Posted on 03/22/2013 5:42:32 PM PDT by markomalley
Hundreds of law enforcement officers on Friday raided Southern California auto parts shops and other businesses suspected of illegally selling nitrous oxide for use as a recreational drug, in one of the nation's largest such raids to date.
Four federal arrest warrants were also served during the 17 simultaneous raids in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and at least two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of misbranding a drug in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Authorities said they expected more arrests to come.
The operation was the result of a year-and-a-half-long joint investigation dubbed “No Laughing Matter” by the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The FDA has recently focused on the illegal use of nitrous oxide, and this was its largest case to date, said special agent Lisa Hartsell. Though nitrous oxide has long been a rave phenomenon, it has recently grown into more mainstream use, propelled by the ease of social media to reach young people and spread the word.
“This is a very cheap drug, can be had very easily, it is not a controlled substance, so your big members of the law enforcement community don't have the ability to control it,” Hartsell said.
The gas is legally used by dentists for anesthesia, to pressurize whipped cream canisters and to speed up race cars. But authorities say its illegal use has spurred fatal car accidents, rapes and teen deaths - all in the name of a temporary high.
(Excerpt) Read more at kfiam640.com ...
“I’ll bet they’ll soon classify oxygen (O2) a gateway drug.”
they certainly want to tax CO2 emissions; so, it won’t be long until they tax the air you exhale based on your BMI.
I hope the Cops don’t start shooting up Corvettes by mistaking them for Honda Civics.
Well, it could have been “at least one”.
They could have taken all the Overtime they paid those guys and kept a few Control Towers open. LOL
It used to be perfectly legal up until maybe 20 or so years ago, to buy balloons filled with nitrous oxide in New Orleans as well.
Don’t we have more important crimes to go after?
I remember when I was a kid you could get free sugar cubes at the local head shop that had a dose of LSD in them. They were marked with a red dot. LSD was legal at the time.
I know a dentist in southern NH (a friend of a friend), who has virtually crippled himself huffing the stuff. What a waste.
I remember sitting in a bar, the Shandy Gaft, with a couple of buddies at Penn State doing “whippets”. This was in the early ‘70s. We had a reuseable whipped cream cannister, the kind restaurants use, where you just screwed in NO2 cartridges, one at a time. The other patrons (and the bouncers) couldn’t make up their minds if we were doing something illegal. So nobody bothered us.
I had some administered during one particularly long and tedious dental procedure. I don’t see where the real thrill would be to make it a hot item - more relaxing than exhilarating and the effects wear off about 10 breaths after the gas is turned off.
Thanks for the info, did not know that.
Makes perfect sense.
Heaven help us if something turns up that produces a long term or permanent high.
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