The UK government has announced laughing gas is illegal
According to officials, a ban on laughing gas by the UK government will not prevent people from using it and will move it into criminal hands.
The government has supported its plans to stop anti-social behaviour, including possessing nitrous oxide as a crime.
UK government makes laughing gas illegal in the country:
The Drug Science Scientific Committee states a blanket outlawing “is totally disproportionate” and “would probably deliver more harm than good”. The £160m project will also manage homelessness, begging and graffiti.
Revealing his plans to prevent anti-social behaviour on Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak highlighted that there was a requirement for a “zero-tolerance” policy and emphasised the significance of “immediate justice.”
Talking at a boxing club in Chelmsford, Essex, Mr Sunak said he wanted to counter a small group of people who were being disruptive. He assured the government’s perspective on laughing gas, saying it would stop the “scourge” of drugs.
The decision goes against the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommendation, which recently told nitrous oxide should not be barred under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Nitrous oxide, vended in metal containers, is known as NOS and is one of the most-used narcotics by the UK 16 to 24-year-olds.
David Badcock, from the Drug Science Scientific Committee, stated he was “disappointed” at the proposed prohibition, and the government was “going totally against its advisory panel”.
“What’s the sense in the ACMD when the very best scientists and professionals have looked at the proof and suggested what to do, and they ignore it?
“It won’t prevent young people using it; barring any substance just moves it into criminal things, and the inherent dangers associated with the black market come into the role; I don’t think it will stop people doing it”, he told the PA news panel.
Steve Rolles, the senior policy critic at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said outlawing nitrous oxide would “hand power of the product to criminal teams”.
