CLOSER NEWS REPORT
This month sees a change in the law around nitrous oxide, also known as ‘laughing gas’, with users now facing up to two years in prison. Closer speaks to two women whose lives have been turned upside down by the drug…
When Kerry-Anne Donaldson went to house parties in her late teens and saw her friends inhaling nitrous oxide through a balloon, she was soon tempted to try it.
She loved the buzz that it gave her, but quickly found herself abusing it on a regular basis. Tragically, two years later, she woke up one morning with tingling in her legs and hands – and has now been left wheelchair-bound because of the drug.
I knew how dangerous laughing gas was when I started taking it but, back then, there wasn’t any awareness. I would take it at house parties with my mates. Everyone was doing it – it was just a bit of fun. I liked the feeling it gave me, so I ordered my own canisters online and started using the drug frequently at home.
SEVERE
“But after two years of regular use, I woke up one morning with tingling in my legs and hands. I couldn’t stand or pick up anything. My sister took She was ill for a long time me to A&E and that’s when I first learned about the harm that it had caused.”
Nitrous oxide – also known as “laughing gas” or “NOS” – is a colourless gas often sold in metal canisters and inhaled through a balloon. The effect is an intense “high” that lasts up to a couple of minutes. However, heavy regular use of it can lead to a deficiency of vitamin B12, a form of anaemia and, in more severe cases, nerve damage or paralysis. Worryingly, nitrous oxide is now the third most used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds in England, and doctors have reported a sharp increase in the number of young patients affected by it.
Dr David Nicholl, consultant neurologist and clinical lead at City Hospital in Birmingham, became so concerned by the rise in nitrous oxide patients he was treating that he created a TikTok account last summer to warn about the dangers. He explains, “The doses that people are taking now are absolutely staggering. You may have seen the small silver canisters known as whippets discarded on the ground, but now things are super-sized. A smart whip cylinder is about 800g, which is 75 times the dose of a whippet. There are even 3.9kg cylinders available, which are 500 times the dose.
“There are websites selling them by the pallet-load, with YouTube videos showing people how to use them. The term ‘laughing gas’ makes it sound trivial. But the stuff bought on the street or online is pure nitrous oxide and is not safe for human consumption. It’s toxic.”
