Epidemiology of Inhalant Abuse - Archives - National Institute on ...

had inhaled the vapor from lacquer thinner and become intoxicated.
These represented, however, only sporadic and limited reports <strong>of</strong> solvent
abuse. In 1967, young vagrants known as Futen began to stand in front
<strong>of</strong> the Sinjuku Station in Tokyo, openly inhaling solvent vapors from
plastic bags. Shortly thereafter, solvent inhalation spread throughout
Japan. Figure 1 documents this epidemic. Figure 1 also shows an
epidemic <strong>of</strong> hypnotic analgesics abuse between 1960 and 1965. This
occurred among teenage delinquents and school dropouts and predates
solvent abuse. Both had a common feature; that is, both were grouporiented
activities among teenagers. At that time even youngsters were
able to buy hypnotics quite freely at a drugstore, and they consumed
relatively high doses <strong>of</strong> those substances, <strong>of</strong>ten with alcohol, to get into
an intoxicated, dreamy state. Later the sale <strong>of</strong> those drugs was legally
restricted, so youngsters replaced hypnotics with organic solvents, which
are cheaper, easier to obtain, more potent, and quicker to create a dreamy
trip than hypnotic drugs.
Today, solvent abuse is found in virtually every prefecture <strong>of</strong> Japan.
Many <strong>of</strong> those who abuse are young solvent abusers who experiment for
a short period, but some develop into long-term solitary heavy users with
disturbed psychopathology. Epidemics at the initial stage <strong>of</strong> abuse has
become endemic, since use is closely connected with the subculture <strong>of</strong>
school dropouts and delinquent groups. Initially, solvent abusers were
open in their activities. Afterwards, they became more secretive, mainly
as a reaction to the efforts by authorities to eradicate the problem.
SITUATIONS IN KAGAWA PREFECTURE
Kagawa Prefecture, where the author now works, is located on Shikoku,
the fourth main island in southern Japan. It has a population <strong>of</strong> slightly
more than 1,000,000 people, representing about 1 percent <strong>of</strong> the total
population <strong>of</strong> Japan (figure 3).
Figure 4 shows the number <strong>of</strong> juveniles diverted to treatment for solvent
abuse in Kagawa Prefecture and in Japan. For the past 10 years, solvent
abusers both in Kagawa and in Japan have been decreasing somewhat,
with the national decline being sharper. Table 2 presents the sources <strong>of</strong>
solvents among 206 juveniles directed to treatment for solvent abuse in
1991; 61.2 percent bought the substances at various shops, and 18.4
percent stole them from shops or workplaces.
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