Festival goers say lots of people are using it
Clean-up crews pictured disposing of empty laughing gas cannisters at Glastonbury Festival (Thursday, June 26).(Image: Kind-Perspective4051)
Clean-up crews at Glastonbury Festival have been disposing of piles of laughing gas cannisters this weekend. The discarded party drug containers were spotted in three heaps near the Crow’s Nest area of the festival site on Thursday, June 26.
Laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide or NOS, is banned at Glastonbury. The drug – which can make you feel very happy, dizzy, anxious, or paranoid – can cause people to suffocate in extreme cases. Drug awareness charity Talk to FRANK explain: “It is very dangerous to inhale nitrous oxide directly from the canister, and doing it in an enclosed space is also very dangerous.
“If you take too much nitrous oxide you risk falling unconscious and/or suffocating from the lack of oxygen. People have died this way.”
In 2022, the NHS issued a public health warning in response to the drug’s growing popularity. Dr Holger Allrogen, a consultant neurologist with the NHS, said: “We are increasingly worried about the risk of serious harm to the nervous system as a result of abusing nitrous oxide.
“It can affect both the spinal cord and the nerves in arms and legs resulting in loss of feeling, abnormal sensations, loss of motor function and therefore variable degrees of limb weakness right down to paralysis.”
Reacting to pictures of clean-up crews sorting through empty cannisters, one person lamented: “Putting the lameness aside, there are bins literally everywhere. Embarrassing.”
Festival-goers say they’ve seen and heard the use of laughing gas use. One camper chimed in: “We sat on the hill and counted the seconds between hearing a canister crack. The longest we went was 9 seconds [sic]”.
Another complained: “I had to leave because the balloon sound was so annoying”.
Are you festival ready?
Glastonbury weekend may finally be here, but there’s plenty of other festivals still to come this summer, from 2000 Trees in Cheltenham, to Camp Bestival in Lulworth, Dorset. Make sure you’ve got all your festival essentials packed and ready.
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One NHS worker shared their experience of the dark side of nitrous oxide: “I worked in a hospital that was ram raided for our entinox cylinders [sic]. The nhs picked up the bill and the patients were deprived of pain killing medication [sic].”
Another festival goer said: “I haven’t seen a single person take their nos canisters back with them yet just chucking them on the dancefloors.
“At least with other drugs they don’t become a massive trip hazard once finished on the dancefloor, I about rolled my ankle a few times at Glade yesterday on canisters.”
Some were just relieved that the cannisters are now easier to spot: “At least these big ones that are common now are easier to see and pick up than those little little metal ones. Those were terrible.”
However, one person spoke in defence of the party drug: “I presume you don’t hate everyone that drinks alcohol, just because drink drivers exist. Plenty of people in the world are doing NOS without raiding medical supplies or littering.”