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When Sam Bramman first tried nitrous oxide, better known as nangs, at a house party, he had no idea of its effects: “I thought, and I was told, that it was just a harmless party drug.”
The 21-year-old said the addiction and eventual psychosis that followed “fully took control of my life”.
It led to a two-month stay in a psychiatric ward, followed by a year and a half on antipsychotic medications so strong they left him bedridden. The experience motivated Bramman to start a movement to raise awareness among his peers and to campaign for the government to regulate the easily accessible substance.
His efforts appear to have paid off as the NSW government announced new restrictions on the sale of nitrous oxide on Thursday.
Popular among teens and 20-somethings, the inhalant drug has previously been widely available for recreational use online and at walk-in tobacconists. It’s usually consumed by filling a balloon with nitrous oxide and sucking in its gas, creating a temporary high lasting one to five minutes.
The new laws will prohibit the sale of large cylinders from retail outlets and ban the sale of nitrous oxide to under-18s. Retailers will no longer be allowed to visibly display the canisters and cannot sell them to adults before 5am or after 10pm, in a bid to limit their recreational use.
Same-day delivery and supply by online outlets will also be banned. Bulbs (containing between eight and 10 grams of the gas) will be limited to a total of 250g per day per customer.
“We are cracking down on the supply of these products in our community,” Health Minister Ryan Park said in a statement. “The prevalence of nitrous oxide abuse – or nangs – is escalating in our community and it is having a profound impact on the health of our young people.”
Dr Emily Stockings, a Sydney University expert in substance use, said the changes were overdue: “This announcement is great but it really is just bringing NSW up to speed with other states that have already introduced this.”
Short-term risks of nitrous oxide use include loss of consciousness or blood pressure, as well as a risk of frostbite or freeze burns to the hands, airways, nose and mouth when inhaling directly from bulbs.
There is a higher risk with continuous use without breaks for air – for example, if a mask is connected to the canister. “You eventually can effectively die from asphyxiation,” Stockings said. Ten minutes of continuous use is enough to cause coma or death.
Long-term risks of frequent use include memory loss, brain or spinal cord damage, incontinence and psychosis.
While Stockings said there was a relatively low prevalence of nitrous oxide use, its popularity was growing. The most recent National Drug Safety Household Survey found 1.4 per cent of the population aged over 14 had used inhalants including nitrous oxide, and this figure jumped to 4 per cent among 18- to 24-year-olds.
Calls to the poisons centre regarding misuse of the inhalant increased six-fold between 2016 and 2020 – from 16 calls to 116.
Just as with vapes, Stockings said the restrictions would not prevent young people from accessing the drug through tobacconists who already flout the rules but called it “a good first step”.
“When regulations come in, shopkeepers are the ones footing the bill if they get caught, so the flow-on effect is that they increase the price of the individual unit … and that is a deterrent in and of itself.”
Tobacco compliance officers will be appointed to enforce the ban, supported by police where necessary. Maximum penalties for flouting the regulations, which come into effect in November, will be $2200 for individuals or $11,000 for a corporation, per offence.
Provisions will be made for legitimate use, and business owners in industries such as food production or medicine will be exempt from the rules.
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