Sale of laughing gas will be illegal under new legislation

You might be seeing less nitrous oxide canisters from now on, as the sale of laughing gas will be illegal as part of the government's legal highs crackdown.

The Home Office announced on Tuesday that new legislation will aim to shut down 250 legal high 'head shops' in the UK, and it's been confirmed that the sale of NOS balloons falls under the blanket ban.

Published today, the legislation makes the production, distribution and sales of new psychoactive substances illegal. However, you won't be liable to arrest for possession. The bill also covers "any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect," according to the Guardian.

Although Home Office policing minister Mike Penning said the new bill will "put an end to the game of cat and mouse in which new drugs appear on the market", Professor David Nutt doesn't agree with it.

"It will make no difference. People will just go back to cocaine and heroin. It is an extraordinarily simplistic and retrograde step. It won't reduce harms, it may well increase harms."

A bunch of festivals including Bestival, Glastonbury and We Are FSTVL banned legal highs last year after a government request.

[ Via: ITV and the Guardian]

[Photo: Richard Marsham]