Video: Will Walters reports on the rise and rise of nitrus oxide
Police are warning Nottingham users of the legal high gas ‘hippy crack’ they won’t hesitate to arrest them when a new law comes into force next month.
Drug support workers say inhaling nitrus oxide – also sometimes called ‘laughing gas’ – has become a popular recreation drug in the city.
Several people are openly selling the gas online for sale in the city – often under the guise of ‘whipped cream canisters’ and offering home delivery.
Although it is currently not against the law to posess or sell it, it has been linked to several deaths nationwide and will be outlawed as a drug on April 6.
You cannot know how you will react
Notts Police drug expert PC Stuart Clarke said: “We will seek to arrest those who break this new law and, if convicted, you could face up to seven years in jail.
“Like some of the synthetic substances, nitrus oxide is a depressant. It slows down your reaction times and can mean you have difficulty thinking straight.
“Not a great combination for getting around in daily life and especially not for getting behind the wheel, for example.
“We would always advise against taking such substances. You can’t be sure of what you are taking and you cannot know how you will react to it.”
Users empty canisters into balloons and then inhale the gas, creating a feeling of euphoria.
But it can cause death through depriving the body of oxygen, and one academic study covering six years of figures linked the gas to 17 UK fatalities.
Picture: Discarded nitrus oxide canisters have become a common sight on city streets
This has prompted the Government to ban the supply, possession and importation of the gas from April 6 under the new Psychoactive Substances Act.
Neil Brooks of drug and alcohol support service Recovery in Nottingham said: “some of the problems that have been caused by it involve people taking too much.
“You can starve the brain of oxygen and there have been deaths associated with it.”
Nitrus Oxide: A young person’s drug?
- Around 7.6 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 in England and Wales have taken nitrous oxide, according to Home Office Drugs Misuse data collected in 2014.
- In 2014 half a million young people were thought to be frequent users of the gas, according to the Local Government Association.
Some campaigners say the new law is unfair, as the gas is used legally by medics, including to treat pain during childbirth.
But Dr Denis Walsh, a midwifery specialist at the University of Nottingham, said he believed casual users are putting their health at risk.
He said: “Women self-regulate its use in hospital, so it’s not like they try and overdose on it. So if you are using it in a kind of recreation capacity who puts any limits on that?”
