Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ) Copyright: 2001 Pulitzer Publishing Co. Contact: P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726-6807 Fax: (520) 573-4141 Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/ Author: Howard Fischer POLICE CHIEF SEEKS LAW TO LIMIT SALES OF LAUGHING GAS PHOENIX - Arizona police chiefs want to make sure that if someone is buying nitrous oxide, the intent is to whip some cream. Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives would make it a crime to sell canisters of nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas, unless there's a legitimate purpose. It also would make a criminal of anyone who showed someone else how to use the small canisters - commonly known as "whippets" - to get high. The measure, HB 2011, is sponsored by Rep. Mike Gleason, R-Sun City West, at the behest of El Mirage Police Chief Richard Yost. Yost said he has the backing of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police. Yost said he became convinced that nitrous oxide abuse was a problem when he talked to the family of a teen who died on Dec. 24, 1999. At first, the cause of death was listed as natural when an autopsy revealed a problem with a heart valve. But Yost said that conclusion was changed after interviews with the youth's friends showed he was a user of laughing gas. Such deaths are rare, said Jude McNally, managing director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center at the University of Arizona's College of Pharmacy. They are mentioned in medical literature, he said, but none has been reported in Tucson through the poison control center. "For the most part, it's very low on our list of what we get called about," McNally said. "Someone who is abusing nitrous oxide through the use of 'whippets' isn't likely to have an acute medical emergency and call the poison control center." Common side effects of nitrous oxide inhalation include headache and dizziness, McNally said. Heavy doses can increase blood pressure, cause hypertension and induce changes in heart rhythm, McNally said. Chronic inhalation of nitrous oxide also has been shown to suppress sperm count in laboratory animals and is linked to methemoglobinemia, a condition that inhibits the release of oxygen from blood cells, he said. Nothing in Arizona law makes the purchase or sale of nitrous oxide illegal. The canisters are sold primarily to individuals and restaurants for food preparation purposes, mostly to use for automatically whipping cream. In fact, nitrous is so popular for that purpose that it is the propellant in commercial whipping creams sold in grocery stores. But Yost said the canisters purchased by the El Mirage teen clearly were not meant to make a dessert topping. "He went to a local 'head shop' in my town, bought some propellant and used it," the chief said. Yost said one his own undercover officers went into the same shop. He said the clerk not only pointed out the item and told him it could be used to get high but also instructed him on how to do it. Yost said, similar exercises by police departments in other communities produced identical results. In Tucson, small canisters of nitrous oxide gas are sold at smoke shops across the city. A package of 10 canisters, for example, costs $6 at Head East, a smoke shop at 8739 E. Broadway. "What people do is puncture the seal, let the nitrous escape into a balloon and inhale it," said Andy Encinas, a manager at the store. "It gives you like a 50-second high, like a temporary disillusionment. "Whenever I see people coming in and buying them, I think it's just a killer waste of time," he said. "The effect is pretty close to putting your head between your legs for a while. then standing up real fast. It doesn't last real long." The legislation contains language designed to show how the gas is being sold. And it allows a jury to conclude, if there's no other evidence, that someone who helped put the gas into a balloon was doing it for illegal reasons. Encinas said such a law would be difficult to enforce, since the gas could still be sold for legitimate purposes. "It would be totally ridiculous," he said. Yost acknowledged the potential loophole. "If a head shop sells it as a food propellant," he said. "there's probably not much I can do about it." McNally said he'd prefer to see state officials focus on drug education efforts rather than new regulations on potential intoxicants. "While I'm certainly not opposed to a law like that, I'm not sure that from our perspective it makes anyone safer," he said. "If someone wants to get high, there's a million things out there they'd still have access to." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake