Alex Trelinski
TWO Irish tourists, aged 18 and 19, have been arrested in Mallorca for selling laughing gas to other holidaymakers.
The two men were detained by the Guardia Civil in Santa Ponsa when they were behaving suspiciously outside a pharmacy following a complaint from a shopkeeper.
One of them fled to a mobile phone store to escape their clutches but was caught.
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The teenagers had two three-litre canisters of nitrous oxide and almost €3,000 in cash on them.
The money was divided between the two with one of the suspects stuffing €1,385 in his right sock.
Guardia officers witnessed the laughing gas being pumped into balloons ahead of them being sold.
The 19-year-old tried to pass himself off as someone else after producing a passport of another man during the identification process.
The men have been charged with public health offences with the eldest also being probed over a possible identity fraud offence.
Both were bailed after a court appearance and availed themselves of their legal right not to testify.
Due to its relative low cost, nitrous oxide has becoming a popular drug among young people in Europe.
It carries health risks such as suffocation, due to its nature as a compressed liquefied gas.
By functioning as a dissociative anaesthetic, it can also cause hallucinations and disorientation, and regular use can even damage the spinal cord and lead to death.
The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products has also warned that its non-medical use represents a health risk.
