Laughing gas soon to be banned ? MPs want to withdraw the sale of nitrous oxide to individuals

Le gaz hilarant est très prisé par la jeunesse, malgré de nouveaux risques pour la santé. MAXPPP – Maxime JEGAT

As its recreational use intensifies despite restrictions, MPs will examine a bill aimed at banning the sale to individuals of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. Its misuse, very popular among young people with inhalation of balloons, greatly worries health authorities.

“We are facing a large-scale public health problem”, warns LFI MP Idir Boumertit, in the face of the “exponential” recreational use of nitrous oxide, particularly “among young people”The latter reported a bill, which will be examined this Wednesday, January 29, in first reading at the National Assembly. The text was co-signed by MPs from several other groups (PS, Ecologists, MoDem, etc.).

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Laughing gas, a worrying phenomenon for young people

Sold in cartridge form, and generally used for whipped cream siphons, cartridges of this gas are fashionable for a well-diverted use. Nitrous oxide is prized for its short-lived euphoric effects (of the order of a few minutes). It is inhaled, most often via balloons inflated by these cartridges or canisters. “Young people are particularly attracted to this substance because it is very easily accessible, cheap, undetectable after consumption and, above all, perceived as legal and not very dangerous”, argued Idir Boumertit in committee.

In 2021, 5.5% of 3rd grade students (aged around 14) said they had already used proto (for protoxide), boys twice as often as girls, according to data reported by the French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT).

The risks incurred can be asphyxiation, loss of consciousness, burns but also, in the event of repeated use and/or at high doses, severe neurological, hematological, psychiatric and cardiac disorders, warns Mildeca (Interministerial mission to combat drugs and addictive behavior).

An Insufficient First Law ?

A law from May 2021 prohibits the sale of nitrous oxide to minors and its marketing in drinking and tobacco stores. But it is still on sale over the counter in supermarkets and on the internet.

The first article of this proposed law thus intends to no longer reserve this ban for minors, and to extend it to “all public places and businesses and online”. A decree will have to determine the professional categories authorized to purchase it by exemption, and the distribution channels. Another article of the text focuses on prevention, by integrating nitrous oxide into the annual information sessions planned in middle and high schools on cannabis.

Debates should take place in the hemicycle concerning the criminalization of the possession and consumption of nitrous oxide, demanded by Les Républicains. The MoDem and Renaissance deputies are concerned about harming “legitimate uses” by a ban that is too broad, and therefore propose in amendments to authorize the sale to individuals of small cartridges.