A Tower Hamlets councillor has appealed to the Home Secretary to help in tackling Nitrous Oxide misuse in the borough.

Councillor Ohid Ahmed, who represents Landsbury Ward for the majority Aspire party, wrote to Home Secretary Suella Braverman last month asking the government to take a “tough stance” on Nitrous Oxide misuse.

Ahmed told ELL: “The scale of the problem is so high and the legislation that was in place is too lax. People were using this knowing nothing was going to happen”.  Ahmed added that he had noticed the scale of the problem around Tower Hamlets personally.

Nitrous Oxide, also called NOX or, commonly, laughing gas, is a psychoactive substance, meaning it affects the way the user experiences the world as well as their senses and memories. Its most common proper use is as a medical anaesthetic. It can be bought from some shops, but also online.

On January 26 national news media reported that a ban on direct sales of Nitrous Oxide was on the way, but this has not been confirmed by government. 

Ahmed said in his letter that Nitrous Oxide was especially dangerous to young people, adding that the Royal London Hospital’s paediatric team had seen 30 cases related to it in the last year.

The letter follows sustained efforts by the borough to stop the use and distribution of the psychoactive substance. 

In May 2021 Tower Hamlets introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order to counter the use of psychoactive substances. This made using Nitrous Oxide in public an offence punishable by a £100 penalty notice or £1,000 fine if prosecuted at court.

During the Mayor’s Questions in September 2022, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan highlighted Tower Hamlet’s involvement in Project ADDER, a trial initiative to stop the trade of illicit substances. 

This involvement includes intervention in schools and investigation into shops suspected of selling Nitrous Oxide canisters to young people.

Enforcement is made difficult by the fact that Nitrous Oxide is not illegal to possess, though it is illegal to sell for the purposes of recreational psychoactive use. It’s not classified as a drug, either – this would attach a prison sentence to its use or distribution. 

FRANK, the UK’s online drug information service, lists the risks of laughing gas consumption as fainting, loss of consciousness, and suffocation. 

Ahmed said he is “quite hopeful” that the government will introduce legislation to stop the use of Nitrous Oxide.