The Everyday Item That's Illegal To Buy In Tennessee If You're Under 21

Tennessee: It's got Nashville, Dollywood, Graceland, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Great Smoky Mountains, and a peculiar law prohibiting folks under 21 from doing a certain everyday something. If you guessed "buying a gun," sorry — that's 18. Voting? 18. Joining the army? 17. Getting a driver's license? 16. Having a job? 14. So what simple act has the same age requirement as consuming alcohol or smoking? Buying glue. 

Municipal code 11.28.060 in the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County Code of Ordinances reads: "Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person shall sell, deliver or give to any individual under the age of twenty-one years any glue or cement commonly known as model airplane glue, plastic cement, household cement, cement or any other similar substance, if such glue or cement contains one or more of the following solvents." Then it lists a bunch of chemicals like acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, cyclohexanone, and other roll-off-the-tongue terms.  

So what gives? Does the state of Tennessee not want kids to have fun building models? Hardly. Letter C from the same law provides the rationale, stating that it's illegal "to be found in a public place under the influence of or in a state of intoxication as the result of inhaling"any glue, cement or substance containing one or more of the solvents" listed in the ordinance. And guess what: The no-glue-under-21 law dates to 2023, the same year that the Tennessee Poison Center caught wind of a rash of social-media related glue-and-solvent inhalation injuries.

Yes, sniffing glue might have made for a funny joke back in the day, but it seems like things have gotten a bit out of hand. In 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that over 1,000 everyday products like cooking spray and felt-tip markers contained substances that produce psychoactive effects when inhaled. The DEA also said that 1 in 5 children have tried such substances by the eighth grade (13 to 14 years old). That age is significant, as a 2011 study from the journal of Addiction Science & Clinical Practice indicated that 9% of the United States population 12 or older (22.5 million at the time) had used an inhalant at least once. Fifty-eight percent of users started using by the end of the ninth grade (14 to 15 years old).

All in all, such numbers cast Tennessee's no-glue-under-21 law in a sensible light. Things haven't exactly gotten better since the above 2011 study, as the Tennessee Poison Center reported an increase in huffing, bagging, glue-sniffing, chroming, what have you, due to social media challenges. In the short-term, huffing results in sensations similar to drinking alcohol. In the long-term, it results in lasting problems like "cognitive impairment, including the inability to concentrate, memory loss, impaired judgment, and increased impulsivity." In some cases it straight-up kills people. Toluene, in particular — aka toluol, one of the solvents mentioned in Tennessee's law — causes severe brain damage, including "white matter lesions" typically associated with strokes or neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis.

Tennessee is far from the only U.S. state to have laws against people under a certain age buying glue. Even back in 2003, the National Drug Intelligence Center says that 46 states had laws intended to protect young people from abusing inhalants. And indeed, the Tennessee law code in question says that it's a revision to a previous 1995 law. 

As the updated law says, exceptions to the no-glue-under-21 rule include glue contained in a kit used to build model vehicles. Also, the illegality of the glue purchase relates to the seller, not the buyer. It's illegal to "sell, deliver or give" anything in the banned list of substances to people under 21. At the same time, there's no age specified when it comes to punishment for use of glue, solvents, etc., as inhalants. If you're caught "in a public place" under the influence of inhalants, then the jig is up. There's no mention of getting caught huffing on private property.

Numerous stories online highlight inhalant-influenced individuals being menaces to society. News Channel 11 mentions one man in Knoxville charged with "disorderly conduct, intoxication by inhalant, resisting and evading arrest" after being apprehended with an entire inhalant kit on his person. The Law Offices of Adrian H. Altshuler & Associates mentions a woman smashing her SUV into a mailbox in Franklin while high on nitrous oxide from 13 whipped cream cans. In fact, the Tennessee Poison Center says that Tennessee ranks 7th in the U.S. for inhalant abuse.