Spanish police get serious about laughing gas

It seems harmless. A balloon inflated with a capsule purchased for the price of a packet of cigarettes, it produces both a feeling of euphoria and relaxation. The high is accompanied by a silly laugh, hence the name by which nitrous oxide is popularly known: laughing gas. But the consequences are no laughing matter.

In Marbella, a young British man jumped from the balcony of his room believing he could reach the hotel swimming pool, even though, due to the distance, it was physically impossible. A minor jumped out of a moving car on the motorway in the middle of a hallucination. A Swedish tourist on a stag party was found dead in a private swimming pool. Police linked all three cases to the use of laughing gas.

The evidence of parties on streets or in recreational areas is no longer only made up of empty cans and bottles. Now, clean-up services often find small metal cartridges scattered on the ground among the debris of the night. This is the usual container for nitrous oxide. It has become the drug of choice for young people, especially at younger ages, due to its association with vaping.

In recent years, precisely because of its popularity, law enforcement agencies in Spain have stepped up their guard to curb the illegal trafficking of nitrous oxide for recreational use. While patrols have intensified confiscations in the vicinity of bars, investigation groups have tried to combat the distribution and even laundering networks of money obtained from this activity.

Both the National Police and the Guardia Civil have followed the usual chain involved in seizing any narcotic drug: confiscation, appearance in court, collection of samples for processing and destruction. But in the case of nitrous oxide, there is a missing link: the disposal of the stash. Laughing gas is in a legal limbo that hinders the fight against the illegal distribution of a legal substance.

The most paradigmatic case has occurred in the province of Malaga, specifically in Alhaurín el Grande, where a veritable powder keg of laughing gas is stored in a warehouse on an industrial estate. In total, 21,308 litres of nitrous oxide were seized by the Guardia Civil from traffickers in March last year, and so far no administration has taken responsibility for them.

The warehouse is only monitored by security cameras and has already been raided five times by thieves, who have been stealing part of the stash to return it to the black market. But that is not the main danger. Several police sources consulted have warned of the "major risk" to safety and the environment that accidental combustion of such a large quantity of gas would pose.

The court in Coín that is investigating the case, aware of the danger, authorised the destruction in July 2024 and has sent letters to all the administrations for its reuse or elimination. The problem is that only specialised companies can do it and it costs between 200,000 euros (for reuse) and 700,000 euros (for elimination). The Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), which coordinates the destruction of drugs seized by security forces, has responded that it is beyond its budget. Processing a litre of nitrous oxide costs ten times more than burning a kilo of hash.

A police officer with decades of experience said that laughing gas poses "serious environmental and logistical challenges", making it expensive to store and safely destroy. Not only because of the risk of explosion of full bottles, but also because of the handling of apparently empty ones.

The Ca na Putxa waste management plant in Ibiza, which along with the Costa del Sol is the area most affected by this fad, is overrun by the number of capsules it receives. Several explosions have even been recorded, such as the one that occurred in the summer of 2023, when a bottle about to be crushed was ejected with such speed and power that it left a hole in the roof of the building. Not to mention the impact on the climate, 300 times greater than that of CO2, as nitrous oxide can remain in the atmosphere for more than 100 years. It is the third most important greenhouse gas, after carbon dioxide and methane.

Treatment is basically a question of money. The limbo, however, is due to the difficulty of prosecution, as it is not listed as a narcotic drug under international control.

"In fact, it is very unlikely that it ever will be, because of the different uses it has. Its inclusion would put many obstacles in the way of legal uses, which is unacceptable," explains Claudio Vidal, who is responsible in Andalucía for the energy control project of the wellbeing and development association and a specialist in research into drugs and their effects.

He is right. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies it as an essential medicine. It is available by prescription and is administered by inhalation. Mixed with oxygen, nitrous oxide is used for short-term pain relief and anxiety reduction during childbirth, as a surgical anaesthetic, for emergency treatment of injuries, in dental procedures and as part of end-of-life care. But probably what has contributed most to its growing popularity is the marketing of small, inexpensive cartridges for making whipped cream.

Although it is not controlled, the Spanish government's national plan for drugs considers it a "narcotic drug and a pharmaceutical drug at the same time". A report by the European Drugs Agency (EUDA) warns of a serious health risk for young people, who perceive it as a harmless substance.

Nitrous oxide's success lies in its low price - three to five euros for an eight-gram capsule with four litres of gas, enough to fill a balloon - and its immediate effects of euphoria, relaxation and indifference. Distortions can affect hearing and sight, causing a state of dreaminess or psychedelia. Occasionally, it causes hallucinations.

In Spain, police forces have warned of an increase in violence associated with laughing gas. In the Netherlands, the number of traffic incidents - mainly involving bicycles and scooters - due to the combination of use of this drug and driving increased by 80% in just two years. Emergency medical care for adverse reactions has skyrocketed in recent years in Europe: in Denmark, cases increased from 16 in 2015 to 90 in 2020. In the same year, 134 cases were reported in France - up from 10 in 2017 - and 144 in the Netherlands.

Some young people inhale the gas directly from whipped cream cartridges, posing an "extremely high" risk of severe frostbite. The gas is frozen at -40 to -55 degrees when released from these containers and can burn the nose, lips, mouth, throat, vocal cords and lungs within seconds, according to the EUDA report.

Many of the chronic effects caused by nitrous oxide are related to the irreversible inactivation of vitamin B12. This particularly affects people who choose vegetarian and vegan diets, as they are already low in this supplement. Low B12 levels increase the risk of chronic toxicity, particularly nerve damage. In the UK, young people have been reported to be wheelchair-bound as a result of B12 abuse.