue is just as important as what's on the menu."
An abandoned apartment in Dubai Marina is a party hot spot, says Rainn, a 17-year-old British girl who lives with her parents and sisters in Mirdif. "I was at my best friend's birthday bash which, to be honest was boring as her parents had booked the hall at a hotel and given strict instructions to staff to supervise the event and ensure there was no alcohol smuggled in. Fortunately for her [friend], she had a 3am curfew. I was spending the night at her place."
Rainn and her friend sneaked out of their own party and met up with a couple of boys who said they had access to an empty apartment in Dubai Marina. "It's a one-bed apartment which, although filthy, was unfurnished and had water and electricity. The boys said they found the key under a plant pot and realised no one lives there."
The following weekend Rainn threw a massive party there. "We charged everyone Dh25 to get in and a further Dh20 if they wanted to indulge in some party treats." By party treats Rainn was referring to gasoline, butane and ethyl chloride. "The Meadows is another popular venue for underground teen parties," says Babek. "For under Dh2,000 one can rent an entire villa for the night. At a Dh50 cover charge, plus another Dh50 for drinks, the organisers end up making decent profits, seeing that parties such as these end up with well over a 100 party-goers."
The alcohol may come from many sources. "Every group has one older kid in it," says Henri, a 15-year-old boy who moved from France to Dubai four years ago. "The morning of a party, the order is placed. Within hours, we have our goods for the night."
Hangman's game
Henri admits that neither he nor his friends have ever been allowed to meet the bootlegger, or know his name. An average Dh30 bottle costs these teenagers Dh150 to purchase. But most of the teens that go through bootleggers are those with money. "I have a lot of friends who always seem to have a few hundred dirhams spare at any given time," he admits.
Karthik, an American boy of Indian origin informs us of Dream Whip parties. When there's nothing else, there's always Dream Whip, he says. "Every new can has a few seconds of pure gas, which is sprayed into our mouths before the cream oozes out. Three or four cans of this icing will do the trick."
Even more shocking are the strangulation games. Hangman is a popular choking game teens play to get high. The object of these games is to cut off the oxygen supply to the brain for the purpose of getting what is commonly referred to as a buzz.
Equally dangerous is the circulation game, as it's commonly called. Babek admits to seeing kids in school play this in classrooms when the teacher isn't around. Basically, one breathes rapidly while sitting on their haunches. When they stand up, someone grabs them from behind and applies sudden pressure to the chest. The person eventually passes out due to a sudden lack of blood circulation throughout their body. At this point, they have around 15 seconds of being in that state until someone shakes them out of their stupor. Apparently, those 15 seconds are supposed to be extremely hallucinogenic. What's horrifying is that children as young as 13 are indulging in it.
Hush-hush
If you overhear your child using words such as hangman, flatliner, dark hole or space monkey in conversation with their friends, be on high alert. All these are just nicknames for the same games.
From all the teens interviewed by XPRESS, one thing was clear. Most seek alternative methods to get high for two reasons: It's cheaper and easier to get than alcohol; and it makes them look cool in front of their friends.
A Halloween party last year in the Meadows had a cover charge of Dh50 and Dh15 for a drink. "Naturally, we're talking rich kids here," says Babek. By midnight, everyone was all over each other. Girls were dancing provocatively, underage couples were making out in any and every available space and bedrooms were occupied by couples close to the host.
Invites to events such as these are very hush-hush. Facebook, once the most popular mode to advertise underage teen parties isn't all that popular any more since the authorities started cracking down on these events. Word of mouth, e-mails and private flyers are now the way to go.
Perhaps the most scandalising side of the teen party scene is the involvement of so-called "uncles". More and more teens are reporting that single men, aged between 21 and 30, who live in studios and one-bedroom flats in Bur Dubai are renting out their pads to teenagers. The exchange? A cut of the profit, plus easy access to teenage girls, reveals Rohan, a 16-year-old Indian boy.
"At the Bur Dubai dos, there are lots of Indian and Pakistani girls who come from strict homes. They come in wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and change into minis and tube tops," he says. "Asian boys, on the other hand, are often to be found in and around Snooker Point in Karama, hiding from prying eyes, huffing away to glory."
A technique popular with the younger teens is inhaling correction fluid (white ink). Fatima, a 13-year-old Moroccan-Canadian recalls with horror how she and her friends would hide in their bedrooms with plastic bags over their heads, inhaling the vapour. "It's a short-lived high, but the only one we had access to," she says. "When we heard of Anton, we were in shock. No one had ever told us we could die doing stuff like this!"
And that's when we realise that a lot of these teenagers are uninformed. "No one ever sat us down and explained the danger," says a visibly shaken Lizelle.
Almost every teen we spoke to made the same point: if only they had known, if only someone had told them. If only kids didn't have to die before parents sat them down and spoke to them as is their right to be spoken to: as young adults on the threshold of a new life.
"We thought we were really cool," says Ian. "It was an easy high, cheap, with stuff that every kid can find at home. Who'd have thought anything could ever go wrong?"
(All names have to been changed to protect the teenagers' identities)
Watch out for
- Butane gas
- Correction fluid
- Cough syrups
- Muscle relaxants
- Lighter fuel
- Nail varnishes
- Computer cleaners
- Spray paint
- Gasoline
- Paint thinner
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