The déconfinement is it at the origin of a new health crisis ? The authorities have expressed their concern about the proliferation of nitrous oxide in young people since the end of the containment measures put in place by the government because of the pandemic of novel coronavirus, such as the report our colleagues at LCI on Tuesday 23 June 2020. It must be said that this "laughing gas" can be found easily, particularly in the cartridges used for the siphons to whipped cream. Users usually transfer the gas into a balloon before inhaling. A feeling of drunkenness is so feel, accompanied by an irrepressible laughter.

Asphyxia by lack of oxygen, loss of consciousness, damage to the nervous system... The euphoria passed, considerable damage can occur. "The cases are neurological injury with tingling of the upper and lower limbs, a muscle weakness that may be significant, and in some rare cases, it can be crippling ", abounds dr Laurent Karila, psychiatrist and addictologue at the hospital Paul-Brousse, Paris.

"national epidemic"

The authorities have decided to act in the face of what they perceive as a " threat to national security ". The prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes has in particular issued a warning on the social networks in the face of " the abuse of nitrous oxide ", at the origin of the thirty severe cases by 2019.

The Senate had adopted last November a proposal for a law transpartisane to ban the sale to minors of nitrous oxide. The flagship measure of the proposed law, which must still be submitted to the national Assembly, is the prohibition of sale to minors, including online commerce sites. The non-observance of this prohibition carries a penalty of a fine of 3 750 euros. The industrial would be in addition to the obligation to indicate on the packaging the dangerousness of the product. The text also proposes to criminalize the incitement of a minor to be a misuse of a product of current consumption to obtain psychoactive effects. It still provides to support the policy of prevention to be conducted at the school.