The Next Drug Epidemic Is Blue-Raspberry Flavored
January 08, 2025 at 02:58AMThe recreational use of nitrous oxide is on the rise, especially after the pandemic. Nitrous has been effective as a pain medication for a long time. As a recreational drug, it’s come a long way—in the past, people inhaled it after getting their hands on medical tanks or small canisters marketed for making whipped cream. Today, you can buy colorful, candy-flavored options with ease on Amazon, packaged for and marketed especially to impressionable younger users. For New York magazine, Ezra Marcus reports on the explosive growth and sales of one product, Galaxy Gas, across smoke shops; the lack of meaningful regulation surrounding nitrous; and the massive health risks and dangers of inhaling it.
The moral calculations of smoke-shop employees like Alex are the only limit on customers’ ability to purchase as much nitrous oxide as they want. While it’s illegal to sell nitrous oxide explicitly for recreational use, companies can carry it if they say it’s a food-processing propellant for whipped cream and culinary products. Thanks to this loophole, it can be sold legally over the counter (to those 21 and over, depending on the state), online, and in bulk and delivered by head shops like Cloud 9 as well as large chains like Ace Hardware, Walmart, and Amazon.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/01/07/the-next-drug-epidemic-is-blue-raspberry-flavored/
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