Expert: Henry Boyter - 11/24/2006

Question
Hello- I am a speech/language pathologist at a rehab hospital.  I have a pt. who recently had a stroke.  He's a young guy (48) with a significant illicit drug history.  He was found in his vehicle unconscious (from the stroke) with a can of ether next to him.  I have seen lots of teenagers who had inhaled a wide variety of stuff but ether is new to me.  I did some web searches and found lots of info re the inhalation of ether to get high (even some scary "how to" sites) but can't find out the following:
1.  What is it currently used for? (It sounds like they don't use it for anesthesia any more)
2.  Where would he have gotten it? (can you just buy it?)

As I said, I found info on what it is chemically and how it affect the body, I found an MSDS sheet for it but not much else.  Any insight you have would be great-

thanks, Erin

Answer
I assume you mean diethyl ether.  Ether is still used in chemistry research and industrial research labs.  It may still be used by vets, but I have no first hand knowledge of that.  It could have been obtained from the above locations by theft.  Meth and coke labs can also use ether.