Hippie Crack: The Highs & Lows of Nitrous Oxide

How laughing gas evolved from a 19th-century high society indulgence to a rave culture staple.

Jun 14, 2024

One breath of this stuff can turn you into “David After the Dentist” — but only for a minute or so.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a powerful dissociative that disconnects your mind from your body. Strong doses make you feel like you’re somewhere else entirely and can warp your perception of time, space, and consciousness.

But the high from nitrous is extremely short-lived — within 2 minutes of exhaling the gas, you’re completely back to normal.

The N2O experience is also profoundly euphoric — users often burst into uncontrollable laughter. They’re unable to make sense of the situation they find themselves in, yet too blissful and euphoric to do anything but simply laugh about it.

This is how nitrous oxide earned its common name, “laughing gas.”

Nitrous serves as a powerful anesthetic and painkiller. Surgeons, dentists, and paramedics are especially fond of it. It’s relatively easy to manufacture (and therefore cheap to buy), has a high margin of safety, and its effects kick in immediately.

Out of Body & Out of Mind: The Dissociate Experience

Dissociative drugs decouple our conscious experience from our physical body. It’s one of the most bizarre and trippy experiences imaginable.

Some users experience being in the room with themselves but existing somewhere else. Sometimes, they can move and control their body; other times, the body movement they perceive happens outside of conscious control.

Another common experience is the feeling of teleporting to other dimensions or places. Sometimes, it’s a place they’re familiar with; other times, it’s completely unrecognizable.

Some people even lose all recollection of their identity until the effects of the drug wear off. This sensation is similar to, but distinct from, ego dissolution brought on by classical psychedelics.

Others report feeling as though they’re falling endlessly into blackness, floating outside of the confines of time itself or merging with the universe.

The effects of nitrous oxide are similar to that of other dissociative drugs like ketamine, PCP (phencyclidine), or DXM (dextromethorphan) — albeit significantly stronger. The only drug that hits harder and more euphorically than nitrous oxide is xenon gas — an elemental considered by some to be the metaphorical “breath of god.”

Most dissociative drugs work by blocking the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors in the brain. These receptors respond to the neurotransmitter glutamate, which is the most abundant chemical messenger in the brain. NMDA is responsible for regulating many of our higher cognitive functions — including things like perception, memory, neuroplasticity, and consciousness.

Despite how trippy and (sometimes) disturbing the visuals of the dissociative experience can be — most users are blanketed in a zen-like state of euphoria and bliss. They feel no fear, no grief, and no discomfort.

This “euphoric nothingness" brought on by strong dissociative psychedelics is closely associated with the healing power of related drugs like ketamine. When used with proper intention, preparation, and integration, this dissociated, zen-like state is considered a major boon for ketamine’s antidepressant effects.

It’s like a hard reset for your mind — you can view yourself from a distance without bias or judgment. As you come back to your body, you can take these observations with you and, in theory, apply them to your life to improve your mental health and feel more balanced and content.

This concept is especially relevant in shadow work — which is the practice of identifying and integrating the rejected and suppressed aspects of ourselves in order to remove their unconscious influence over our lives.

Unfortunately, nitrous oxide has a tendency to erase memories of the experience, so most of the benefits that stem from these euphoric states are lost the moment you come back to reality. Nitrous oxide is not useful for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy the way other chemical dissociatives like ketamine are.

The experience is also nothing like the ego death or mystical experiences associated with other psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, or LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).

With classical psychedelics, the ego-death experience is one of the most powerful and life-changing qualities about them. With whippits, feelings of ego death are just a trippy and temporary illusion. Once it’s over, the only way to get the feeling back again is to take another hit.

Laughing Gas & Pain Relief (Analgesia)

Many years ago, while I was doing a practicum for my EMT training, we encountered a patient suffering two broken femurs after surviving a serious car accident.

His pain was severe, so the best thing we had available to ease his torture as quickly as possible was laughing gas. Within 10 seconds of hooking him up to the tank, his cries of pain transitioned into ecstatic, uncontrollable laughter.

This man’s broken legs continued to sound the alarm and send pain signals of the highest order to his brain — but instead of perceiving these signals as pain, nitrous oxide jumbled the connections and turned them into something else. Instead of agony, his mind perceived intense euphoria. His only response was to laugh uncontrollably.

This effect is just one of the many ways laughing gas and other dissociative drugs work so well for managing pain in emergency settings or preventing pain during surgery. It’s used in this capacity for managing pain during labor, cosmetic surgery and dental procedures, and much more.

Nitrous Oxide's Recreational Renaissance

It’s no surprise nitrous oxide is so popular as a recreational drug. Few substances offer comparable potency to nitrous oxide for the price. A typical user will spend about 30 cents per hit using the standard 8-gram cartridges (varies by region and availability). Larger 2 kg tanks bring the cost down even further.

N2O is also remarkably short-lived — meaning users can take a hit, trip out, and get back to normal just a few minutes later.

This drug has been used recreationally for hundreds of years. Laughing gas parties were hosted in Great Britain all the way back in the early 1800s among the upper class and bohemians. It’s a practice that continues to this day at house parties and raves around the world.

While nitrous oxide has always been popular, its use has been exploding over the past 20 years. A systematic review of N2O consumption trends found the drug is most popular among men between the ages of 18 and 29.

Another study found the most frequent places people use N2O are house parties (83%), festivals (74%), or at home alone or with a small group of friends (50%).

Most recreational users take less than 10 balloons of nitrous per session, with about 80% using it less than 10 times per year. Only a small portion of users become addicted.

N2O is used all over the world but is most prevalent in the UK and the US. Countries like Australia, the Netherlands, and China aren’t far behind.

In the Netherlands, reports show a dramatic shift away from using standard 8g cartridges to large 2 kg tanks, and N2O-related traffic incidents rose from about 130 in 2017 to 960 in 2019.

Watch this man in the Netherlands who continues to huff from his N2O tank after crashing his car into the water.

While nitrous oxide itself is not addictive (in the sense that it doesn’t lead to tolerance or dependency), its short-lived effects have users coming back for repeated doses over and over again to maintain the effects (more on this later). Any action (drug-related or not) that follows this pattern has a tendency to become addictive.

Laughing Gas Legalities

Nitrous oxide is legal in most parts of the world, including Canada, the United States, and most European countries.

The only exception within the US is the state of California, which recently made the sale of N2O for recreational use a criminal offense (California Penal Code 381b).

N2O abuse is very prevalent in the UK. In 2016, the UK government made the sale of N2O for recreational purposes illegal, with a maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment — as per the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. Nitrous oxide remains legal for culinary and medical use in the UK.

The Dangers of Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous is generally considered safe, and the gas itself is non-toxic. This is why it’s so popular in medical practice — the effects are consistent from person to person, don’t interact with most medications, and leave little, if any, lasting side effects.

All of this changes when the drug is abused. The main long-term side effect is vitamin B12 deficiency, and the main risks are asphyxiation and lung damage caused by contact with the freezing liquid inside canisters.

Video: Hitting N2O While Smoking (Bad Idea)

Asphyxiation

The most concerning risk of N2O is asphyxiation. The gas displaces oxygen and can cause users to suffocate if they inhale too much for too long. This is a major risk if using N2O from a respirator that doesn’t also administer supplemental oxygen. In a hospital, N2O is diluted with pure oxygen to prevent this from happening, and the vital signs of patients are monitored closely by professionals. These safeguards are rarely applied among recreational users.

While deaths are uncommon from using N2O by itself, there have been accounts of people dying from asphyxiation after taking very high doses. The risk of death increases substantially when using this substance alone.

Impurities & Toxic Ingredients

Industrial and culinary N2O tanks are not meant for human consumption — as such, they often contain impurities, such as manufacturing lubricants, noxious gases, solvents, and metal particulates. These can all seriously damage the lungs, especially with repetitive use.

Lung Injury & Frostbite

Nitrous oxide usually comes in liquid form inside a pressurized canister. Once the gas is released, it quickly expands into a gas. Huffing N2O directly from the canister can cause the alveoli in the lungs to expand too quickly and tear.

Additionally, the gas is very cold when it first leaves the canister — cold enough to cause injuries resembling frostbite to the lips, tongue, throat, and lungs.

The best way to prevent both of these issues is to first fill the nitrous oxide into a balloon, allowing it to heat up and expand, and then huff the gas from the balloon.

Never huff nitrous oxide directly from a canister.

Addiction

Nitrous oxide isn’t inherently addictive the way other drugs, like heroin or cocaine, are — but it can be habit-forming.

All dissociatives carry some risk of addiction. Some people crave the feelings of separation from the body, even if the experience is otherwise negative (as is the case with some dissociatives like PCP or DXM).

N2O can easily become habit-forming because of how short-lived the effects are.

Each trip lasts an average of just 1 to 3 minutes, so users can easily go through several cylinders in a sitting. The threshold for use is also much lower. Users can inhale N2O at any point in the day because they know they’ll be back to normal in just a few minutes — such as on a break from work or in between classes.

Studies have found that people addicted to N2O often consume upwards of 300 canisters per week or between 40–60 per day.

The more often you use N2O, the more likely you are to crave it. While N2O addiction isn’t common, people who are hooked on it have just as difficult a time going without it as any other addictive or habit-forming substance.

As with any drug (natural or not), excessive use of nitrous can lead to a long list of side effects — despite the gas itself being relatively non-toxic.

Long-term use of N2O has been associated with the following side effects:

Vitamin B12 deficiency
Anemia & hemopoiesis (poor blood production as a result of B12 deficiency)
Tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears)
Neuropathy (nerve damage)
Tingling or numbness in the extremities
Reduced lung capacity
Dizziness & lightheadedness (which can result in physical injury from falling over)
Chronic cough (due to lung damage)
Spinal cord degeneration (also from B12 deficiency)

How Does Nitrous Oxide Work?

Nitrous oxide blocks the NMDA receptors in the brain — interfering with the communication channels between different regions.

Specifically, N2O binds to the glycine receptor sites on the NMDA receptor, preventing the ion channel from opening. This stops chemical messages from traveling through the neuron and cascading to other areas of the brain.

N2O also increases dopaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens. This is an effect not found in xenon gas and one of the reasons some researchers believe xenon is less addictive than nitrous oxide.

The pharmacological effects of nitrous oxide include:

NMDA receptor antagonist (strong)
Dopaminergic (moderate)
AMPA antagonist (weak)
Kainate antagonist (weak)
5-HT3 (serotonin) receptor antagonist (weak)
GABA C antagonist (weak)
GABA A agonist (weak)

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