By Mary Ward
A push from doctors to limit purchase of nitrous oxide bulbs, known as nangs, for recreational drug use has received support from an unlikely source: Legalise Cannabis Australia is planning to champion the issue in its first weeks in NSW Parliament.
Jeremy Buckingham, the party’s first Legislative Council member, has written to NSW Health Minister Ryan Park asking to discuss limiting the hours bulbs can be sold, as well as caps on the number of bulbs in a sale.
He intends to move a motion calling a review of current regulation in the state’s upper house this month.
Legalise Cannabis Australia’s Jeremy Buckingham is seeking a crackdown on nangs. Credit: Jessica Hromas
While NSW laws prohibit the sale of nitrous oxide to someone a person suspects will inhale it, the plethora of 24/7 nang delivery services operating in Sydney, as reported by this masthead last year, suggest the rules are not strictly enforced.
Western Australia has prohibited the sale of nangs to under-16s since last September, while South Australia has banned sales between 10pm and 5am since 2019.
“Our position on recreational drugs is that they should be made safer, and they should be properly regulated,” Buckingham said.
“Every drug is a different case. We think, in terms of cannabis, we are looking to deregulate in that area because it is a completely illicit substance. But with these nangs: there is no regulation at all.”
Nitrous oxide bulbs are used to aerate cream and other food, but have gained popularity as a party drug, with the gas usually inhaled through a balloon. Excessive inhalation can lead to irreversible nerve damage.
Nang delivery businesses advertise on Instagram and TikTok, as well as through websites easily found through a Google search.
One price list advertises a box of 2000 nangs for $750, with delivery promised within 30 minutes any time of the day or night.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requires cartridges to carry the warning label “do not inhale”, a change made in 2022 following consultations about regulating the drug. The regulator has said it would consider imposing further restrictions in future “should sufficient evidence come to light to show that it is necessary to do so”.
Buckingham said the 24/7 market, where delivery companies sold large quantities of bulbs alongside balloons, indicated they were clearly selling to people inhaling the gas.
“If you’re selling wholesale to a caterer or a restaurant you may need to sell such large volumes, but you certainly shouldn’t be selling thousands of these bulbs to an individual. I don’t really think anyone needs to be having 2000 nitrous oxide bulbs delivered to their home on a Friday night,” he said.
Park said use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug could be raised at Labor’s drug summit, which the party promised to hold in its first term of government despite concerns from the legal fraternity it would push back implementation of the former government’s already long-delayed response to the ice (methamphetamine) inquiry.
“The drug summit will provide an opportunity to examine the impact of substances not covered by [the ice inquiry], such as volatile substances, including nitrous oxide,” Park said.
Last year, UNSW’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) called for tighter restrictions and better education about the harms of inhaling nitrous oxide, citing similar concerns about the availability of bulbs in large quantities.
NDARC’s Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System showed nang use increased from about a quarter of regular users of other drugs in 2015 to half of this cohort in 2022, but little is known about use among the general population.
Dr Nicole Lee, from Curtin University’s National Drug Research Institute, said some restriction on the sale of nangs, particularly for young people, would be useful but any change to current rules would need to be measured.
“When we restrict things, by banning them, people either just move onto more dangerous drugs or a black market pops up and we’ve got no control over it,” she said.
“On the other hand my view is that we do need restriction, particularly for young people, to make sure that they are able to make good choices.”
Lee said she doubted the TGA’s labelling rule was having much of an impact on excessive use. She was more optimistic about restrictions on sale, particularly targeting use by young people such as those in Western Australia.
“We haven’t tried these kinds of approaches before, but they’re not outrageous restrictions. We will need to watch and see,” she said.