o isn’t using.
In very large doses, without the addition of oxygen, it can cause loss of blood pressure, fainting and even death by hypoxia (oxygen deficiency).
Chronic, regular heavy use is very rare, but can lead to a vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 is essential for good brain functioning and if left untreated can lead to irreversible neurological problems.
How widespread is its use?
Given its easy availability as whipped cream bulbs, the drug seems to be growing in popularity among young people.Recent media stories have reported a “nang epidemic”. One newspaper claimed schoolies have been spending thousands of dollars on nitrous oxide. But the story seems to be based on a single Facebook post in which one alleged school leaver said they had spent “A$49,000 on nangs”, which equates to about 49,000 bulbs. It’s likely he was embellishing for his Facebook audience.
We don’t know for sure how many young people use this drug, or how often. Our best data source for population drug trends in Australia, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, doesn’t specifically ask about nitrous oxide use.
Respondents to the Global Drug Survey put nangs as the seventh most popular drug worldwide, excluding caffeine, alcohol and tobacco.
Should we ban this drug?
Concern about the behaviour of youth is not new, and moral panic about drugs, in particular, is often part of this perennial worry about young people.
The concern is that media-driven panic about drugs can create a perception that more people are using the drug than they actually are, and when teens think “everyone” is doing it, they are more likely to want to do it too.Research has shown that interest in a drug peaks after widespread media coverage and that restricting the availability can lead to increased use.
Prohibiting drugs does not prevent people using them, and more harmful unregulated products can emerge. Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, for example, merely led to demand for illicit supply that had high alcohol content and contained impurities that caused blindness, paralysis and death.
So banning nangs could cause more harm than it prevents. And it could lead to some very disgruntled whipped cream fans as well.
Dr Stephen Bright, Senior Lecturer of Addiction at Edith Cowan University & Senior Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
Featured image: Nitrous oxide has been used as an anaesthetic for over 100 years. Shutterstock