Yesterday, the UK government confirmed plans to ban nitrous oxide or NOS, and reschedule it as a Class C drug, ignoring the advice of the its own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).
The Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan reads:
We are banning nitrous oxide
We will ban nitrous oxide, also called laughing gas, putting an end to litter and intimidation in our parks so people feel safer.
This is despite the fact that the ACMD report noted that the health risks of nitrous oxide were “very low”, and banning NOS could increase harm and specifically stated:
There is no substantive evidence of links between nitrous oxide and anti-social behaviour. The responses also reported an evidence gap linking anti-social behaviour to nitrous oxide use and other drugs/ alcohol were considered more strongly associated with anti-social behaviour.
Watch the latest episode of Volteface TV below where Director Paul North speaks to the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform Secretariat (and Volteface alumni) Jay Jackson about the recent ban, why the government has made this decision, what this will mean in practice for people using NOS…
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