While the Food and Drug Administration has finally taken steps to close a regulatory loophole regarding “poppers” and amyl nitrate, at the 11th hour, right before President Donald Trump’s FDA commissioner has taken office, it hasn’t advanced significant regulatory action on illicit marketing and abuse of nitrous oxide. 

Nitrous oxide (also referred to as laughing gas) has a clinical use as a sedative in dentistry and medicine, but it is also available without a prescription as a tool to increase the octane levels of gasoline in automobile racing and for culinary purposes as a propellant for confections such as whipped cream.  

Much like THC and hallucinogenic compounds, disposable containers of nitrous oxide gas can be purchased by anyone. A loophole permits manufacturers to sell these disposable containers of nitrous oxide beyond traditional “culinary” purposes. These charge cans also appear at vape shops and gas stations for single-use purchase—most unlikely places for the few professional chefs that use nitrous oxide for desserts to go to purchase whipped cream chargers and dispensers.  

Unregulated retailers of nitrous oxide often use well-known street synonym slang names for drug use or clearly imply the potential for abuse or “getting high,” such as: “Baking Bad,” Cosmic Gas, Galaxy Gas, HOTWHIP, InfusionMax, Crazy Whip, and “Miami Magic.” 

One manufacturer, MassGass, even attempts to legitimize the safety of its product by stating “Safety, and Speed—Guaranteed” when these products are NOT safe when abused as an inhalant. 

Manufacturers also deceptively tout them as “certified by FDA, ISO, and CE standards” and that “Every charger sold on our platform is directly sourced from licensed manufacturers, guaranteeing 100% genuine quality” and that their nitrous oxide products are “DOT-compliant.”  

In attempting to advance the mirage that their products are for the professional chef, manufacturers even go so far as to include recipes on their website. (Apparently only four recipes total exist in the world’s database of culinary knowledge.) Manufacturers promote flavors, colorful advertisement animations, and packaging not toward pastry chefs and the product’s extremely narrow professional implementation, but toward the youth market where it only serves to perpetuate abuse.  

While it is unclear how one exactly would flavor a gas, available flavors include: rainbow candy, blueberry bliss, caramel frappe, cotton candy, grape, mint, pink bubble gum, strawberry, melon, and watermelon, among others.

Much like narcotic manufacturers shrugging their shoulders and defending their illicit practices, nitrous oxide producers offering some version of “we just manufacture the products—we can’t be held responsible for what happens to it once it leaves our premises” won’t work. That argument failed for controlled substance manufacturers and distributors and it will fail for nitrous oxide manufacturers that could be causing widespread harm for America’s kids.  

According to the FDA—which should have stepped up years ago to warn Americans—inhaling nitrous oxide displaces oxygen when inhaled, and can result in a range of serious health problems, such as abnormal blood counts, asphyxiation, blood clots, frostbite, headache, impaired bowel and bladder function, lightheadedness, limb weakness, loss of consciousness, numbness, palpitations, paralysis, psychiatric disturbances (delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and depression), tingling, trouble walking, vitamin B12 deficiency, and in some cases, death.  

For some individuals who regularly inhale nitrous oxide, this habit can lead to prolonged neurological effects, including spinal cord or brain damage—even after stopping use.  

With the Trump administration taking office, it appears the FDA is ready to act. On March 14, the agency launched a webpage warning consumers of the dangers, but that’s unlikely to have much of an impact, and the FDA knows it. 

In the past, the FDA very prominently and selectively warned about the dangers of off-label use of drugs during COVID-19 like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.  

When the FDA chose to speak out against hydroxychloroquine in particular, it commenced a salvo of social media ads, plus multiple dedicated webpages and videos.  

The FDA even promoted its success in warning consumers over the internet about hydroxychloroquine, claiming that website became “the number one internet search leading to FDA webpages” and “at the top of trending topics on social media platforms.” 

Clearly, the FDA knows exactly how to inform Americans about critical drug safety matters 
 when it feels like it.

However, without the FDA launching a similar public campaign against nitrous oxide deceitful “laughing gas” manufacturers, vape shops and gas stations will have the “last laugh” at Americans’ expense. 

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