It has been suggested that the UK government is considering making laughing gas possession a criminal offence.
According to reports in The Independent, Home Secretary Priti Patel is touting “tough action” against nitrous oxide and is currently seeking advice on whether to criminalise possession of the drug.
The Home Secretary has reportedly asked the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to assess the harm done by nitrous oxide, in a move that has already been branded a “waste of time” by drug experts and “baffling” by one of her own MPs.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has defended the move – justifying that it has come in response to a “concerning” rise in nitrous oxide use among young people.
As defined by FRANK, nitrous oxide is “a colourless gas most commonly found in pressurised metal canisters [which] you may have seen lying around in streets outside bars and nightclubs”.
The latest annual crime survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that nitrous oxide is the second most-used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK and that half a million in that age group used it from 2019-2020.
Still, there seems to be some mixed messaging regarding the use, with the ONS also stating that the proportion of young people using nitrous oxide in England and Wales has been the same for the past four years.
Elsewhere, a report by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggested that there was “a visible mark of the increasing incidence of nitrous oxide (N2O) misuse” since the first COVID-19 lockdown began.
Nitrous oxide was last reviewed by the ACMD six years ago.
The body concluded at the time that it did not warrant control under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, but the ACMD’s new review could recommend more education on the substance for young people, or tougher punishments for those who supply it.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said government ministers “stand ready to take action” if the ACMD recommends further restrictions on the drug.
