TEEN’S NANG DEATH PLUNGE
Schoolboy ‘high on nitrous oxide’ before falling 11 storeys from Surfers Paradise hotel room
SCHOOLIE Hamish Bidgood had been in good spirits celebrating the end of Year 12. But hours later he was dead, plunging 11 storeys from a Surfers Paradise unit block early yesterday morning. Police sources believe he had inhaled nitrous oxide using a Soda Stream machine, with the small canisters – known as nangs – readily available to partygoers. In an eerie twist, his mates had earlier posted Snapchat stories of a big night ahead.
TEENAGERS are spending thousands of dollars buying canisters of a high-inducing gas, also known as “nangs”, during Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast.
The nangs, filled with nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas), are inhaled and considered the new drug of choice, according to schoolies in Surfers Paradise this week.
The canisters are normally used for whipped cream chargers and soda streams.
The Australian Alcohol and Drug Foundation warns against long-term use of the canisters as they can result in memory loss, incontinence, Vitamin B12 loss, psychosis and even death.
Sydney teen Hamish Bidgood died early yesterday after falling off a balcony in Surfers Paradise, possibly under the influence of nangs.
Last year, a Gold Coast man revealed on media website Vice he was selling thousands of whippedcream chargers to Schoolies.
The man was billed as the “Gold Coast’s only 24-hour nang delivery service”.
“Schoolies Week was massive for us,” the man said in a Vice video.
“The Gold Coast is pretty much a city that’s been manufactured as a playground for adults … it’s a party city.”
One schoolie, who declined to be named, told the Bulletin he and his friends were repeatedly offered – and asked for – MDMA, cigarettes and nangs throughout their stay.
“It happened when we had smalltalk with other schoolies. I’d ask where they were from and they’d ask if I had drugs, or ‘do you have any nangs’?” he said.
“It’s sort of the normal thing for our generation. Drugs are part of my generation. You just have to cope with it and say no.”
He said a lot of nangs this year seemed to be used in balloons.
On closed Facebook group Gold Coast Schoolies 2018, which has more than 11,000 members, school graduates talk about how much they’ve spent on nangs – and how many nangs they’ve gone through.
Members also offer tips on where best to secure the highly sought-after and easily accessible high.
“We did 10 boxes of nangs in an hour,” wrote one schoolie.
“In our motel so many guys hotboxed their whole room, burn marks on the carpet, ash on the tiles, broken plates, broke tables and chairs, there was nangs and balloons (expletive) everywhere in more people’s rooms.
“Out of our room alone we chucked out about 10 boxes worth of nangs from one night. Ciggy butts everywhere and sooo (sic) many cartons of beer.”
On a post asking what schoolies had spent on drugs and alcohol in the first week, comments frequently mentioned price tags of more than $1000.
Bond University criminologist Wayne Petherick said each year around Schoolies there was an increase in drugs arrests.
“There are a few captive markets to sell to on the Gold Coast … it’s really easy to get (chargers) and buy over the counter, or online,” he said.
“There is no difference to other inhalant effects, but there’s reduced access to paint so maybe they displace to more accessible things. They’re relatively cheap.”