A teenage boy addicted to drugs died after inhaling gas from a lighter, while many other cases of addiction to gas have been discovered in Dubai this year, the police were reported on Monday as saying.
 
The addiction to such new substances in the absence of laws banning lighter gas has prompted Dubai’s police commander General Dahi Khalfan Tamim to order a probe to determine the causes that push teenagers to turn to such substances.
 
In the first half of this year, Dubai police laboratories handled four cases of teens inhaling lighter gas, one of whom died of asphyxia.
 
The others suffered from serious health problems and were admitted to hospital.
 
“This is a new phenomenon that is spreading among the youth in the emirate,” said Lt Colonel Ahmed Al Muhairi, director of the Department of Criminology.
 
Quoted by the Arabic language daily Al Khaleej, he said police had also discovered 15 other cases of addiction on ‘Spice’, a term for synthetic cannabis.
 
“Our experts have embarked on a study to determine the psychological factors that push the youth to inhale Spice and lighter gas.
 
“We want to come out with recommendations to curb this phenomenon considering the absence of laws banning lighter gas since it is a new phenomenon in the emirate.”