The Times
March 6th, 2007
"Purge on ‘lethal’ laughing gas in clubs and bars"
Nightclubs, bars and festivals that sell nitrous oxide face prosecution as part of a purge on the recreational use of the chemical.
Drug regulators said yesterday that anyone supplying the compound, commonly known as laughing gas, for recreational inhalation was complicit in an activity that carried serious health risks and would be prosecuted.
The Medicines and Health-care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that the maximum penalty for supplying nitrous oxide in contravention of the Medicines Act was two years’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine.
Use of nitrous oxide has surged in popularity in recent years as a cheap, seemingly harmless and supposedly legal “high”.
However, while its use as a medical anaesthetic and in some food products, such as canisters of whipped cream, is permitted, only pharmacists are legally allowed to supply it in a gas form.
The crackdown by the MHRA follows the death of a 23-year-old company manager in Birmingham.
Although the gas is not toxic, excessive inhalation can cause hypoxia — a lack of oxygen in the brain — which led to the death of Daniel Watts, whose body was found at his home next to a large cylinder of nitrous oxide.
An inquest in January was told that he had asphyxiated himself by excessive inhalation of the drug, which is known as “hippie crack” because of its psychological addictiveness and for the euphoria it induces.
The supply of nitrous oxide for recreational use — where balloons of the colourless, odourless gas are inhaled to give a temporary, dizzying rush — has become increasingly common.
Long-term dangers to health include bone-marrow suppression, blood-cell problems and poisoning of the central nervous system. The risks are likely to be aggravated if the drug is combined with alcohol or other narcotics, and they are particularly severe for pregnant women.
Under current laws, anyone over the age of 18 can buy the gas for culinary purposes — it is present in pressurised canisters. This presents a loophole for people who can modify the canisters so that they can extract and inhale the gas. Possessing and inhaling nitrous oxide remains legal.
A host of venues throughout Britain openly supply the gas, considered a “dinner-party drug” in some circles. Kits comprising a canister and a batch of pellets are also available on the internet for as little as £30.
Martin Barnes, chief executive of the drug charity Drug-Scope, said that inhaling gas directly from canisters was extremely dangerous, because it can freeze both the throat and lungs.
“Laughing gas is by no means a risk-free drug, and when used outside of a controlled medical setting it can be dangerous,” he said.
“Nitrous oxide replaces oxygen in the lungs. If taken in sufficient quantities and at a high enough concentration, it can lead to fatal asphyxiation.”
The Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services have now written to councils recommending that they police nightclubs, festivals and bars that may be supplying nitrous oxide.
Councils that find venues to be in breach of this warning would then report them to the MHRA, and possibly prosecute them.
Mick Deats, head of enforcement and intelligence at the MHRA, said that at least one website selling the gas was being investigated for possible illegal activity.
Two centuries of intoxication
» Nitrous oxide - laughing gas - was discovered by Joseph Priestley, a scientist and clergyman, in 1793
» Humphry Davy tested the gas on himself and his friends, including the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, noting that the gas could alleviate physical pain
» Robert Southey wrote: “I am sure the air in heaven must be this wonderworking gas of delight”
» In the first half of the 19th century people paid to inhale a minute’s worth of gas
» Nitrous oxide can be injected into the fuel of racing cars to give them added acceleration It is also present as a powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere
Source: Times Database
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1475252.ece
EDIT I wasn't sure if this would be more appropriate for UK users to see in here or whether it should be in the DITM section, mods you decide
March 6th, 2007
"Purge on ‘lethal’ laughing gas in clubs and bars"
Nightclubs, bars and festivals that sell nitrous oxide face prosecution as part of a purge on the recreational use of the chemical.
Drug regulators said yesterday that anyone supplying the compound, commonly known as laughing gas, for recreational inhalation was complicit in an activity that carried serious health risks and would be prosecuted.
The Medicines and Health-care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that the maximum penalty for supplying nitrous oxide in contravention of the Medicines Act was two years’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine.
Use of nitrous oxide has surged in popularity in recent years as a cheap, seemingly harmless and supposedly legal “high”.
However, while its use as a medical anaesthetic and in some food products, such as canisters of whipped cream, is permitted, only pharmacists are legally allowed to supply it in a gas form.
The crackdown by the MHRA follows the death of a 23-year-old company manager in Birmingham.
Although the gas is not toxic, excessive inhalation can cause hypoxia — a lack of oxygen in the brain — which led to the death of Daniel Watts, whose body was found at his home next to a large cylinder of nitrous oxide.
An inquest in January was told that he had asphyxiated himself by excessive inhalation of the drug, which is known as “hippie crack” because of its psychological addictiveness and for the euphoria it induces.
The supply of nitrous oxide for recreational use — where balloons of the colourless, odourless gas are inhaled to give a temporary, dizzying rush — has become increasingly common.
Long-term dangers to health include bone-marrow suppression, blood-cell problems and poisoning of the central nervous system. The risks are likely to be aggravated if the drug is combined with alcohol or other narcotics, and they are particularly severe for pregnant women.
Under current laws, anyone over the age of 18 can buy the gas for culinary purposes — it is present in pressurised canisters. This presents a loophole for people who can modify the canisters so that they can extract and inhale the gas. Possessing and inhaling nitrous oxide remains legal.
A host of venues throughout Britain openly supply the gas, considered a “dinner-party drug” in some circles. Kits comprising a canister and a batch of pellets are also available on the internet for as little as £30.
Martin Barnes, chief executive of the drug charity Drug-Scope, said that inhaling gas directly from canisters was extremely dangerous, because it can freeze both the throat and lungs.
“Laughing gas is by no means a risk-free drug, and when used outside of a controlled medical setting it can be dangerous,” he said.
“Nitrous oxide replaces oxygen in the lungs. If taken in sufficient quantities and at a high enough concentration, it can lead to fatal asphyxiation.”
The Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services have now written to councils recommending that they police nightclubs, festivals and bars that may be supplying nitrous oxide.
Councils that find venues to be in breach of this warning would then report them to the MHRA, and possibly prosecute them.
Mick Deats, head of enforcement and intelligence at the MHRA, said that at least one website selling the gas was being investigated for possible illegal activity.
Two centuries of intoxication
» Nitrous oxide - laughing gas - was discovered by Joseph Priestley, a scientist and clergyman, in 1793
» Humphry Davy tested the gas on himself and his friends, including the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, noting that the gas could alleviate physical pain
» Robert Southey wrote: “I am sure the air in heaven must be this wonderworking gas of delight”
» In the first half of the 19th century people paid to inhale a minute’s worth of gas
» Nitrous oxide can be injected into the fuel of racing cars to give them added acceleration It is also present as a powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere
Source: Times Database
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1475252.ece
EDIT I wasn't sure if this would be more appropriate for UK users to see in here or whether it should be in the DITM section, mods you decide