Desperate youths sniffing ‘unsniffable’ Opal fuel

A SMALL number of desperate young petrol sniffers in Arnhem Land are resorting to sniffing stolen Opal fuel – once described as “unsniffable” – despite a government efforts to curtail volatile substance abuse in the region

A SMALL number of desperate young petrol sniffers in Arnhem Land are resorting to sniffing stolen Opal fuel – once described as “unsniffable” – despite a government efforts to curtail volatile substance abuse in the region.

Police records seen by the NT News detail more than a dozen petrol thefts from cars, boats and garden sheds in Arnhem Land communities, with officers suspecting “known” teenage sniffers to be responsible.

A longtime officer with knowledge of the sniffing-related thefts said young sniffers were known to be chasing a high by sniffing Opal, and was critical of what he described as insufficient government efforts to deter the most rusted-on young addicts.

He said he and fellow officers dreaded the “almost inevitable” day they were called to deal with a dead teenager “slumped over a coke bottle of ‘unsniffable’ petrol”.

He said bureaucrats in Arnhem Land and Darwin had no real solution preventing access to Opal, which despite being once marketed as “non-sniffable” has a documented history of being used by sniffers.

Police officially declined interview request on the issue and did not respond to most questions put by the NT News, saying, “we do not want anyone thinking it can be done”.

After being told their own records suggested people were already sniffing Opal, and after being prompted to respond by Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s office, a spokesman confirmed police had records of the theft of “a range of petroleum-based substances” in Arnhem Land.

A spokesman for the Department of Chief Minister said the preventing volatile substance abuse was “varied and complex” and that the current approach favoured “community led initiatives and approaches which have a strong probability of success.”

Ramped up security at Galiwinku Airport has seen a complete halt in Avgas thefts, which spiked earlier this year, with planes also being stopped from staying overnight in Yurrwi and Gapuwiyak.

In a recent youth justice court hearing in Darwin, large tracts of which were suppressed, one young Arnhem Land Avgas sniffer was described by his lawyer as “somewhat of a lost soul”.

Judge Sue Oliver, who handed the teen a community-based order, laid bare to him the facts of sniffing.

“People who sniff over a long period of time actually end up losing control over parts of their body,” she said.

A 2008 inquest into the death of 12-year-old Hermannsberg boy Kenny Burns heard Opal was “a bit different” in its effects to unleaded.