Nitrous oxide: Recreational use of laughing gas banned in the UK
“Three for a tenner,” a man sings outside a south London nightclub. He’s not selling anything but he’s mimicking sellers of nitrous oxide balloons.
“Three for a tenner, we shot them all day long,” he giggles as he walks into a small crowd at the bus stop.
It’s not even 10pm on the last Saturday before the personal use of laughing gas is banned but these revellers are on their way home.
“I haven’t done it for years,” a woman says as she sits on a wall to rest her legs.
“Fully, fully welcome the ban,” says another woman before a man chimes in: “It’s not heroin, it’s not crack, it’s balloons – come on.”
“Ban it,” someone else shouts out. “Ban it, ban it. That’s the one thing I agree that the government can do.”
There are mixed reactions to the ban on recreational use of nitrous oxide which comes into place today.
Anyone using it to get high could face up to two years in prison, while sellers see potential sentences increased from seven to 14 years.
The new law follows two government-led reviews that declared the substance wasn’t dangerous enough to merit a ban.
Laughing gas health risks
Nitrous oxide is used legitimately by the catering industry to whip up cream and as pain relief by doctors and dentists. Until this week, it was also widely touted as a party drug on the streets outside clubs and bars, attracting users of all ages.
Those who have experience of the party drug point to its numerous health risks.
It gives users a 90-second high but repeated misuse can lead to nerve damage, loss of eyesight and other health issues.
It is the second-most misused drug by 18 to 24 year olds across the country.
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Laughing gas misuse to be banned
The government’s ban, however, comes under plans to tackle anti-social behaviour and littering. Piles of discarded canisters litter the streets and have reportedly caused road accidents as drivers and cyclists swerve to avoid hitting them.
In announcing the ban in September, the home secretary had said “yobs” were abusing public spaces and “leaving a disgraceful mess for others to clean up”.
Critics say the government has rushed through legislation to score political points ahead of an election year.
Leading neurologist in nitrous oxide abuse, Dr David Nicholl, said: “I am really worried that criminalisation of users will prevent people suffering from side effects from seeking health advice.
“This is already a very disenfranchised community, they are very hesitant to speak to doctors, so they may be even more reluctant knowing that use is illegal.”
He said the feeling among medical professionals is that nitrous oxide should have been dealt with as a public health issue not an opportunity to criminalise youths.
Read more:
What is nitrous oxide?
How laughing gas addiction ‘messed up’ man’s life
Misuse of party drug laughing gas ‘is no joke’ – neurologist
Dal Babu, former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, says it will be a nightmare to police.
“It’s going to be difficult for police to prove that a person is using it for recreational purposes,” he told Sky News.
“It doesn’t stay in your body for very long. It’s not like cannabis or cocaine where you can do a test and find out if the drug is in a person’s body,” Mr Babu said.
Licences will not be required to carry nitrous oxide, but individual users will need to demonstrate they are lawfully in possession of it and not intending to wrongfully inhale it.
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Laughing gas on sale illegally
UK follows Netherlands lead
In banning the party drug, the UK follows the Netherlands which, in January, became the first country in the world to outlaw personal use of nitrous oxide after recording 1,800 car accidents over three years, resulting in 63 deaths.
The Dutch health minister who led the campaign to ban it told Sky News success comes from combining the ban with a preceding public education campaign.
“After 2018 we started with some preventative measures. These were targeted at schools, for example, and to youngsters using nitrous oxide,” said Marten van Ooijen, Netherlands state secretary for health.
“We also advised that a ban on the recreational use of nitrous oxide was to follow.
“While we don’t know exactly how much it’s worked so far, what we’ve seen from 2018 until now is that the use of nitrous oxide has declined. For example, in 2018, 13% of youngsters were using nitrous oxide, but in 2022 that declined to 5%.”
Sky News has been told that the Dutch ban has led to the creation of an underground laughing gas industry and an even bigger litter problem.
Many have stopped disposing spent canisters safely and instead throw them out with household waste, causing explosions and damage to waste management sites.
Last month the UK’s policing minister Chris Philp appeared unprepared when Sky News asked him what plans were in place for police dealing with confiscated canisters.
Mr Philp pointed to the 13 tonnes of canisters collected by Kensington and Chelsea borough after the Notting Hill Carnival and admitted he had no idea how the council disposed of them.
Laughing gas canisters collected after the Notting Hill Carnival
The ban means street sellers and laughing gas hospitalisations could disappear, but the evidence of whether the government’s ban is working will be in plain sight for everyone to see – discarded canisters on the streets could be a telling sign.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed: Former royal security head says he warned Royal Family before Diana went on holiday with businessman
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The former Harrods owner, who died last year at the age of 94, was described as a “monster” earlier this week by lawyers representing 37 alleged sexual abuse victims.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
Princess Diana on the quay of the residence of Mohamed al Fayed in Saint Tropez on 20 July 1997. File pic: AP
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
Mohamed al Fayed during a match at Craven Cottage stadium in 2013: File pic: PA
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Princess Diana, Prince William (right) and Prince Harry (left) in Saint Tropez on 14 July 1997. File pic: AP
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has said it is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
Mohamed al Fayed waves a Fulham scarf in front of supporters in 2012. Pic: Reuters
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
Read more from Sky News:
Body found in search for missing TV chaplain
Four arrested after ‘concerns’ about prison staff conduct
Woman, 70, admits causing death of baby girl
‘The door was locked behind me’
A former Harrods employee told Sky News she was summoned to Fayed’s apartment when she began working for the department store at 19 years old.
She was told the meeting was a “job review” before “the door was locked behind me”.
“I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view,” she said.
“I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself onto me.”
Read more: ‘One of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation’
Harrods said in a statement on Thursday it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
Allen is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
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