12 April 2024 , 06:00
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Reckless sellers are offering to deliver bottles of potentially fatal laughing gas within 20 minutes.
We discovered the callous trade after an inquest heard how Ellen Mercer, 24, perished following nitrous oxide binges. Student Ellen had abused 600g bottles, equivalent to 75 of the usual 8g canisters, after ordering them online.
Ellen's death was related to “long-term complications of nitrous oxide use,” the coroner said at her inquest. Ellen, 24, told her boyfriend not to call an ambulance as it “kills her buzz” when she began suffering leg and back pain. She was left unable to walk or go to the toilet for two weeks, Berkshire coroner’s court was told.
Now the Mirror can reveal brazen dealers on social media offer 24/7 services delivering huge nitrous oxide canisters, some with vape-style flavours. Possessing laughing gas to get high became a crime last year, and the substance was made a Class C drug.
The dangerous gas is targeting adverts at young people online, The Mirror can reveal (INSTAGRAM /)But traders get around the law by claiming they sell it for use by the catering industry. Many canisters carry the phrase “not for human consumption”. We found traders using Instagram accounts to sell the gas in London, Manchester and across the UK.
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One, under the moniker Mr Whippy, vowed to deliver from 10am to 1am weekdays, and until 4am on weekends. Punters are brazenly told they can buy one big bottle, known as a “Whip” for £20 and two for £30. Whip refers to the drug’s legitimate legal use for whipping cream.
Another trader in Manchester is offering “20 min drops” with “Free and Fast Delivery”. The sales make a mockery of legal bids to stop it being sold as a party drug. Last night Dr Niall Campbell, lead addiction consultant at The Priory Roehampton, was horrified at our findings.
He said: “I’m alarmed that it is so easily accessible and the risk and danger it poses. I’m alarmed at the number of people who really, really like it who end up alone, addicted.” One treated by his service used 18 canisters a day.
Some of the adverts also offer '24/7 free delivery' of the dangerous substance (INSTAGRAM /)And another was admitted after her mother found her lying in bed sucking on a giant canister “like a baby’s bottle”. “We see significant numbers of these people,” Dr Campbell added. “It can lead to psychosis, delusional side effects and physical problems.”
Nitrous oxide, sold in metal canisters, is known as NOS and was at one point one of the most-used drugs by UK 16 to 24-year-olds. Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals, said they had seen a drop in patients since last summer.
But he feared people were not reporting the use of nitrous oxide because they feared a criminal record. The new laws were not in place when tragic Ellen, of Gerrards Cross, Bucks, fell into a spiral of addiction. Her boyfriend said she would inhale the gas until she passed out. Her inquest in Reading heard she was taken to hospital in February last year after falling over but could not be saved.
A Meta spokesperson said: “It’s against our rules for people to buy, sell, trade, donate or solicit drugs on our platforms and we have removed the violating content brought to our attention.”