The Long History of Nitrous Oxide
13 comments
·April 16, 2025EncomLab
konfusinomicon
many years ago an old wizard once said to me in passing 'the gas brings you closer to god', and ever since i have been reminded many times that he was very wise in his knowledge of magic
analyte123
>While Hadland says it would take a lot of repeated heavy use of nitrous oxide to see these effects, over time such use could also cause permanent neurological issues.
This is not a could. Repeated abuse of nitrous, perhaps as little as daily use over 2 months, does cause neurological issues, including spinal cord damage and paralysis [1].
[1] https://sci-hub.ru/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31625167/
sxp
"Abuse" is such a vague term. For context, the amount is 100+ canisters/day
> Most patients also had psychiatric symptoms. Nearly every patient estimated using 100 or more canisters of nitrous oxide per day in the months before being seen. Four patients also reported engaging in B12 supplementation (both oral and parenteral), aiming to circumvent the harmful sequelae of prolonged nitrous oxide misuse.
analyte123
100 chargers is not an enormous amount. That’s two normal sized boxes and when each one gets you high for 20 seconds it’s not hard to understand how you can rip through a box. Not trying to be dramatic here, I don’t consider people doing a couple whippets at a festival a public health issue, but from a harm reduction perspective the difference between occasional bouts and regular use of nitrous is somewhat distinct compared to other drugs.
Trasmatta
There's a lot of really bad anecdotal horror stories about B12 problems from chronic NO2 use. You don't want it to happen to you. If you absolutely want to try N02, don't use it more than a couple times a month.
chuck8088
Sorry for the horribly off-topic post, but as a car enthusiast, nitrous used to be one of the cheapest ways to make your car faster. However, recent price fluctuations (and making sure nitrous is reserved for medical uses first), along with the advent of a market flooded with cheap turbos from China, have made nitrous not worth the investment.
One promising technology that may gain some traction is compressed air [https://casupercharging.com/]. It's still a forced induction method and relatively simple to install compared to procharging or supercharging. That said, forced air has some major drawbacks — a very large tank, for one.
nradov
There's no real need to reserve nitrous oxide for medical (including dental) use. It's not a scarce natural resource or anything and can be manufactured cheaply from commodity inputs. Medical use has been steadily declining due to concerns over side effects and availability of superior alternatives for anesthesia.
woleium
“There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.” Psychologist and philosopher William James, under the effects of nitrous oxide.
Trasmatta
I've had very similar thoughts to this while on nitrous oxide. In the moment it makes sense, but it's both very hard to describe, and very hard to retain post NO2.
AStonesThrow
You gotta imagine his voice is like a rich bass, two octaves below James Earl Jones
[Inhaling nitrous has a voice effect more or less opposite that of helium]
I should mention that I have taken to purchasing bottles of Heavy Whipping Cream, for recreational culinary purposes, i.e. I simply drink the stuff straight, as if it were a bottle of milk. Yum.
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drivebyhooting
I had hoped this was going to be about N2O as an oxidizer for rocketry.
As a kid growing up in the 80's and 90's in St. Louis - nitrous "whippets" were sold in every grocery and convenience store. I never considered myself a drug user when I was a teen - because every drug I enjoyed (nitrous, cough syrup, caffeine pills) were all legally available....unlike those dirty hippies and their marijuana!
It's been decades since I hit a balloon - but man those moments when I did were incredible.