Nitrous oxide: Recreational use of laughing gas banned in the UK

Published

1 year ago

November 8, 2023

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“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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Kemi Badenoch needs to pick her battles – and decide how dirty she wants to get

Published

13 hours ago

December 27, 2024

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Kemi Badenoch needs to pick her battles - and decide how dirty she wants to get

Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty. And besides, the pig likes it.

Looking at the festive ding-dong that’s broken out between Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, you do wonder if the Tory leader should take on board this famous quote – because there was only ever going to be one winner from this spat.

The Reform UK leader has spent the thick end of three decades dragging his political opponents into fights that ultimately benefit his cause. This is no different.

What would have been a relatively low-key Christmas stunt has been elevated into literal front page news.

Reform UK insiders say that, in turn, is driving more people to the party and pushing up their member count further.

Part of this is down to news editors grabbing on to any bit of politics that’s around during the quiet period between Christmas and New Year.

Why Badenoch and her team didn’t clock this and hold back will likely bewilder some in her party.

An argument the Tories should have swerved

What’s more, the Tory leader is also currently on the back foot regarding her central accusation that the Reform membership number is fake.

Reform agreed to show Sky News details of their account on NationBuilder – a platform that manages memberships and donations for many political parties.

The number of active memberships in the account portal matched the figure on the ticker – with their website count growing in size shortly after the NationBuilder tally increased.

Sky News also conducted its own analysis on the ticker and found nothing suspicious as it stands (read the full analysis here).

Kemi Badenoch has said Reform changed the coding when people began to point out the alleged discrepancy, but has yet to provide any evidence to back this up.

Either way, this is still an argument the Tories should probably have swerved.

All politicians need to pick their battles

Yes, signed-up members mean more income for a party, but they don’t necessarily translate into wider electoral success. After all, Labour’s membership surged under Jeremy Corbyn, but he still lost two elections.

But that’s not to say both main parties shouldn’t be looking very closely in their rearview mirror at Reform.

The party’s reaction to this row shows a far more professional behind-the-scenes operation than the previous, more ramshackle incarnations of the Farage-led political machine.

Talk to long time allies of the Reform leader, and even they sound somewhat surprised by how slick their project has got.

They also point to electoral milestones on the horizon where the party’s results at the ballot box can be objectively tracked – beginning with May’s local elections next year and running through the Welsh Assembly vote in 2026.

There’ll be many more attempts by Nigel Farage to wrestle with his political opponents before then.

The task for the Tory and indeed Labour leaders is to pick their fights and judge how dirty they are prepared to get.

UK

Nigel Farage threatens legal action if Kemi Badenoch doesn’t apologise for saying membership ticker was ‘fake’

Published

14 hours ago

December 27, 2024

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Nigel Farage threatens legal action if Kemi Badenoch doesn't apologise for saying membership ticker was 'fake'

Nigel Farage has threatened to take legal action against Tory leader Kemi Badenoch if she does not apologise for accusing him of publishing a “fake” ticker showing Reform UK’s membership increasing to overtake the Conservatives.

The Reform UK leader has reacted furiously to Ms Badenoch’s assertion that he was “manipulating [his] own supporters” with a ticker that is “coded to tick up automatically” after it showed the insurgent right-wing party had gone past 131,680 members – the number of eligible Conservative Party members in its leadership election in the autumn.

He is demanding an apology from Ms Badenoch for the “accusations of fraud and dishonesty” that he labelled “disgraceful”, and said he is “not going to take it lying down”.

Asked by Sky News in a call with journalists if he is going to sue the Tory leader for libel, Mr Farage said: “I’m going to take some action in the next couple of days. I’ve got to decide exactly what it is, but I’m certainly not going to take it lying down.”

“I think it’s an absolutely outrageous thing for her to have said,” he continued. “I know she’s got a very bad temper. I know she’s well known for lashing out at people, but I am not at all happy, and I’m going to take some action.”

He added that he will confirm within two days exactly what this action will be if she does not apologise for the “intemperate outburst”.

Analysis: Badenoch needs to pick her battles

Reform showed Sky News the coding used to link the ticker to the member count within their account on the platform NationBuilder. The demonstration provided strong evidence that the ticker was not automated. Scroll down for the full analysis.

A Tory source told Sky News: “Fake Farage is clearly rattled that his Boxing Day Publicity Stunt is facing serious questions over a fake clock and hundreds of ‘members’ seemingly joining in the middle of the night.

“Like most normal people around the UK, Kemi is enjoying Christmas with her family and looking forward to taking on the challenges of renewing the Conservative Party in the New Year.”

‘It’s a fake’

The row started after Reform UK said on Boxing Day that it officially had more members than the Conservative Party, which Mr Farage, party leader and MP for Clacton-on-Sea, hailed as a “historic moment”, describing his party as “the real opposition”.

Reform UK also shared a video of the membership tracker being projected on to the Conservative Party headquarters in London.

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the party of issuing misleading figures: “Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?. It’s not real. It’s a fake… [the website has been] coded to tick up automatically.”

Posting on X, she added that the Tories had “gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.

Reform UK hit back at Ms Badenoch, publishing a screenshot of an online register claiming to show “active memberships”.

Do Reform’s claims stack up?

Ben van der Merwe

Data journalist

@_bvdm

Some tickers are indeed “coded to tick up automatically”. This is often done when the data isn’t updated regularly and so, in the meantime, the counter is made to increase at realistic intervals.

Any ticker showing government debt, unemployment or global temperatures, for instance, is almost certainly going up at a regular, pre-programmed rate.

Sky News analysed Reform UK’s ticker to see if this was the case for their membership ticker.

Specifically, we looked at a video posted by Nigel Farage on X, which shows an uninterrupted view of the counter from 4pm on Christmas Day to 2pm on Boxing Day.

The chart above shows the number of new members added every 30 minutes during that 22-hour stretch.

What we can see is that it varies a lot – very few people join overnight, and there is a big surge from around 11am on Boxing Day.

This was around the time that it was first reported Reform UK had acquired more members than the Conservatives, which provided a burst of publicity to the party.

If the ticker was simply increasing automatically, we would expect a much flatter line.

Political parties in the UK aren’t required to reveal their membership numbers, much less provide data that can be independently verified.

However, Reform UK did show Sky News its account on Nation Builder, an independent platform widely used by political parties and campaigns to track and manage their memberships.

Sky News was able to verify that the number of memberships in Reform’s NationBuilder account matched the number presented on their on-site ticker.

The Conservative Party had 131,680 members as of the November leadership contest, while Labour had 366,604 members as of March 2024.

Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf also waded into the row, claiming that people whose memberships of the Tory party had lapsed voted in the autumn leadership election that saw Ms Badenoch elected to the role.

In a call with journalists earlier, he repeated the assertion, and after putting out a call on social media for people to contact him if they had voted in the leadership election but are no longer party members, he said he has received “just so many” that he has not yet been able to verify their claims.

Ms Badenoch and the Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.

Reform UK has said it will submit to an audit of its membership numbers by one of the “big four” accountancy firms if the Tories do the same.

Farage gets personal

Speaking to journalists earlier, Mr Farage was very critical of Ms Badenoch personally, saying her claim that their membership number ticker had been faked “reflects her personality”.

He labelled her “aggressive” and “liable to lashing out”, and said he thinks she wrote her tweet out of a “slight sense of anger”.

“She’s got to fully disprove this, and she’s going to find life a lot more difficult and bitterly regret putting this out on Boxing Day afternoon,” he added.

UK

Man charged with attempted murder after group hit by car in London’s West End on Christmas Day

Published

17 hours ago

December 27, 2024

admin

Man charged with attempted murder after group hit by car in London's West End on Christmas Day

A man has been charged with four counts of attempted murder after a car collided with a group of people in London’s West End on Christmas Day.

Anthony Gilheaney, 30, will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday and has also been charged with causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified, driving a motor vehicle dangerously and possession of a bladed article in a public place, the Metropolitan Police said.

Four people were taken to hospital after the incident, with one in a life-threatening condition.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to reports of a crash and a car driving on the wrong side of the road at 12.45am.

The incident occurred outside the Sondheim Theatre, which is the London home of the musical Les Miserables.

Shaftesbury Avenue is at the heart of London‘s West End and the city’s theatre district.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the suspect was arrested within minutes of the incident “in the early hours of Christmas Day”.

“Since then, investigators have worked tirelessly to build the case and have today charged Anthony Gilheaney with four counts of attempted murder.

“Our thoughts now are with the victims, one of which remains in critical condition in hospital.”

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