A UK drug dealer was slapped with nearly two years in jail Monday after being busted with a car full of laughing gas he was taking to a Christmas party in December — along with a “naughty and nice list” indicating which partygoers were supposed to receive the illegal drugs.
Thomas Salton, 30, was busted on December 1 during a traffic stop in Basildon, a town about 30 miles east of London, with his Range Rover loaded with what Essex police called “party bags” packed with nitrous oxide canisters, balloons used to inhale it, baggies of ketamine, and candy canes.
Salton was en route to a Christmas party where he intended to distribute the drugs using his naughty and nice list — those listed as “naughty” would receive the packs of illicit drugs, and those labeled “nice” would not.
The dealer himself was listed as “naughty” with his name at the very top of the list.
A later search of Salton’s home and storage units uncovered bags of magic mushrooms, more ketamine, and over 400 additional canisters of nitrous oxide, police said.
Salton also had more than $47,000 in cash with him in his car.
He was sentenced to 35 months in prison, the first to be jailed since nitrous oxide was made a Class C drug in the UK in November.
“For too long the use of this drug in public spaces has contributed to anti-social behavior which is a blight on communities, while also being dangerous to the health of users,” said Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp of Salton’s sentence for the drug.
“This conviction and sentencing sends a clear signal to anyone considering dealing in nitrous oxide, or found in illegal possession of it, that this crime will not be tolerated.”
Intended to be used for anesthetic purposes in medical procedures and surgery, the compound’s euphoric side effects have made nitrous oxide a common recreational drug, particularly in the UK.
In the last five years, nitrous oxide was the second most prevalent recreational drug in the UK behind marijuana, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Despite being considered a risk-free drug by many users, reaeration nitrous oxide use can cause hypoxia and asphyxia, leading to suffocation and permanent brain damage.