Do Young People in Coventry Know the Effects of Nitrous Oxide?

Nitrous Oxide Canisters - Dreamstime 

Following a Public Health Warning due to an increase in Nitrous Oxide related hospital cases, health and care partners in Coventry are now warning younger residents of the dangerous and damaging effects of the drug. With the “terrifying” number of incidents, the question of how informed Coventry’s youth are on drug abuse should be raised. 

Students in Coventry are calling for more to be done to highlight the risks of legal drugs such as nitrous oxide.  It comes after a spike in the number of young men being admitted to hospital after taking these drugs. 

Commonly used as a clinical anaesthetic, known for its anti-anxiety effect, Nitrous Oxide or “laughing gas” is legal to possess but illegal to sell to anyone under 18.  However, it is being abused for recreational purposes, inhaled via balloon, due to being cheap and easily accessible.  

According to Consultant Neurologist at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, Dr Holger Allroggen, the side effects of using the drug include “serious harm to the nervous system” as well as “loss of feeling, abnormal sensations and loss of motor function”. 

Recently, five young men, most of them students, were admitted to hospital in Coventry after taking the drug.  But do these users know the risk before they take it?  

In a series of interviews, male students at Coventry University between the ages of 19 and 21 were asked about how they had been educated about the drug. The students asked to either remain anonymous or only gave first names. 

“In reality I wasn’t educated about it... only recently I’ve been educated, but that’s from experiences that I've seen on social media” Said one of the students, 19-year-old Akeem . 

“Most of the stuff I see is the social media aspect of stuff... I’ve had friends around me, fall off and black out and stuff like that but I wouldn’t say I’m very educated on how it happens.”  

During the interviews, the students mentioned another form of the gas that comes in a much larger, 640g Fastgas canister, which the students referred to as “Smartwhip”. Another one of the students, 19-year-old Odeen explained “There’s smartwhip and there’s cream chargers. The cream chargers, to be honest, as much as it’s bad, it’s safer for people than smartwhip.”  

Fastgas “smartwhip” canister found in student accommodation – Ray Folarin 

“I think it's just a trend... If you go on social media now, you see people say, ‘you can get girls if you stand outside the party with a smartwhip’ you see what I'm trying to say?” 

The students also mentioned that it’s a drug that they have seen around for years, being used by teenagers as young as 13, despite being illegal to sell to under 18s. They expressed a need for more awareness to be spread on the harms of this drugs. 

“If the government want to stop it, they should raise more awareness to it, because this stuff, you don’t see awareness raised, unless it’s on social media”  

“I don’t think the pleasure outweighs the consequence of being paralyzed.” - Odeen (19) 

And as advised by Dr Allroggen 

 “This self-inflicted damage is completely avoidable by not using nitrous oxide.” 

For more information on the drug and its effect click here.