Concern reigns over high school students who were found semi-conscious in a school toilet in Heraklion on the island of Crete on Wednesday morning. A possible scenario is the use of unknown substances.
According to local media, students reported feeling dizzy and unwell, possibly after consuming a substance, blood tests and toxicology tests showed.
Two 15-year-old girls and a 14-year-old boy were found almost unconscious in the toilet of Helicarnassos High School in Heraklion. Classmates reported this to the principal, who immediately called the ambulance service, and the minors were transported to the hospital.
Local media At first it was assumed that the cause of the students’ fainting was the use of drugs or their analogues. Following the ambulances, police rushed to the school and began looking for the parents of the minors for further investigation.
According to latest informationthe minors said they used nicotine snus to help them quit smoking, but it may have been an overdose that left them feeling nauseous and panicking.
Three minors remain in the hospital, their lives are not in danger.
They admitted to using nicotine snus, saying it was given to them by a 15-year-old classmate. The boy could be charged with recklessly causing bodily harm.
What are nicotine snus?
Snus is a type of non-smoking tobacco product. It is crushed moistened tobacco, which is placed between the upper (less often lower) lip and gum for a long time – from 30 to 60-70 minutes (according to manufacturers, from 5 to 30 minutes). In this case, nicotine from tobacco enters the body.
Snus belongs to smokeless tobacco (this group also includes dry and moist snuff, chewing tobacco, etc.). It is characterized as a type of moist snuff with a high nicotine content and low carcinogen content. It has been known in Sweden since 1637. It is mainly produced and consumed in this country (which is why it is often called Swedish snus).
IN EU (except for Sweden) the sale of snus has been prohibited since 1992, although its use is not limited. In Sweden and Norway, snus is sold legally.
In Greece, and in almost all EU countries, it can be purchased through online stores and is often sold in different flavors to make it more appealing to a younger audience.
Snus usually contains nicotine, which can lead to addiction. The chemical components of different types of snus differ, and population-level studies show that its use is harmful to health, although much less than smoking.
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