https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63634557
The Dutch government is banning the use of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, amid concerns over the health risks for the growing number of young people using it.
The ban, which starts in January, makes it illegal to buy, sell or own the gas. However, the authorities say it can still be used for medicinal purposes and in the food industry.
The government also hopes the ban will reduce the number of road traffic accidents involving the drug. According to road safety monitor TeamAlert, laughing gas has played a role in 1,800 accidents across the Netherlands over the past three years.
"Almost two a day, figures that really shocked us," Maartje Oosterink of TeamAlert told AD newspaper earlier this month.
The popular legal high has grown in popularity amongst clubbers and festival-goers in recent years, and is often used in combination with other drugs like MDMA (ecstasy) or ketamine.
The gas is mostly sold in small metal canisters, which are emptied into balloons before it is inhaled. According to the Trimbos Institute, more than 37% of Dutch party-goers use laughing gas on a regular basis - mostly young people.
[...] In England, it is the most commonly misused substance (after cannabis) among 16- to 24-year-olds.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @08:34AM (1 child)
Like an 8 pack of them for whipped cream for idk, $5? I was surprised it wasn't already discontinued or banned.
Legalize LSD, sell it in those toy vending machines at every grocery store, and nobody will bother with this shit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:24PM
Unless said vending machines somehow checks your ID, the *last* thing I want is young kids screaming and running around and freaking out even more than usual because they're on LSD.
(this is a selfish argument, not a "won't somebody think of the children??")
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:16AM
(Score: 5, Touché) by Opportunist on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:29AM (4 children)
People drive high? Yeah, they should not operate a car when intoxicated.
People develop vitamin B12 deficits after prolonged use? Yes, if you have a B12 deficit and use N2O as a O2 substitute when breathing.
In conclusion, if that's the reason, we should immediately make alcohol illegal, too. That, too, will make you unable to operate cars properly and if you drink it in these quantities it kills you by liver cirrhosis. Ban that dangerous substance immediately!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:05PM (3 children)
Compared to my experience with N20 as a party drug (40 years ago), this whole thing seems odd. One of the reasons we offered nitrous at big parties (200-300 people) was that you come down in minutes. We were on the 6th floor (urban commune) and by the time you got down the stairs or the very slow freight elevator, normality had resumed.
While there may be some nitrous "hangover", the high or disorientation is very short lived. My questions:
How do they know that N2O is involved, is there a test? Seems like any test would have to be administered very quickly.
Do the Dutch park so close to parties that they are still high when they get to their car?
Or do they carry a balloon (etc) out to their car--that seems really unlikely (and dumb), but also seems like about the only way to prolong the high in a car.
Compare to other common party drugs, where the high lasts hours or days(real LSD?)...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:22PM (1 child)
I can't speak for the Dutch, but when I lived in England young people would often drive into our residential car park of an evening and socialise, sat in their card with doors open and windows down. Apart from the terrible music (doof doof doof bleep bleep bleep) there was invariably a herbal smelling smoke drifting from their special cigarettes and in the mornings I would often see the little silver canisters that N2O comes in for whipping cream, scattered all over the ground. Teenagers do stupid things.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 16 2022, @08:59PM
>authorities say it can still be used for medicinal purposes and in the food industry
One restaurant I worked in couldn't keep whipped cream cans charged for even 24 hours after the case arrived.
Next time you order something that "comes from the back" with whipped cream dispensed on top, take a look at the back room staff and think about whether or not you want to eat whipped cream dispensed from a can they sucked on?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 16 2022, @10:28PM
>How do they know that N2O is involved,
empty canisters in the car?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:20PM (12 children)
I thought it was a sedative? I remember having some when I was in for a tooth extraction or something at the dentist and thinking "hee hee, this stuff is great" for about 2 seconds before I passed out. Doesn't getting high for pleasure generally require still being conscious?
Also, WTF Netherlands--you have legal pot! Why are people using what sounds like a worse version of the same high when they can just blaze up??
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:38PM
I remember reading about N2O being popular at high society parties around victorian era times, and then making its way to county fairs.
With that ban, I just feel pity for all the 'rodders and their GM-1 gear, although they probably have few of them in the Netherlands, because they all go by bike, tow a caravan, or drive HGVs.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:06PM (5 children)
The Netherlands doesn't really have legal pot. It is extremely bizarre: pot is illegal but they have an official policy of not prosecuting coffee shops for selling small quantities of cannabis. But notably there is no legal supply chain for these shops to actually obtain their product.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:04PM (4 children)
And there I thought we here in the U.S. were the only crazy ones about pot legality.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:24PM (3 children)
Crazy? What's crazy is outlawing something on the basis of baldfaced lies. Here's how pot became illegal in the US (the first country to outlaw it):
Harry Anslinger, formerly with the Feds in their alcohol prohibition unit, was transferred to running the Narcotics Bureau when alcohol prohibition ended. He couldn't convince congress to give his bureau more money to fight heroin, so he made up a fake drug problem that he could convince congress to bankroll, wherein he would divert the money from this new drug that had been used by people since before they were even humans, to fight heroin.
President Biden has said he would like more research, but since we have likely used weed since before we were even mammals (other species love it, too), maybe we should do some studies to see if milk is dangerous?
Here's a tidbit: the world's richest man smokes reefer. There are videos, and he was highly criticized for it despite its legality in California and most other states.
Our astronauts fly to the space station in a pot smoker's rockets.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday November 16 2022, @10:24PM (2 children)
Oh, well if Elon's doing it then it must be OK!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday November 17 2022, @08:27PM (1 child)
If those who fear weed knew that our astronauts are launched on a pothead's rocket... the word "asplode" comes to mind.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday November 17 2022, @11:27PM
Pretty sure that the engineers weren't stoned while working on the rocket.
What Elon does in his spare time is pretty irrelevant to the tech. Same goes for his other projects.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:08PM (3 children)
I used this substance as a humorous plot point in NOBOTS; stoned Amish.
This is your Farmer on Drugs [mcgrewbooks.com]
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:07PM (2 children)
Pangalactic, man.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday November 17 2022, @08:24PM (1 child)
Yes, that's where the gargleblaster came from, but the stratodoober was from that book.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 17 2022, @08:39PM
You realize you also used the word on the green site? A year or two before publishing the book:
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @08:24PM
> tooth extraction
The old family dentist when I was a kid (1950s and 60s) used N20 for anesthesia. He put a mask on me that was fed from a special dual gas regulator--the gas was a fixed ratio of N20 and O2. He never put me out, just a nice buzz, pretty fun for a pre-teen kid. Once I was buzzing, he could go in with the needle of Novocaine and I wouldn't feel a thing.
About 15 years later I was shopping for used machine tools and visited a small shop that the owner was shutting down. He had made those dual regulators--showed me some parts and explained how critical it was that the feed threads (left and right hand threads opposing) were "timed" properly. The single central "nut" (with calibrated dial around the outside) turned both threads, which in turn moved needle valves in and out controlling the low pressure gas flow in fixed proportions. Upstream of this mixing-regulator were a couple of normal pressure regulators that reduced the high bottle/cylinder pressure down to constant low pressure for the two gasses.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:17PM (6 children)
If people are unable to use N2O in their ICE or electric vehicles, they will find other ways to enhance the performance of their vehicles so they can cause unnecessary fatal accidents while having fun misusing the public roadways.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:02PM (5 children)
I suspect the accidents are more often caused by driver intoxication with N2O, or possibly simple distraction when they are in the act of huffing it.
As for the performance enhancing effects in the engine, for a tiny bit more effort and expense there are turbochargers that will do the same and more.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 16 2022, @10:20PM (4 children)
At present, turbochargers are not available for EVs.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 16 2022, @10:25PM (3 children)
And how does N2O enhance EV performance?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2022, @04:24AM
> enhance EV performance
In your mind baby, in your mind.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 17 2022, @05:12PM (1 child)
Inhalation?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 17 2022, @08:06PM
So, wouldn't that work on most vehicles?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @09:41PM
Hitting a whip it and then driving immediately seems insane. Hitting one while driving is just plain suicidal.