Following a trial last month that the City Attorney\u2019s Office described as the first of its kind in San Diego County, a jury convicted a 34-year-old man on two misdemeanor counts related to driving under the influence of nitrous oxide, City Attorney Heather Ferbert\u2019s office announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, local authorities have sounded the alarm about a sharp rise in the recreational use of nitrous oxide, a fast-acting substance also known as \u201claughing gas\u201d or \u201cwhippets\u201d that\u2019s commonly used during medical and dental procedures.<\/p>\n
Last October, District Attorney Summer Stephan said her office had filed three cases over the previous 11 months that involved the suspected use of nitrous oxide in connection with fatal traffic collisions. And earlier this year, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear,\u00a0D-Encinitas, co-authored a bill<\/a> seeking to ban the sale<\/a> of large nitrous oxide canisters for recreational use.<\/p>\n Ferbert said nitrous oxide, which produces a high that lasts just a few minutes, can increasingly be found for sale in smoke shops and other retail locations and is particularly dangerous because it\u2019s designed to deprive the brain of oxygen.<\/p>\n \u201cImpairment is impairment. It does not matter whether it comes from a bottle, a pill, or a canister,\u201d Ferbert said in a statement. \u201cEven a few minutes behind the wheel while impaired is a few minutes too long. It takes just moments for an impaired driver to lose control and catastrophically harm someone.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Ferbert\u2019s office and court documents, the jury convicted the defendant on one count of driving under the influence of a drug and one count of possession of nitrous oxide with intent to inhale for purposes of intoxication.<\/p>\n On July 24, a San Diego judge sentenced the man to five years of probation. The terms of his probation include mandatory DUI education classes and regular drug and alcohol testing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis verdict sends a clear message that driving under the influence of any substance endangers our community and will not be tolerated,\u201d San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said in a statement.<\/p>\n Cases involving suspected nitrous oxide impairment date back years. In 2011, a 20-year-old driver in Orange County was allegedly huffing nitrous oxide from a balloon<\/a> just moments before he crashed at high speeds into a tree, killing one passenger and injuring himself and two others. In 2013, federal authorities in Los Angeles raided at least 17 businesses<\/a>, most of them auto repair shops, on suspicion that they were illegally selling nitrous oxide for use as a recreational drug. In 2014, the son of a San Bernardino County mayor was killed in a crash in which the driver was allegedly high on nitrous oxide; that mayor\u2019s city, Rialto, later became the first in the U.S. to ban<\/a> certain sales of the substance.<\/p>\n