_{Laughing gas intended for the whipped cream spray is often used as a drug. Image © ANP}

Laughing gas is used by young people as drugs and that is why webshop Bol.com has stopped selling nitrous oxide cartridges.

A spokesperson for Bol.com confirms the report on this from NH News. The web store notices that the patterns are 'becoming increasingly discredited'. The laughing gas, actually intended for whipped cream spray, is emptied into balloons and then inhaled.

Dizziness and chance of addiction

In December, the Trimbos Institute and Bonger Institute warned that doing so is not without danger for fun. Young people may suffer from headaches, dizziness, and tingling during short-term use. There is also confusion, nausea and the need to take laughing gas again.

In the longer term, users will suffer from concentration problems, fatigue, and dizziness. There is also a chance of addiction in people who use nitrous oxide more often. Minister Bruins van Zorg wants to ban the sale of laughing gas capsules to minors.

No age limit

Bol.com is responding to that now. The patterns have not been on sale since last month. "Making a difference in age among our customers is not something that we will do, hence the decision to take it completely out of our store," says a spokesman.

_{British people use Nitrous oxide more than any other country in the world, and it recently became the second-most popular drug in the UK. The media became obsessed with the drug after a handful of deaths associated with it – often over-inflating its dangers.}

The government’s response has been to include it in the Psychoactive Substances Act. This is a law that came about in response to the popularity of legal highs, putting a ban on the sale of anything that can change your mental state (except alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee). Now, selling nitrous carries a sentence of up to seven years.

Caution: 'Extreme use of nitrous oxide can cause paralysis'