In a tragic end to the life of a 13-year-old boy, a wayward session inhaling butane with his two classmates turned fatal when he fell to his death from the tenth floor.
The death on May 25 this year has been declared a “tragic misadventure” by State Coroner Marvin Bay, The Straits Times reports.
The three schoolboys were inhaling butane — which induces an euphoric effect, thus the term ‘laughing gas’ — at an open space near a lift lobby on the 10th level of Block 24 at Bendemeer Road. Having stolen three canisters of Ronson Universal lighter refill from a shop along Bendemeer Road, the three sprayed the gaseous contents into a plastic bag or bundled shirt and inhaled them through the mouth to get high.
The teen had been jumping around and laughing from the butane before he perched himself on a ledge while facing outwards. But his left hand slipped and he lost his grip, falling down eight floors. His body was found on the second floor ledge of the block.
The “fall appears to have been precipitated by his risk-taking behaviour induced by his euphoric state from butane abuse,” said Coroner Bay, noting that it was a sobering reminder of the harm that can come from inhalant abuse.
“As a result of their easy availability from industrial use, both forms, toluene glue and butane gas abuse, can be ‘gateway’ abuse substances that can lead to experimentation and eventual abuse with ever more serious narcotic substances and ‘hard drugs’,” he stated in court.
EDIT: Opening paragraph edited for sensitivity.
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