Ile-de-France: in these tobacco shops, laughing gas is bought like a pack of cigarettes

Clearly, between a card game and lighters in a tobacco shop in the heart of town.

Also on display in another window, at eye level with poppers, another controversial euphoric substance.

In Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines), laughing gas cartridges can be bought as easily as a pack of cigarettes.

No need to pretend to prepare whipped cream with these cartridges: the tobacco shop even offers a “cracker” for one, renamed “bottle opener” in the second, a few streets away.

How it works ?

“I don't really know,” blows the saleswoman, much more sure of herself when you are worried about possible risks.

"They are found everywhere"

“Noooo, it's not dangerous, it's for fun!

»Launches the young woman in the tone of the joke, ignoring the risks mainly neurological but also cardiac and psychiatric, before inquiring about the chosen color.

Purple, gold, silver, red… There is something for everyone.

Here, the bottle opener, which fits in the hand and slips into a pocket, is sold 5.90 euros, while the cartridge is 1.20 euros.

Purple, gold, silver, red… There is something for everyone.

LP / AF  

In the second tobacco store, three streets away, the same model is a little more expensive (8.90 euros) and the tobacconist is out of cartridge.

“But we find it everywhere,” he says.

There are some in the mini markets, it's for whipped cream but people use it to breathe it and laugh.

She too "doesn't know how it works."

"People put them in the cracker to open it and voila," she says, obviously unaware of the risk of serious burns from nitrous oxide, an extremely cold gas.

In fact, once the bottle opener has been purchased, all you have to do is slip inside an aluminum bulb containing nitrous oxide.

The cap screwed on to pierce the capsule, all that remains is to apply a balloon over it to transfer the gas and wait a few seconds for it to warm up in the ambient air before breathing it in.

One of the most consumed psychoactive products by young people

Five minutes of euphoria for the price of a coffee capsule.

Getting high is tempting, especially since it is legal and easy to access.

A fashionable drug, nitrous oxide has recently become the third psychoactive product consumed by young people after cannabis and poppers, according to a study by the student mutual insurance company Smerep.

“This is a phenomenon identified for several decades, especially in the party scene.

But the resurgence of this use among middle school and high school students with repeated, even daily, long-term consumption in large quantities, helps to explain the seriousness of the damage reported, ”notes the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and addictive behaviors (Mild & ca).

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This summer, the health authorities, which counted forty serious cases in 2019, also recalled "the dangers of the use of nitrous oxide, in adolescents as well as in adults".

In an attempt to curb the phenomenon, a bill tabled by Senator Valérie Létard was voted unanimously at first reading in the Senate.

It provides for a ban on the sale to minors of products containing nitrous oxide and the provision of this gas in permanent (bars, nightclubs, etc.) or temporary (eg: student parties) drinking establishments.

"The Confederation of tobacconists obviously does not validate this kind of use"

"Proposals to complete this framework will be incorporated during the continuation of the examination of the proposed law", specifies the Ministry of Health.

Pending its entry into force, it calls for "the responsibility of those who participate in promoting this practice of misuse, in particular in a lucrative interest".

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“The Confederation of tobacconists obviously does not validate this kind of use, says Jean-François Vigouroux, his representative from Yvelines.

Besides, I do not know what bias the colleagues at Mantes-la-Jolie obtained them since, even at Metro, they are no longer freely accessible… ”On the Internet, however, wholesale sites, and even home delivery services are legion.

In Ile-de-France, more and more mayors are taking orders prohibiting sales to minors.

But the room for maneuver remains thin: "The mayor can, under his general police powers, enact certain measures in the event of disturbances to good order, public safety, security and tranquility, the disturbance must be demonstrated locally. and justified by material elements entered in the recitals as recurring behaviors and already noted by the police authority, aggressive or dangerous behavior for traffic ”, details Mild & ca on its site.

While a ban on consumption on the public highway is “legally possible”, it should not take on the character of a general and absolute ban.

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Hauts-de-Seine: how justice condemns laughing gas traffickers as dealers

In the Hauts-de-Seine, the Nanterre prosecutor's office seems to have found the solution: it pursues the sellers of this euphoric for "trafficking in psychotropic substances", an offense punishable by five years' imprisonment.

And thus opens the way to severe repression, pending the adoption of a specific law.

“Using the capsules to make whipped cream is obviously not prohibited.

But inhaling gas is a misuse, and therefore illegal, explains the deputy prosecutor of Nanterre, Jean-Pascal Oualid.

So, when the police arrest capsule sellers, it is still necessary to prove that the intended use is illegal.

For this, in general, we have bottle openers.

“Like those displayed in the window in the tobacco shop of Mantes-la-Jolie.