Parliament definitively adopted a text on Tuesday aimed at combating the misuse of nitrous oxide, a so-called “hilarious” gas fraught with health risks.

A bill emanating from the Senate was adopted unanimously at second reading by the upper house, after a vote also unanimous by the National Assembly at the end of March.

The text "tending to prevent the dangerous uses of nitrous oxide" was voted in identical terms by the two chambers.

It plans to punish a fine of 15,000 euros "causing a minor to misuse a consumer product to obtain psychoactive effects".

✅ Dangerous use of nitrous oxide: the Senate has definitively adopted @valerieletard's bill.



🔎 https://t.co/tKdBTOcOUc pic.twitter.com/8VlHxp0mBb

- Senate (@Senate) May 25, 2021

A product available commercially and on the Internet

Nitrous oxide is a gas for medical use but which can also be found legally in commerce and on the Internet in the form of cartridges or carboys, for example for whipped cream siphons.

The new law thus prohibits “selling or offering nitrous oxide to a minor, whatever the packaging”.

E-commerce sites for their part must specify the prohibition on the sale of this product to minors.

Other provisions also aim to prohibit the sale to any person, minor or not, of this gas in drinking and tobacco shops.

Finally, the text prohibits the sale of products that can be used to manufacture it to “obtain psychoactive effects”.

Numerous potential harmful effects

According to the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (Mildeca), the misuse of this laughing gas is "an increasingly widespread practice" among young people in search of a rapid euphoric product.

The potential harmful effects are numerous: dizziness or loss of consciousness but also respiratory, cardiac or neurological disorders.

La Mildeca reports several dozen serious cases in recent years.

In the absence of appropriate national legislation until then, town halls had sometimes tried to deal with bans by municipal decree, but without much success.

After the vote, the Secretary of State for Children and Families Adrien Taquet particularly welcomed the adoption of this law "which carries a powerful message of prevention and protection of minors".

Miscellaneous

Ile-de-France: Traffic in "laughing gas" dismantled

Society

Marseille: More and more laughing gas capsules litter the streets

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