Okay it must have been 82 or 83. Sunny had left and John began doing massive amounts of nitrous, rather than deal with his pain. He did it all day long, dragged a lot of people into doing it with him, buying it for him, etc. He used racing nitrous not medical grade. He rapidly became obese, paranoid, delusional and disconneted from reality. He lost motor control in his hands and feet. Ken did some research at UCLA which turned up medical evidence and studies that proved that overuse of nitrous often resulted in MS-like symptoms. In fact, there had been a rash of incidents where many dentists seemed to come down with MS and finally doctors came to undertstand that it was the result of nitrous -- and remember the dentists used medical grade mixed with oxygen. John used racing grade, meant for cars not human consumption, and used it undiluted.

In about 1984 there was an intervention. He was presented with this information and then refused to have anything to do with anyone who presented it. He bad mouthed those who had spoken up so that the new folks he pulled in to support his habit would not beleive us if we told them about the dangers of NO2. I and I think others told folks anyhow -- both to protect them and to try to prevetn John from OD'ing.

The last intervention didn't happen for another 15 or 16 years. In the meantime he fed his addictions and self-medicated his pain using various substances. Clearly he did considerable neurological and mental damage to himself, and other poeple were affected as well.

As to whether or not he has post-polio, I'm not his doctor so I have no idea. But that is surely not all he has. I hope he is being honest with his doctors because otherwise there's very little possibility they will actually be able to help him. Addiction is an illness and I pity him for his condition.





Deep Throat Renegade