UKC

I found a box of the nitrous oxide canisters (full) after my teenage son's New Years Eve party in the house.
Should I be worried?
They don't take the other psychoactive/synthetic stuff you can buy in corner shops, thank goodness.

I think the canisters are going to be made illegal in April under the new legislation anyway so I guess that will shut the door on easy sales over the internet.

In reply to Babika:
Maybe they just needed a lot of whipped cream for trifles

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cream-Chargers-Box-600-Whippers/dp/B006CZW42E

In reply to Oceanrower:

Yeah. I think that was probably it. But why they were on top of a wardrobe in the spare bedroom is a complete mystery....

In reply to Babika:



It's no laughing matter! - Oh hang on

In reply to Babika:

The only worry I would have would be why the box was still full. It's one thing to get hold of a legal high, it's another to buy them and not use them!

Seriously though - this gives a fairy balanced view on risks/rewards - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33691783

Like any recreational drug, the risks are far reduced when taken infrequently and not in excess and as No2 is not addictive it does tend to be just a recreational activity.

In reply to JoeyTheFish:

Thank you!

In reply to Babika:

We need to be sure they are what you suspect. Please send them to me for analysis - I'll email my address.

In reply to Babika:

~Maybe they we hoping to turn a profit on the black market after they get banned.

I'd be more worried they were turning into Conservatives!!



Really though, why not try and discuss it use, the dangers and the ways in which to minimise the dangers, should they choose to ignore, the advice not to use it.

In reply to krikoman:



Yeah, good advice and I did that. And got a slightly tetchy teenage response of "no biggy, everyone does, what's the difference with that helium you bought......bla"
I'm not overly worried but I regularly see the effects / collapse of men taking mamba/spice etc in prisons as its very prevalent and I think that is the main purpose of the new Bill.

In reply to Babika:


To which the answer is, 'quite a lot actually...'

I'm not saying nitrous oxide is massively dangerous in small doses but it does have clear pharmacological effects that helium just doesn't (at normal atmospheric pressure anyway).

It's perfectly possible to kill yourself with helium too of course.

In reply to Babika:

I think the main purpose of the new bill must be to mollify the Daily Mail. Otherwise it's a contender for the most moronic piece of legislation ever passed. (Don't let me derail this thread though - discussion here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=633182 )

When I was a lad the main reason an older teenager would've wanted that stuff was for injecting into a motorcycle engine - that probably still is the most efficient way to do yourself real harm with it!

In reply to Dave Garnett:

You'd really have to work at it!

We should probably stop wasting helium on party balloons. The second most abundant element in the universe is in surprisingly short supply down here on earth.

In reply to deepsoup:

It's not the gas (nos or helium) but the way you take it.
If your using a balloon it's fine, but if you try and inhale the it out of the canister the extra pressure can cause damage to the lungs.

Although it is probably easier to asphyxiate yourself with pure helium as there is no oxygen in it.

In reply to deepsoup:


Yes, and any that is released into the atmosphere just leaks out into space - gone forever!

In reply to Dave Garnett:


And it's needed for MRI scanners

In reply to Dave Garnett:


It's not such a big problem as people paint it. At the current rate of loss it would take an estimated 1,686,625,000 years to deplete that atmospheric Helium. I think we'll have other problems before then. It happens the annual rate of release into the atmosphere roughly matches the rate leaked in to space, but the size of the atmospheric reservoir is incomparably larger.

The problem isn't loss into space, it's the cost of fractionating it out of the atmosphere... It's a similar relative abundance to Neon and we fractionate that. I don't know how the cost would scale for Helium but it's ~ 1/5th of the temperature an 1/4th of the abundance so a super-naive estimate would be 20x the cost. Certainly more than fractionating it from fossil fuels.