DETROIT – Residents are concerned about people coming to Riverside Skatepark in Detroit and getting high using “whippits.”
“It’s a skatepark. You got kids coming out here under the age of 12. At the same time you got these people coming out here and doing whip it’s and all these type of drugs out here. It’s not really a good healthy environment,” Jeremy Morgan said.
Skaters like Morgan are fed up with seeing hundreds of whippit containers tossed on the ground.
“We’re trying to get away from that lifestyle around here,” added Morgan.
The packaging on most of the canisters describes them as cream charges, used for whipped cream, dressings and other deserts. The key ingredient, Nitrous oxide, is often abused by people looking to get high.
Dave Lovelock who brings his children to the park from time to time says it’s a sad transition he’s seen the park make since it was created just a year ago.
“There’s hundreds, if not, thousands of these whippit canisters and I’m seeing other paraphernalia and stuff. When it was new, it was gorgeous,” Lovelock said.
Especially with something so dangerous on the ground.
“Inhaling the Nitrous oxide from those canisters can lead to some serious problems, like blacking out, choking on your vomit, seizures, and brain injuries for oxygen deprivation,” said Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge.
McGeorge said while this isn’t anything new, it can still be deadly.
“I remember kids I worked with doing them at the soda fountain I worked at 40 years ago in high school. And every time the trend resurges, we have to get the word out that it’s unsafe,” McGeorge said.
“They’re really trying to change the city up and do better but we still have people here who just come down here and do whatever they want,” Morgan said.
The city usually comes out to clean the park every morning.
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