Drugs: UK government plans to ban laughing gas

Cans of nitrous oxide, laughing gas, confiscated from partygoers planning to use it as a drug, during the carnival in Notting Hill, west London, in August 2022. AFP - SUSANNAH IRELAND

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Nitrous oxide, used as an anesthetic in medicine, is increasingly used by young people for recreational purposes. The decision to ban it is part of a plan to combat anti-social behaviour, presented on Monday 27 March to the UK Parliament.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in London, Marie Boëda

Tackling this scourge is what Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities, proposes: "I think anyone who has the opportunity to walk in the parks of our big cities will have seen these little silver canisters, which are examples of people who not only ruin public spaces, but take a drug that can have a psychological and neurological effect and contributes to antisocial behaviour in general.

Nitrous oxide, more commonly known as laughing gas, is growing in popularity among 16-24 year olds. It is the most used substance after cannabis. Some doctors reveal a spike in hospital admissions related to taking this drug.

Ten regions will experiment with the programme, which will then be extended throughout England and Wales. Among other things, it requires offenders sentenced to community service to clean up their own graffiti or acts of vandalism within 48 hours. A few years ago, Michael Gove confessed to using cocaine in his youth. "I learned," he says. It is a mistake to consider drug use acceptable, he now considers.

► Read also Nitrous oxide: the laughing gas that does not make toxicologists laugh

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• United Kingdom
• Drug
• Health and medicine