Nitrous oxide: How dangerous is it?
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It's in TikTok trends, hip-hop lyrics, and it's in the air at parties. Laughing gas or nitrous oxide has been used safely in medicine for centuries, but it's also become a go-to party drug. You might have seen the little silver canisters littering the streets after raves or festivals, or seen videos of people inhaling it and then getting the giggles. But behind the buzz, users can develop paralysis and even brain damage, and a few have died.

So today you're going to hear how the pandemic changed the way people take laughing gas and why it's still so popular despite the crackdowns. I'm Hannah Gelbart and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

And joining us here in the studio is BBC journalist Eve Webster. Hi, welcome. Hi, Hannah. Thanks for having me. So we're talking about laughing gas. It's also known as hippie crack and whippets. What exactly is it and why do people use it? So the chemical composition is nitrous oxide and people have been taking it to get high for centuries. It also has a lot of legitimate uses, but it essentially deprives your brain of oxygen for a short amount of time, which makes you feel like feverish.

like feelings of euphoria, everything's funny, everything's a laugh, but the high is very short. It's only a couple of minutes long. What are the risks if you take loads of it? Well, depriving your brain of oxygen does not...

does not do your brain any favours. It can lead to a vitamin B12 deficiency, which will lead to spinal degradation. It can cause nerve damage. And the worst case scenario is hypoxia, which is when the brain's seriously deprived of oxygen for long periods of time, which can lead to incontinence, paralysis, and in a few cases, even death.

I saw some cases of people who had to use wheelchairs for the rest of their lives after taking too much of it. And you spoke to the family of someone who died from using it. Yes. So Meg Coldwell from Florida in the US started using nitrous oxide about eight years ago, kind of casually at parties.

But over the past four or five years, her sisters have told me her use just went up massively to the extent that she was hospitalized several times. She spent time in rehab clinics. She lost the use of her legs. She was incontinent. And eventually they believe that she overdosed on nitrous oxide in the car park of a smoke shop where she just bought some.

And she was just 29. She was 29. It's very sad. Her family are now campaigning for greater restrictions on selling the substance in the US. I have to say, they haven't yet received the coroner's report.

but she had a long history of addiction with the substance, so they really think that her long health decline was down to her repeated use of it. Is it an addictive substance then? What does the research say? There needs to be more research to definitively answer that, but it seems pretty clear that it's not physically addictive in the same way that alcohol or opioids like heroin are. It's not your body really asking for another hit of it, but...

experts do say it can be psychologically addictive. People like Meg, they become dependent on it. You know, I heard a story of a woman who was in a rehab facility and she said even when she was in there using a wheelchair, trying to get use of her legs back, all she could think about was taking the substance again. So although it might not physically addict you, mentally, psychologically, it really seems like it can.

You mentioned that Meg died in a car park after buying laughing gas from a vape shop. And that's become increasingly common, especially since the pandemic. How has the way that people are taking it, how's that changed in recent years? So in the US, unlike a lot of other countries, you can buy nitrous oxide pretty easily as it's sold as a culinary product. You can use it in restaurants to whip cream.

But it seems that the place that most people buy it are what are called smoke shops in the U.S.,

Companies also started flavouring the gas, kind of flavours that you might expect in a vape, and started packaging them in kind of more appealing designs, brightly coloured, neon, and marketing them under names like Miami Magic, things like that. Experts say that this has led to an uptick in people using the drug, and the Food and Drug Administration in the US have said that they've noticed an increase in reports of the adverse effects of people using nitrous oxide. I'm going

I'm going to pause you there because we're speaking to Ezra Marcus, who's an investigative reporter in the US. Hi, Ezra. Hey, good morning. So what is the culture around laughing gas in the US like now? Five years ago, during the pandemic, it sort of had a wave of...

popularity and then it fell into this use pattern that tracked I think with how vapes became popularized among young people in the last you know 10 years young people who grew up with

flavored vapes were like well this is just another you know consumable legal substance you can buy in the store and and just do anytime you want it became um adopted by rappers especially in the last sort of six or seven years there's a a rapper named young thug was sort of on the forefront of

popularizing it. Around 2020, a number of rappers in Atlanta started, you know, I think they were drawn just to the drug just because it's like, it's a recreational drug, but also because it has this sort of subcultural kind of edgy association. And so rappers like Young Thug and Gunna, who are very influential among young people, very popular, started posting photos and videos of themselves consuming nitrous. And then

Kanye also started using it quite publicly. The manufacturers leaned into that. They started branding it in ways that dovetailed with rap culture and they started selling it in smoke shops next to weed paraphernalia. You know, for example, a company called Galaxy Gas, in the name itself, like the association of getting high, going to the galaxy, it's

It took off on social media. Like there were all these kind of crazy videos coming out of initially from Atlanta of young people consuming galaxy gas and has this, you know, dramatic effect. And I think that it,

that really took it to the next level of virality. Ezra, you mentioned Galaxy Gas, which is one of the biggest brands in the US. And I just want to add their statement, which is that they said their products are for responsible culinary use only. And they said they're deeply concerned about the recent news reports and social media posts of individuals illegally misusing their product.

It's become pretty mainstream now. I mean, like there are Joe Rogan podcasts talking about it, Mormon wives taking it before getting their Botox done on TikTok, loads of videos of people using it on TikTok. What is the legal status of nitrous in the US now? It remains legal. Louisiana has banned the recreational sale of it. As far as I know, no other states have taken that step. I don't think it's really a, doesn't seem to be a huge priority for regulators here in the States. Ezra, thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me.

Thank you.

And it's not just in the States, it's also big in Nigeria. And our colleague, BBC journalist Chigozie Ohaka, has been looking into how it's used there. I can say with a degree of confidence that it is fairly widespread among young Nigerians, especially in major cities like Lagos, Abuja and Owera. It's important to note that nitrous oxide is not legally banned in Nigeria. So to give a bit of context, in 2023,

There was a report by the local media of the brazen abuse of nitrous oxide by young Nigerians. The Nigerian Drug Enforcement Agency swung into action. There were interceptions at the border, as much as six tons at some point. They closed the outlets that give access to young people. The result of this was illegal sellers of nitrous oxide retreated

in the shadows. There is also a very high likelihood that encrypted messaging apps like Telegram are also used as a bridge between the buyers and the sellers.

So Eve, we heard how authorities are trying to clamp down on it in Nigeria and here in the UK, possession was made illegal in 2023, which means that if you're caught with it, you could get a caution, you could get a fine and repeat offenders could go to prison. Where else has it been banned? So in most countries, it is a controlled substance and it isn't allowed to be used recreationally. However, in a lot of countries, it can be legally sold and purchased as a culinary product.

Some countries have completely banned the substance outright and possession as a crime. In Europe, it's banned in Ireland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, which is unusual because the Netherlands tend to have more liberal rules around drugs. In Asia, it's been banned in Thailand and Vietnam. However, it still remains pretty popular, especially amongst people travelling in the region. So governments have been trying to crack down on this.

How effective have those crackdowns been? I think if you walk through the streets of London where possession of the drug is illegal, it seems pretty clear a lot of people are still using it unless they're deciding to whip cream in the middle of the night in the road.

I guess it's like most places, you can still get hold of illegal drugs if you really look for them. And it's happening, you know, all around us, but we wouldn't necessarily know about it. But with laughing gas, it's different because there is this very visible waste product, these not so small canisters that are littering the floors. Absolutely. Eve, thank you so much. Thank you, Hannah. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you for joining us. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What's in the World from the BBC World Service, and we'll see you next time.