The Scourge of Discarded Laughing Gas Cylinders Is no Laughing Matter
Since the gradual relaxation of the Covid-19 lockdown there have been numerous reports of anti-social behaviour (Spelthorne’s increase 47% but not as bad as Elmbridge’s 100%!) and a corresponding increase in littering, most notably discarded nitrous oxide ( N2O ) cylinders.
Apart from the offence of dropping litter the law on N2O use is quite plain: The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 intends to restrict the production, sale and supply of a new class of psychoactive substances often referred to as “legal highs”. The Act came into force across the entire United Kingdom in 2016 and defines a “psychoactive substance” as anything which “by stimulating or depressing the person’s central nervous system… Affects the person’s mental unctioning or emotional state”. The law bans all such substances but exempts alcohol, tobacco or nicotine based products, caffeine, food and drink, medicinal products and any drug that is already regulated under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Specifically, the Act makes it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances; that is, any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. The maximum sentence will be seven years’ imprisonment.
Nitrous oxide cylinders have legitimate uses, eg as whipped cream chargers; but the effects of abuse include suggestibility and imagination – often precursors to anti-social behaviour within groups.
The Association has written to our local MP (as this is a Borough-wide problem) asking whether proof of age might be introduced when purchasing N2O in the same way as currently applies to the sale of alcohol and tobacco products. Our enquiry has been “noted”.
As we go to print the Lendy Memorial in the Walled Garden has been boarded-up following the threat of “toppling” monuments which touch upon our colonial past. Please visit www.losra.org (entry for 17th June) to read Alan Doyle’s absorbing and authoritative history of the Lendy Memorial and make your views known in the public consultation.