Nitrous oxide to be banned under plans to clamp down on anti

Mar 06, 2024

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove made the announcement this morning on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

By Megan Baynes, social affairs & health reporter and Alexandra Rogers, political reporter

Thursday 30 March 2023 13:29, UK

Nitrous oxide is set to be banned under government plans to clamp down on anti-social behaviour.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove made the announcement this morning on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

"Anti-social behaviour can ruin lives," he said.

Confirming the ban on laughing gas, Mr Gove said: "I think anyone who has the opportunity to walk through our parks in our major cities will have seen these little silver canisters, which are examples of people not only spoiling public spaces but taking a drug which can have a psychological and neurological effect and one that contributes to antisocial behaviour overall."

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is the second most commonly used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds in England after cannabis and there are concerns about health problems caused by its usage.

An investigation by Sky News revealed there had been a spike in hospital admissions caused by people using the party drug.

The decision announced today goes further than the recommendations of a review commissioned by the Home Office, which stopped short of recommending a ban after examining the dangers of the substance.

The independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) was asked by the Home Office in 2021 to provide advice on whether to make possession of nitrous oxide a crime.

The ACMD concluded that the sanctions of offences under the act would be disproportionate with the level of harm associated with the substance, and that such control could create "significant burdens" for legitimate uses of the substance.

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But Mr Gove said that ministers were ultimately responsible for making decisions, adding: "We believe collectively that it is absolutely vital that we deal with this scourge."

The Cabinet minister confirmed that the ban would be issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act 197 but did not know which class - A, B or C - the drug would fall under.

"We can't have a situation, we mustn't have a situation where our drugs, our public spaces become drug taking arenas and that is why we need to do crackdown on new manifestations of drug taking.

"These laughing gas canisters are an increasing scourge, and one that has been reported to me as a constituency MP."

'Hypocrisy' given Gove's history of cocaine

Mr Gove's campaign to be Tory leader in 2019 faltered after he admitted publicly he had taken cocaine "on several occasions" in the past.

Sophy Ridge asked: "Are you really going to give people a criminal record for a 30-second high from laughing gas?"

Mr Gove initially avoided the question but then replied: "We need to deal with the scourge [of nitrous oxide].

"It's absolutely right we uphold the law in this case."

When asked again if the plans were hypocritical, given some MPs have been known to take drugs, including himself, he said: "No… because I've learned."

He continued: "I've learned it's a mistake, it's worse than a mistake to regard drug taking as somehow acceptable."

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Cleaning up anti-social behaviour

The move is part of a pack of measures designed to curb anti-social behaviour, which is set to be a key issue in the run-up to the next general election.

People convicted of anti-social behaviour will be ordered to repair the damage they have caused within two days of being told their punishment, under new plans.

Where possible, low-level offenders will be cleaning up the mess they created but if this is not possible - if it has already been cleaned up, for example - they will be given other ways to help their community.

This could include picking up litter, washing police cars or volunteering in shops.

Read more:How laughing gas addiction 'messed up' man's life - as getting substance 'easy as buying bread'Sunak pledges 'immediate' and 'visible' justice to crack down on anti-social behaviour

News correspondent

We've been investigating nitrous oxide use for the last few months. In that time we've spoken to users, sellers, medics, police, politicians.

Everyone has different ideas about the risks associated with this gas. Users we spoke to last night outside a club said it is harmless, a bit of fun. It gives them a 30-second high, so what's the big deal? Medics paint a different picture. They see the ugly side of the party drug: young people who have lost feeling in fingers and toes, some with collapsed or burst lungs and one person who ended up in a wheelchair.

The government asked for advice and the body responsible for reviewing it acknowledged those risks but said they weren't high enough (pun not intended) to warrant a ban.

It recommended that nitrous oxide remain a psychoactive substance - legal to inhale, illegal to supply for recreational use. But the government says the anti-social behaviour associated with it is not a "minor crime". The levelling up secretary told Sky News today that nitrous oxide will be banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Michael Gove didn't specify how it will be classed but it's important to find this out because that explains how serious an offence it will be to take the drug.

Last night we lost count of how many people were streaming out of the club inhaling balloons. It's difficult to see how this will be policed.

It's important to remember there are plenty of legitimate uses for nitrous oxide, which can be used as an anaesthetic in medical and dental contexts and as a gas for whipped cream in cooking.

The scheme will be piloted in 10 areas before a rollout across England and Wales next year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce on Monday.

Labour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell backed the plans to ban laughing gas, telling Sophy Ridge: "I think we want to see it banned as well because I think it does cause a huge amount of littering of disruption and of anti-social behaviour challenges as well."

She said anti-social behaviour was "probably the number one issue" her constituents in Manchester raised with her on the doorstep.

"They feel that they don't have the police on the beat that they can turn to," she said, adding that Labour would bring in an extra 13,000 neighbourhood police officers if it wins power.

However, she said the government's overall anti-social behaviour plan "amounts to nothing".

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"Well, look we've heard it all before from this government and I think we have to judge them by their record and community sentencing over the last thirteen years is down not just by a third, but by two thirds," she told Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

"They scrapped the ASBO [Antisocial behaviour orders] regime that the last Labour government brought in and under their watch anti-social behaviour has got worse, sentencing has fallen immeasurably and we're seeing crimes going unsolved.

"So yes, we hear these sort of re-boots and another re-boot and another announcement to get the Sunday media attention, but I think it amounts to nothing."

In an update on Monday, a bin specially designed to take used cannisters in the Tower Hamlets area of London was found vandalised.

Nitrous oxide canisters cannot be put in normal landfill and are creating a problem for waste management sites.

The Toss Your Noss bin was founded by Michelle Lowe Holder, who said it was "very upsetting" that it had been damaged.