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COMMUNITY DRUG ACTIVISTS have warned that the use of nitrous oxide has become more widespread during the Covid-19 lockdown.
There has been a spike in the amount of drug litter connected to nitrous oxide being discovered in Irish parks in recent weeks, according to a number of local representatives.
Much of the debris is in the form of small gas cylinders which had contained nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas or hippie crack, which is a legal gas.
The drug is also suspected as being connected to the death of a 15-year-old Dublin teenager last month.
Laughing gas has already been banned in a number of countries in Europe.
According to TalktoFrank, a website which provides information about drugs, inhaling nitrous oxide directly from a canister is very dangerous because the gas is under such high pressure. It can cause a spasm of the throat muscle and cause the user to stop breathing.
Janet Robinson, the research and training officer for the Blanchardstown Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force, described how there has been an increased use of nitrous oxide over the last two years.
She added that the current pandemic has resulted in a “cannabis drought” which has led to teenagers drinking more. The availability of this drug, mixed with an increase in drinking and children not attending school due to Covid, has created a dangerous dynamic.
She told TheJournal.ie: “What I have been told is that it can be bought in local shops. I think [the issue] you have here is the availability of this. They are easy to get. It does appear to be increasing in use.
“You now have a lot of young people who are out of school. You have the mix of easy access and a higher number of children around.”
Mark Ward, Sinn Féín TD in Dublin Mid-West said he had been alerted by local litter wardens about an upsurge in the number of gas canisters discovered in the local area, especially the Shancastle area of Clondalkin.
Posting on social media earlier this week, he said: “The litter warden sent me these photographs after I asked for the illegal dumping at the end of Shancastle Drive to be removed.
“Whilst the level of dumping is disgusting what concerns me more are the “silver bullets” These are nitrous oxide more commonly known as laughing gas and can be fatal as we have seen recently in Tallaght.”
Areas in Dublin beaches, as well as the Curragh in Kildare, were littered with the debris as well.
Alex Ryan (15) died after inhaling the gas last month. A video message from his father, Mick Morrissey was shared by local newspaper The Echo.
Holding up one of the bottles, he said: “Unfortunately my son passed away from taking one of these.
“I’d like for everybody in the area, the whole of the country and the whole of the world to be able to recognise these things. These things are dangerous.
“Children are able to buy these things on the street for €1 or €2 a-go and unfortunately my son was one of the ones that didn’t survive.”
The HSE warned at the start of this year that use of this drug was on the rise and it was being purchased online.
The HSE warned that when the gas is inhaled, it has the potential to displace air in the lungs and can stop oxygen entering the blood flow.
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My little boy almost died of RSV last winter, at 11 weeks old. Personally I think the development of a vaccine and making it available to infants and pregnant women is an amazing idea, as I’d never wish that on any parent. Newborns are so so fragile, and anything we can do to protect them should be done.
@Antoinette O’Connor: sush antoinette, its all a big conspiracy etc etc.
@Antoinette O’Connor: it is an amazing idea if its fully tested;works and not thrown together,willy nilly like the last so called vaccine
@John O’sullivan: Define ‘fully tested’? How many participants in a double-blind project would keep you happy?
So will older people now be expected to get the flu jab Covid jab RSV jab and every few years the pneumonia jab. Christ on bike the older people might as well be pickled in formaldehyde as this rate.
@Nemethon: my Mam got her vaccinations every year and lived to a ripe old age. I also ge the vaccinations every year. Not a bother on me. My body My choice.
@Nemethon: You might want to consider the likely alternative before rattling off flippant remarks.
@Nemethon: Expected? No. Greatly encouraged? Definitely Yes!!
Would 2 years to flatten the curve be any use, it worked wonders the last time!
‘appear to be effective’ .. yet givin it to people.. experimentation pour d’autres objectif ?!?..
@Bass Boss: Nirsevimab is actually more than ‘appears to be effective’ in actual fact!
“Concerned” follow the money!!! Pfizer and Fianna failures Stephen Donnelly who double crossed the people of wicklow who voted him in as an independent
@Kevin O Brien: Yeah, he was lucky enough keep his seat in 2020 and with the changes in the constituency for the next election, I don’t think he’ll be as lucky next time around.
Genius objectors still abound!!!
Why are not locking down until this dreaded RSV virus has been defeated? To those of you “concerned” about “human rights” I say that this sounds like far right dog whistling and your “human rights” cannot be allowed to interfere, just like covid. “If it saves one life…”
@WokeGenderfluidLiberalKnowsItAll: research the difference between fundamental and absolute.
@Paul C: Haha , don’t be making things difficult now Paul . Some people may get all confused .
@Paul C: Research for them is Facebook.
This would be great, such an awful virus. I had it last year and was floored by it. This year I’m on meds reducing my immune system so if it was available I’d take it. So many small babies extremely unwell with it.
Hope it was tested on 8 mice to prove its safety.
I had Polio when I was young, as did a lot of my contemporaries. Every time I hear an anti vaccer blathering I wish them evil!
@Pato: I am afraid I am going to have to burst your bubble…the Polio vaccine caused HIV/aids in Humans!
Doctors from the USA(3) and one from Britain began a polio vax campaign in The Belgian Congo. Their vaccine was sound and saved millions of people around the world.
It was made in labs in the USA from Kidneys and livers of Monkeys.
When said doctors arrived in Africa they set up multiple labs to vax the Congolese which was very successful until they ran out of the American made vaccine. It would take some 3 months for a new batch to be made and arrive in the Congo. These doctors took it upon themselves to use the local people to hunt the local monkeys for their organs. The locals obliged and the doctors made their own vaccine which they administered to the various labs throughout the Congo. Unfortunately these Monkeys had a virus called SIV.
The doctors were cleared of any wrong doing in a court in Britain whereby the judge “refused” evidence and first hand witness testimony to clear the doctors “good names” and more importantly to prevent the financial backlash of acknowledging their culpability.
Everywhere that these doctors had labs saw the birth of a new disease in The Congo to which the public were unaware of ’til years later and would be identified as HIV.
The “story” that was circulated was that the locals must have been eating these monkeys which was not the case. The cages that were built to house the captured monkeys at these labs are still there to this day!
The vax program started in 68/9.
@David: The oral polio vaccine (OPV) AIDS hypothesis is a now-discredited hypothesis that the AIDS pandemic originated from live polio vaccines prepared in chimpanzee tissue cultures, accidentally contaminated with simian immunodeficiency virus and then administered to up to one million Africans between 1957 and 1960 in experimental mass vaccination campaigns.
Data analyses in molecular biology and phylogenetic studies contradict the OPV AIDS hypothesis; consequently, scientific consensus regards the hypothesis as disproven.[1][2][3][4] A 2004 Nature article has described the hypothesis as “refuted”.[5]
@Dave Harris: I tend to believe the people on the ground. Not those with a vested interest.
It was “debunked” in the mid 90′s also, but the reasoning behind it was ridiculous.
also the vaccination program was not “experimental”
There’s a very good documentary that channel4 done on it called “the river”, it’s worth a watch.
One thing that seemingly isn’t a problem for conspiracy theorists, is myocarditis.
@Osprey: you are significantly more like to contract myocarditis as a result of having covid than being vaccinated, but keep thinking you sound clever.
Fantastic work by FG as always
@Murray peter: What’s fantastic about paying Pfizer for another experimental vaccine.
It’s $320 a pop in the US, and when Ireland ‘negotiates’ prices, they seem to negotiate up rather than down.
@Finn Barr: what’s wrong with profits
@Murray peter: I’m a big fan of profits. I’d prefer long term trials on these jabs before my tax money is spent on them though.
@Finn Barr: Ok Professor. How long is long enough? They’ve only been researching RSV for 60 years, authorising Palivizumab since 1992 and authorising Nirsevimab since this time last year.
@Finn Barr: do you know long term studies have not been done before you went off on your Covid antivax talking point rant? Thought not
How long does it take to develop a vaccine?
5 to 10 years…
So what were yiz injected with the past 3 years?
Had one hell of a flu last week… now everything smells like hot chocolate.
Bleh
Thank you, FG
@Boris Blank: hay monkey boy,hope you didn’t bite your fingers while eating your breakfast this morning Boris
@HisMastersAlibi: sausages, rashers, black pudding, fried tomatoes, hash browns, toast and a huge mug of tea, I don’t care how I eat
@Boris Blank: well done you, we are all proud of your achievement,some had doubts, but not me,I knew you could do it.
@HisMastersAlibi: getting under your skin makes me happy
@Boris Blank: haters will hate, just laugh at them lol
@Boris Blank: for a multi-account troll who doesn’t care what he eats, you certainly mention it a lot. All very good for the heart, so eat lots and often please!
What a surprise, Mary Toilet giving an interview on a shinner rag
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