Stop kids buying ‘hippy crack’ for pennies, says MP

YOUNGSTERS should not be able to buy high-inducing laughing gas online “for pennies”, an MP has warned.

Labour’s Rosie Duffield said nitrous oxide – also known as hippy crack or Nos – has been linked to 25 deaths since 2010.

And she warned that the “gateway drug”, usually inhaled through balloons, could lead to youngsters trying other substances like cannabis or cocaine.

Empty pressurised canisters of the gas, widely used in the catering industry, litter streets and parkland all over Britain.

Reckless

It is already a criminal offence to use nitrous oxide to get high and now Ms Duffield wants it reclassified so youngsters cannot order it cheaply online.

The MP for Canterbury, who raised the issue in Parliament last night, said: “It is clear the time has come for a considered conversation about how the law can best approach nitrous oxide.

“I am calling for a review into the classification of it and fast action on how the sale can be further restricted to professional catering and medical consumers.

“We must stop anyone being able to buy it off the internet for pennies.”

Hippy crack, the second most common drug in the UK, can have a euphoric effect on a person and help them relax.

But Ms Duffield warned that it can also cause severe headaches, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet,

Piles of discarded canisters of nitrous oxide litter the streets and parks of UK as MP Rosie Duffield, right, warns of danger of it being a gateway drug

difficulty breathing and unconsciousness.

She added: “Besides the obvious immediate health risks to users, people driving under the influence of nitrous oxide is also of serious concern.

“It is clear that the use of Nos has a direct correlation with dangerous, reckless behaviours. It is also becoming, very swiftly, the gateway drug, with the summer of 2020 likely to be the summer teenagers tried Nos as their first drug.”

If nitrous oxide is inhaled directly into the mouth from a canister or in a confined space it can cause sudden death through lack of oxygen.