Spain Detains Three Britons for Selling Laughing Gas

Spanish police have detained three Britons for distributing nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, at a bar in the upmarket tourist resort of Marbella on the Costa del Sol, the interior ministry said Monday.

The manager of the bar and two female bartenders sold balloons filled with nitrous oxide, which induces euphoria and laughter when inhaled, for five euros ($6.50) a dose, it said in a statement.

"Police learned that the sale of the product was carried out openly by employees of the establishment as part of their duties under the supervision of the manager, who controlled the activity and kept the money collected from the sale of the product," it said.

Nitrous oxide has several legitimate uses, including numbing pain during medical procedures such as dentistry, but its sale for recreational use in Spain is prohibited by law because of its possible harmful side effects.

Millions of tourists visit the Costa del Sol, famed for its beaches and nightlife, every year and hundreds of thousands of expatriates from northern Europe live on the coastal belt.