You may be thinking of ammyl nitrate, which is supposedly a mild stimulant that is alcohol based.
What the article describes used to be called Huffing. Deeply inhaled chemical fumes for the purpose of feeling tipsy or high.
I’ve always heard you could permanently damage your brain or your nervous system by toying with this stuff. The danger kept me away from it as a youngster.
Plus it seemed like a downward activity for losers. Something you wouldn’t want folks to know about you.
A friend of mine in college died from Laughing gas. His dad was a Dentist and he and some of his “friends” got into his dads office and had a party. He OD’ed and the friends dumped his body out in the country just south of Charleston Illinois.