Nitrous oxide: Possession of laughing gas to be criminal offence

[Nearly Sane]

This, and the smell of cannabis for Keir Starmer, are the big bads?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65079772

[SqueakyVoice]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64869760

... the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said nitrous oxide should not be banned ...

Yet again, the Tories aren't following science, they're dragging it along into their prejudices.
...and that's Michael Gove the 'level up' Minister.
LOOK! A SQUIRREL!

[Nearly Sane]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64869760Yet again, the Tories aren't following science, they're dragging it along into their prejudices.
...and that's Michael Gove the 'level up' Minister.

Gove who has no experience of party pharmaceuticals, nope, none at all, no sirree.

[Udayana]

Probably think they are beating ... inflation !?

[SteveH]

In general, I don't think any drug which is currently legal should be outlawed: if it's not been outlawed already, it can't be that harmful, and outlawing it will just play straight into the illegal dealers' hands, who have a vested interest in getting their customers on to hard drugs (and that's why cannabis should be legalised).

[Harrowby Hall]

In general, I don't think any drug which is currently legal should be outlawed: if it's not been outlawed already, it can't be that harmful, and outlawing it will just play straight into the illegal dealers' hands, who have a vested interest in getting their customers on to hard drugs (and that's why cannabis should be legalised).

Nitrous oxide is a neurotoxin and its use can cause permanent nerve damage.

[jeremyp]

In general, I don't think any drug which is currently legal should be outlawed: if it's not been outlawed already, it can't be that harmful,

You mean like alcohol and tobacco?

 

and outlawing it will just play straight into the illegal dealers' hands, who have a vested interest in getting their customers on to hard drugs (and that's why cannabis should be legalised).

I would say that, with any drug, there is a balance between the harms caused by making it easily available and the harms caused by making it illegal and that the balance could be different in each case.

That said, the big advantage of legal drugs is that they are much easier to study to determine how dangerous they are. I'm pretty sure that cannabis is dangerous but we still don't really know how dangerous due to the legal difficulties of studying it.