Family want sale of butane curbed

The mother and twin brother of a Nelson teenager who died after inhaling butane gas want to see it removed from shop shelves.

Steven Limmer, 19, said his identical twin brother, Jamie, died after "huffing" on a butane canister in December.

His death was mirrored less than a month later by that of a Nelson 15-year-old who died after inhaling butane on the steps of the city's Christ Church Cathedral.

Butane is intended for use by campers and for refilling lighters, but when inhaled it produces a dizzying high lasting about 30 seconds. At $3 a canister, it is used by young people looking for a cheap high.

The Government this week said that selling or buying nitrous oxide gas for inhalation is illegal, but butane can still be obtained legally.

A spokeswoman for Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said butane was not part of the nitrous oxide review, but it was expected to come into drug classification soon.

She said an amendment before Parliament's health select committee could see substances including butane, party pills and spray paints classified under a new class D category of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

But the Limmer twins' mother, Sue Blanchet, said butane should be classified as a class B drug. * Forcing young people to realise the results of sniffing butane and other solvents outweighed their need for privacy, a grieving family have been told. At an inquest into the death of Adam Stevens, 15, Napier coroner Warwick Holmes denied a request to keep his name out of the papers. The youth collapsed at his parents' home on October 1 and did not regain consciousness.

- NZPA