Recreational drugs nitrous oxide

Use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug occurs in high degree among medical and dental students of whom 10% to 20% have reported experience with the drug. Nitrous oxide is also commercially available as small cartridges of gas used by restaurants to make whipped cream. These are known colloquially as whippets. Smaller volumes of nitrous oxide are found in whipped cream cans available in grocery stores. 

Davy s research was to make him famous, not because he performed dangerous experiments, but because he discovered a new recreational drug. In 1800 he published a 580-page book titled Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration in which he discussed his discovery of, and researches on, laughing gas. Describing its effects, Davy wrote ... 

The belladonna alkaloids are much more toxic than the indoles and phenethylamines. Furthermore, they are just plain dangerous, and the experiences they give are, at best, difficult to integrate with ordinary consciousness. Kava-kava seems to me more like alcohol than like the psychedelics, as does nitrous oxide, a general anesthetic with similar depressant qualities. PCP and ketamine are pharmacological curiosities, not related to other recreational drugs. Many users like the "dissociative" states they provide, but few find them truly psychedelic. Their toxicity and abuse potential are significant. 

General anesthetics arc powerful depressants used in surgery to make people insensible to pain. They arc gases or volatile liquids administered by inhalation through masks over the face or tubes in the throat. Most are never seen outside operating rooms, but a few have been popular recreational drugs in the past, and one nitrous oxide, or laughing gas — is still in common nonmedical use. 

Davy s hypothesis went untested for over 40 years. During the early decades of the 19 century, the medical community did not appreciate Davy s speculations about the possible anesthetic uses of nitrous oxide. Instead, nitrous oxide became a drug for recreational parties or capers where all the guests would inhale nitrous oxide. In the 1830s, nitrous oxide was a permanent exhibition to be shown, sniffed, and taken around for profit. For example, Samuel Colt, calling himself Dr. Coult, took nitrous oxide on the road to raise the money to patent his now-famous revolver. 

Massachusetts General Hospital in 1845. The first patient came out of anesthesia too soon, and Wells s discovery was not fully understood or appreciated. Wells continued his experiments with anesthetics and later became addicted to the anesthetic chloroform. Sadly, he committed suicide as a result of his chloroform addiction. Though nitrous oxide was not appreciated at its first public hospital demonstration, it is still widely used today as an anesthetic, particularly in combination with other volatile anesthetics during surgeries. Likewise, nitrous-oxide use as a recreational drug has continued from the early nitrous-oxide capers to the present day, with the use of whipping-cream-propellant whippets and nitrous-oxide balloons and canisters. 

People use ketamine as a recreational drug because it can produce a dreamy sensation similar to the high produced by nitrous oxide. In higher doses, ketamine has a hallucinogenic effect that can make the user feel separated from his or her body. Some people find the experience uplifting or even spiritual. Sometimes, ketamine makes users lose their sense of time and space and may even make them temporarily forget who they are. 

The public found other uses for the gas as well. During the Victorian period in England, members of the upper class often held laughing gas parties at which people gathered to inhale nitrous oxide as a recreational drug, rather than for any therapeutic purpose. In the United States, the showman... 

Nitrous oxide is safe to use in moderate amounts under controlled conditions. Some people use the compound as a recreational drug, however, hoping to get a high from inhaling it. One risk of this practice is that the inhalation of nitrous oxide may reduce the amount of oxygen a person receives. Also, some long-term health effects, such as anemia (low red blood cell count) and neuropathy (damage to the nerves), have been associated with excessive use of the compound. The use of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes is a crime in some states. 

Although Davy proposed the use of nitrous oxide, now sometimes known as laughing gas, in minor surgical operations, it achieved its first success as a recreational drug. Davy himself employed it in this capacity, though after being introduced to recreational drinking by... 

He even administered the gas to visitors to the institute, and after watching the amusing effects on people who inhaled it, coined the term laughing gas For the next 40 years or so, the primary use of NjO was for recreational enjoyment and public shows. The so-called nitrous oxide capers took place in traveling medicine shows and carnivals, where the public would pay a small price to inhale a minute s worth of the gas. People would laugh and act silly until the effect of the drug came to its abrupt end, when they would stand about in confusion. Many famous people (of their... 

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an anesthetic commonly used for dental procedures. Because of the euphoria caused by inhaling it, N2O is commonly known as laughing gas. It is licensed for use as a food additive and as an aerosol propellant. It is used to displace air from potato chip bags to extend shelf life and as the propellant in whipped cream canisters. In recent years N2O has become popular as a recreational drug, due in part to its ready availability to consumers. Although N2O is legal, it is regulated by the FDA its sale and distribution for the purpose of human consmnption are not permitted. 

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