Laughing gas openly sold at music festivals

The Travel to the Moon music festival started at 3:30 p.m. on September 16 at West Lake Water Park (Hanoi) attracting thousands of attendees, mostly young people.

Hanoi police confirmed that 7 people died and 5 emergency patients after the festival all tested positive for drugs. At the scene, police seized “laughing gas” and some tablets suspected to be synthetic drugs.

As one of the witnesses attending the festival, Mr. Quang (Hanoi) said that he booked the ticket a month in advance for 650,000 VND. When he had the ticket in hand, Mr. Quang thought it would be an interesting evening because the amount of money spent was not small.

Arriving at the festival at 6pm, he saw that the organizers had arranged a rather cramped covered space with three stages, one main and two side stages. From the entrance, the audience would pass through two side stages and finally the main stage with the DJ (music arranger). The festival area was surrounded by curtains, creating a stuffy feeling.

"Near the end of the concert, some guests fainted, some of whom had to be carried out on stretchers, so the organizers raised the curtains. At that moment, the atmosphere became more breathable," Mr. Quang recalled.

Mr. An (Hoan Kiem district) and several other witnesses said that security control at the festival was very lax. To enter the stage area, Mr. An went through a ticket gate divided into two doors: "With luggage" and "Without luggage".

"However, the security guard's control was quite sketchy. I just had to answer no when the guard asked if I had any cigarettes or lighters to get through the door," said Mr. An.

Through the ticket gate is the passage between the two stages, where some people sit and pump up balloons and sell them openly to customers. "Each balloon costs 200,000 VND but they usually sell them in pairs," a witness reported.

Some festival attendees also said that the music reached its climax when it was dark, making it difficult to see the surroundings, the music was loud, and thousands of people were dancing enthusiastically, so "at that time, everyone was just having fun and didn't pay attention to security and order control."

What do authorities say about security and order control at the festival?

Mr. Truong Minh Tien - Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports said that the event organizer is Asia Company, which has organized many music festivals before. This program has the participation of four foreign artists, who have been licensed to perform by the city. The entire process of receiving documents and granting licenses is guaranteed to comply with legal regulations.

According to Mr. Tien, city-level events are coordinated by functional forces and have their own security plans.

"The Department has learned from experience and will require the organizer to coordinate with the police when the event is likely to attract a large audience," he said.

Regarding the management responsibility of the local government, Mr. Do Anh Tuan - Chairman of Tay Ho District People's Committee said that one day before the concert took place, the district had checked the performance venue rental contract and related documents.

On September 16, the district's functional forces were present from the "trial run" until the end of the program. "This means the district closely monitored everything in the right order," said Mr. Tuan.

The leaders of Tay Ho district affirmed that ensuring security and managing participants to prevent drug use belongs to the Management Board of Ho Tay Water Park; Tay Ho district is only responsible for supervision. "However, to confirm the responsibility of any individual or organization in the incident, we must wait for the conclusion of the investigation agency," said Mr. Tuan.

Currently, the West Lake Water Park Management Board and the leadership of Asia Company have not made any official comments on the incident.

In addition to the seven people who died, as of the morning of September 18, three patients continued to receive emergency treatment at E Hospital; two other patients were at the Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital.

Hanoi police are coordinating with relevant units to examine the scene and the body, from which the authorities will have grounds to prosecute the case and clarify the responsibilities of related organizations and individuals.

In June 2017, the Hanoi People's Committee issued an official dispatch requesting departments and agencies to tighten management and handle violations in the business and trade of "laughing balloons" (balloons filled with N2O gas). According to authorities, a number of young people and students currently use this product for fun while the health sector does not grant licenses for production, import, or circulation.

N2O gas has a funny effect and is very harmful to health. It is a gas in the list of chemicals that are subject to conditional production and trading in the industry and is used in some medical fields. The production, trading and use of N2O gas must comply with the provisions of the Law on Chemicals.