Encourages laughter after a few breaths.
Easily available and increasingly used at parties.
It is called nitrous oxide gas, and it is popularly called laughing gas.
It is used in medicine for minor surgical and dental procedures, but doctors warn that excessive intake can be harmful to health.
Frostbite on the lips, nose and throat, if inhaled directly due to extremely low temperature, balance disorder or lung tissue damage if inhaled without adequate pressure reduction, are just some of the consequences of using this gas without professional supervision, lists Aleksandra Bah Đorđević from the Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade.
"Long-term use can lead to a deficiency of vitamin B12, which is crucial for the proper functioning of the nervous system.
"Over time, psychological dependence also develops, that is, the user feels a stronger and stronger need to use it regularly in order to experience euphoria, which leads to more and more frequent and excessive use, increasing the risk of numerous health consequences, such as long-term brain damage," she adds for BBC in Serbian.
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While it is banned in some countries, such as Great Britain, it is not yet on the list of controlled psychoactive substances in Serbia.
"That is why we do not have precise data on the extent to which it is misused in our country and there is no specific safe amount of this gas when it is used outside of a controlled medical environment," notes Bah Đorđević.
From medicine to the automotive industry
Nitrogen suboxide gas or nitrous oxide is primarily used in medicine, as an anesthetic for dental interventions and childbirth.
Gynecology and obstetrics clinic in Niš, the largest city in the south of Serbia, is the first clinic in the country that, in the summer of 2023, introduced the possibility for mothers in labor to use this gas during childbirth, instead of an epidural, because it reduces pain.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry considers it "an effective technique in reducing anxiety and pain in pediatric patients," he said. previously for the BBC in Serbian Dr. Vladimir Koković.
Many interventions in "small patients" are performed with its application, he added.
Laughing gas is also used in the food industry as a propellant (propellant fuel) and packing gas, while in the automotive industry it is used in some vehicles to increase engine power, such as racing cars, says Aleksandra Bah Đorđević.
"This widespread use shows how important it is in medicine, dentistry and many industries, but also highlights the need for regulation and caution to ensure its safe use and avoid abuse," he adds.
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Fatalities
In recent years, there have been more and more videos on social networks from parties where people inhale gas from balloons or canisters.
"It is often combined with alcohol or other psychoactive substances, as a result of which fainting, confusion and other serious health complications can occur.
"Vitamin B12 deficiency causes neurological problems such as weakness, difficulty walking and long-term damage to the nervous system, and depression or psychosis can also develop," explains Bah Đorđević.
On March 2020, XNUMX, the Ukrainian chess champion, twenty-seven-year-old Stanislav Bogdanovich, and his girlfriend, Aleksandra Vernigora, who had just come of age, were found dead in an apartment in Moscow, and it turned out that they had been poisoned by the administration with laughing gas.
According to the media, were found with balloons containing nitrous oxide gas.
In the last few years, it has been massively abused as a recreational drug in America and Western Europe.
In the UK until 2023, the production, sale or import of nitrous oxide was illegal, if it was used for psychoactive effects.
The seller, who was found to have carelessly sold this gas, would face an unlimited fine or six months in prison.
Penalties were not prescribed for individuals caught with this substance.
Gace laugher je from November 8, 2023, in England on list C of prohibited psychoactive substances, the possession of which can be held accountable before the law.
On the same list are anabolic steroids (hormones that are prescribed if puberty is delayed in boys) and some tranquilizers.
Mass abuse of laughing gas began because it is readily available and cheap.
It is sold in metal canisters, from where the gas is inhaled or balloons are filled, and thus consumed.
Its use has increased during the covid-19 pandemic, becoming one of the most abused substances, especially among young people aged 16 to 24.
In April 2024, it was ruled that 24-year-old student Ellen Mercer died in February 2023 from an overdose of nitrous oxide.
She died before possession of the substance for personal use became illegal. In February 2024 Thomas Salton he became the first man to end up in prison for possessing and intending to supply nitrous oxide.
He was sentenced to four months in prison.
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