2017 THROWBACK: "VERMONT WOMAN CAUGHT ON CAMERA HUFFING TO GET HIGH IN PUBLIC"

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. –
A video of someone huffing to get high in a shopping center is attracting a lot of attention after it was posted to Facebook.

But the woman who took the video says she’s not trying to shame anyone. Instead, she wants people to see the reality of someone in need of help.

“It was kind of just really surprising, and shocking and sad – all at the same time,” said Jenn Simpson, took video of woman huffing.

Cellphone video shows a woman inhaling from a compressed air can or “huffing” to get high. “It can cause brain damage, it can cause heart, liver and kidney damage as well,” said Captain George Murtie, Essex Police Department.

Police say the health hazard prompted their response Saturday afternoon at a Big Lots store in Essex Junction.

What makes this case so unusual is just how public this happened. Not only is there cell phone video, but police say as they arrived on scene, the woman was still sitting on a bench and was still huffing.

“We don’t usually catch people in the act,” said Murtie.

The woman allegedly huffing has been identified as 41-year-old Carol Van Wormer of South Burlington.

She’s seen taking hit after hit as others walk by.

Simpson was one of them.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on at first and then I realized she was hiding something in her coat and then I could hear it,” said Simpson.

Simpson tells us she’s a former opiate addict herself and knows what it’s like to combat a constant desire to get high.

She said her experience motivated her to press record.

“The video is more than just shaming her. It’s showing that I do care, and that I do want the rest of the world – to know and the rest of this area – to know that she needs help. And there’s others like her that need help, too,” said Simpson.

Huffing has led to lives taken in Vermont including that of a 17-year-old girl who was hit by a car in Rutland in 2012. Police say the driver who hit her had been huffing.

It’s the same allegation against a Barre man behind the wheel in a deadly crash earlier this year that claimed the life of a 58-year-old man walking home.

Police don’t suspect the woman in this case had plans to drive.

The act of huffing itself is not a serious crime, in fact in Vermont, it can only lead up to a maximum fine of $25 and the completion of a substance abuse program.

If you, or someone you know, needs substance abuse help visit, http://www.healthvermont.gov/alcohol-drug-abuse/programs-services/treatment-options

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