'Hippy Crack'

[Jazzy]

The laughing gas 'craze' sweeping Britain is spiralling out of control - with one council seizing 1,200 cans of 'Hippy Crack' in just one night.

Videos of people using the legal high - including famous faces - are being widely shared on social media, fuelling a huge rise in the number of young people using the legal high.

Earlier this year, footage emerged of Premier League star Saido Berahino puffing the potentially deadly gas from a purple balloon before slumping at the wheel of his car.

As the West Brom Albion striker sits collapsed in his Range Rover a giggling pal asked: “Are you f***ed?”

Berahino isn’t the first Premier League footballer to be caught inhaling the gas. Last year the Sunday Mirror published a picture of England and Spurs ace Kyle Walker sucking nitrous oxide.

A new report estimates so-called Hippy Crack is now being used by almost half a million people across the country.

More must be done to raise awareness of the harmful effects of the legal high, council leaders have said after it emerged that officials are seizing "hauls" of cannisters from the streets of England and Wales.

It is "deeply disturbing" that people widely view nitrous oxide as a "safe" legal high, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.

The Association, which represents around 400 councils in England and Wales, said local authorities are seizing "hauls" of canisters.

Hackney Council in east London said that it confiscated more than 1,200 cannisters of the chemical on just one Saturday night in July outside the pubs and clubs in Shoreditch.

While inhaling nitrous oxide is not illegal, council officers seized the cannisters - used to fill balloons with the gas that are sold to users for around £5 - under unauthorised street trading regulations.

The LGA also raised concerns that a number of children inhaling the chemical have emerged on the internet, "glamorising" the drug.

It said that the chemical - which is regularly taken at nightspots, festivals and parties - has been linked to a number of deaths.

Abusing nitrous oxide can lead to oxygen deprivation resulting in loss of blood pressure, fainting and even heart attacks.

Full article

You thoughts on this craze?

 

[DrLeftover]

That's why the local supermarket WILL NOT sell whipped cream in a spray can to anybody under 18.

 

[TommyTooter]

you guys seem to be slow on the uptake. tanks of nitrous were ubiquitous at music festivals in the 90's but not so much any more.

 

[Jazzy]

you guys seem to be slow on the uptake. tanks of nitrous were ubiquitous at music festivals in the 90's but not so much any more.

Not according to this:

The laughing gas 'craze' sweeping Britain is spiralling out of control - with one council seizing 1,200 cans of 'Hippy Crack' in just one night.

 

[TommyTooter]

that's britain. it was like that in the US in the 90's, but i haven't seen it or heard about it much in recent years. the hippies are into designer drugs like ketamine and ecstasy these days if they're using more than weed and psychedelics.

 

[DrLeftover]

I'll see if I can find the article where kids were "huffing" whipped cream propellent in bags last year.

If I remember the story correctly, one of the kids had brain damage from it.

Searching now.

I'll update it if I find it.


This was from 2012, but the one from 13 isn't coming up.

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/960623/the-dangers-of-inhaling-nitrous-oxide


How about 2014?

Huffing suspected after parkway cleanup finds cans of whipped cream
Volunteers found more than 600 canisters last weekend
ROANOKE, Va. -
Mar 26, 2014

The volunteers who found hundreds of cans of whipped cream near the Blue Ridge Parkway last weekend might have been surprised, but not law enforcement officials who are familiar with the practice known as "huffing."

Volunteers collected more than 1000 pounds of trash in the Saturday cleanup organized by the The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The haul included more than 600 cans of whipped cream.

Huffing is the practice of inhaling intoxicants, including the compressed gas in canisters.

"It's not a surprise that people are self-medicating with whatever they can find," said Roanoke Police Chief Chris Perkins. "And that is what we have to address as a community."

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/huffing-suspected-after-parkway-cleanup-finds-cans-of-whipped-cream/25185736

 

[Combo]

I must be honest, I've tried this unaware of the dangers. If something is considered legal then you are going to assume it's safe. That's the mentality of most of us. I was unaware of the dangers until I did a little research.