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Federal
Law
Nitrous
Oxide is not a scheduled substance under federal law.
Below
are the states which currently have laws that prohibit the recreational inhalation of
Nitrous Oxide. There are likely other states with similar laws.
State
Law
Death/Injury
Stats
These are for inhalants in general. Not specific to N20
Trends
in Adolescent Inhalant Admissions
http://www.health.org/govstudy/shortreports/inhalTX/default.htm
The number of adolescent admissions to publicly funded substance abuse
treatment facilities increased from 109,000 in 1994 to 131,000 in 1999
(data not shown). During that period, the number and proportion of
adolescent admissions associated with inhalant abuse declined from
4,731 (4 percent) in 1994 to 2,091 (2 percent) in 1999.
(bold mine)
Famous
N2O Users
The
original list was published in 'The book of lists' by Wallechinsky et
al. (It also lists famous people using cocaine, hash, morphine, LSD,
mescaline heroine and opium.)
Thomas
Wedgwood, 1771-1805, English Physicist
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, English Poet
Robert Southey, 1774-1843, English Poet
Humphrey Davy, 1778-1829, English Chemist
Peter Mark Roget, 1779-1889, Author of 'Roget's Thesaurus'
Samuel Colt, 1814-1862, American Inventor of the Colt .45 revolver
William James, 1842-1910, American Philosopher
Theodore Dreiser, 1871-1945, American Writer and Journalist
Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, English Politician (...)
Peter Ouspenski, 1878-1947, Russian disciple of Gudjieff
Allen Grinsberg, 1926-, American Poet
Gregori Corso, 1930-, American Poet
Ken Kesey, 1965-, American Writer
William
James and N20
In
1882 he first described his experiments with the drug;
in 1898 he published an article titled "Consciousness Under
Nitrous Oxide" in the
Psychological Review ; in 1902 he recounted the experience in
his greatest work, The Varieties of Religious Experience ; and
in 1910, in the last essay he completed, he implied that nitrous oxide
had had an abiding influence on his thinking.
http://www.theatlantic.com//issues/96may/nitrous/nitrous.htm
: The
Nitrous Oxide Philosopher (The Atlantic Monthly May
1996).
http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/People/james.html
: links to works and letters of James.
http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/Drugs/N2O/jamesn2o.html
: The
Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide by William James.
http://www.theatlantic.com//issues/96may/nitrous/wmjgist.htm
: William
James reviews "The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of
Philosophy."
Comprehensive
Web Site
on Wm. James http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/james.html
Some
Additional References—still need to go through these
http://www.resort.com/~banshee/Info/N2O/N2O.html
FROM
CHOCOLATE TO MORPHINE: Andrew Weil & Winifred Rosen. Make sure you
get
the 1993 edition.
A
PRIMER OF DRUG ACTION: Robert M. Julien.
Pulsson
(1979) "Recreational" misuse of nitrous oxide,
J.
Am Dent. Soc. 98:410-411
Sahenk
et al.(1978) "Polyneuropathy from inhalation of N2O cartridges
through
a whipped cream dispenser" Neurology 28:485-487.
From:
Stacey et.al (1992) " Methionine in the treatment of nitrous
oxide
induced
neuropathy and myeloneuropathy" Journal of Neurology 239:401-403.
Annals
of Internal Medicine, Vol 96, 3,Mar 1982,pp333-334:Home made Nitrous
Oxide: No laughing matter.
Gillman,
M.A. Nitrous oxide abuse in perspective
Clinical
Neuropharmacol. 1992, 15:297-306
Dohrn,
C.S., Lichtor, J.L., Finn, R.S., Uitvlugt, A., Coalson, D.W.,
Rupani,
G., de Wit, H. and Zacny, J.P. Subjective and psychomotor
effects
of nitrous oxide in healthy volunteers Behavioural Pharmacology
1992,3:19-30
1.
Barker, George T. Instructions in the preparation, administration, and properties
of nitrous oxide, protoxide of nitrogen, or laughing gas.
3rd ed. [Philadelphia] Rubencame and Barker, 1870.
UCSF Library
RD86.N7 B2 1870 Books
2.
DISSERTATION. Barton, William Paul Crillon, 1786-1856. A dissertation on the chymical properties and exhilerating
effects of nitrous oxide gas; and its application to pneumatick medicine
... Philadelphia, Printed for the author, at the Lorenzo Press,
1808. UCD HealthSci
micro film 200 reel 6 no.144 Microform. UCSF Library
micro- film 658 History Media.
3.
Bourne, James Gerald. Nitrous oxide in dentistry : its danger and alternatives / J.
G. Bourne. Chicago : Year Book Publishers, 1960. UCSF Library
RK512.N55 B67 1960 Books
4.
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829. Researches, chemical and philosophical; chiefly concerning
nitrous oxide, or dephlogisticated nitrous air, and its respiration, by
Humphry Davy ... London, Printed for J. Johnson by Briggs and Cottle, 1800.
UCLA Biomed
WZ 260 D268r 1800 Rare Library has: Library's copy has duplicate p.541-542 after p.580
5.
Eastwood, Douglas W. Nitrous oxide. Philadelphia,
F.A. Davis Co. [1964]. Series title: Clinical
anesthesia 1/1964. UCD HealthSci
WO205 C65 1964 no.1 UCSF Library
RD81.A1 C64 v.1 1964 Books
6.
Nitrous oxide/N2O / edited by Edmond I. Eger II.
New York : Elsevier, c1985. UCD HealthSci
QV81 N58 1985. UCI Biomed
QV 81 N731 1985. UCLA Biomed
QV 81 N731 1985. UCSD Biomed
QV 81 N731 1985. UCSF Library
RD86.N7 N58 1985 Books. CSL Main Lib RD86.N7 N58 1985 General Coll.
7.
Shedlin, Michael. Laughing gas (nitrous oxide); historical and recent essays on
the practice of inhaling nitrous oxide. Edited by Michael Shedlin
& David Wallechinsky, with Saunie Salyer.
[1st ed. n.p.]
And/Or Press [1973]. UCD HealthSci
QV81 S53. UCSB Main Lib
RD86.N7 S53 Sci-Eng
8.
Smith, W. D. A. Under the influence : a history of nitrous oxide and oxygen
anaesthesia / W.D.A. Smith. London
: Scientific and Medical Division, Macmillan, 1982. UCD HealthSci
WO211.1 S65 1982. UCI Biomed
WO 211.1 S663u 1982. UCLA Biomed
WO 211.1 S663u 1982 Hist Div. UCSD Biomed
WO 211.1 S663u 1982. UCSF Library
RD79 .S65 1982 History
Lancet, Vol.2 no.8102, 9 Dec. 1978, pg 1227-1230, Myeloneuropathy
after prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide. --the B12 deficiency. Doesn't look like a real problem without
very
heavy use or very low B12 levels.
Lancet, Aug12, 1978, pg339-342, Megaloblastic hemopoiesis in
patients
receiving nitrous oxide.
--B12 metabolism
Anaesthesiology, 1978, Dec67(6) 960-964,
--sorry, haven't got the title, this is about teratogenic
effects
in
rats.
Anaesthesia, 34, 1979, pg147-151,
--nitrous hazardous for patients with ear surgery or ear
disease.
Forgot to mention this problem in the previous post. Does not
appear
to be a problem if your ears are healthy.
Seminars in Surgical Oncology, 1990, 6(3), 141-147
--cancer, cause or cure? Havn't read this one (not in the local
library).
Abuse of volatile substances, information paper 2, (Australian)
Commonwealth
Department of Health, Drugs of Dependency branch, 1984,
--this is a great reference, a small booklet on N2O, patterns
of
abuse, obtainability, toxicity and side effects, etc. Probably difficult
to
get outside of Australia, but worth trying for.
Acta Anae. Scand. 1985 29 pg 635-638,
--study on volunteers looking at acute tolerance, subjective
and objective
observations.
Review of inhalants: Euphoria to Dysfuntion, Sharp, C.W. and
Brehm,
M. L. (editors), NIDA research monograph no.15, U.S. Government
Printing
Office, October 1977
--this contains two articles, Abuse of Inhalation Anaesthetic
drugs,
by M.B. Chenoweth, and Preclinical Behavioural toxicology of
Inhalant
solvents, by R.E. Bowman, that are probably worthwhile.
American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology, 1988, Mar 9(1), pg 60-63, Death by nitrous oxide: an
interesting
case
of auto-eroticism
--sounds amusing.
1989, Dec 10(4), pg 330-331,
--another suicide case
Note concerning Nitrous Oxide and Florida,
from 21 TELR 259 (Spring 1999)
Tampa outlawed rave clubs after the
well-publicized death of Kelly Hendershot a 19-year-old who died several days after
falling and hitting her head at StudioRave Club in Tampa. Her friends told authorities
that she had inhaled nitrous oxide inside the club.
Ordinances
that criminalize raves, underscore our culture’s antagonism to ecstatic
religion — an antagonism that is brought to an extreme level whenever psychoactive
sacraments are part of the picture, as they often are in raves. For many people, raves are
ecstatic religion.
As
regular readers of TELR know, the editor is of the opinion that the War on (Some)
Drugs is more accurately a war on world views that differ from the monodirectives of
exoteric book-based religion — most prominently (and powerfully) Protestantism. The
early leaders of the US, including those who crafted the Free Exercise Clause, and the
judges who interpreted it, were hard-core Protestants. Because precedent plays such a
central role in our jurisprudence, esoteric, nondogmatic religions have often been defined
away, by judge’s who hold that they are merely “personal belief systems”
rather than “religions.” Only the latter are protected by the Free Exercise
Clause.
The
tragic death of Kelly Hendershot, which the Tampa authorities and politicians exploited to
criminalize raving (and are now exploiting to outlaw inhalation of nitrous oxide), was the
result of the blackout on information concerning safe use of consciousness changing
substances. Just as we promote the concept and techniques of “safe sex,” we
ought to be promoting techniques for safely inducing desired changes in one’s own
consciousness. A problem with the national “just say no” drug policy is what
happens when a person decides to say “yes.”
In the
darkness of a “just say no” information blackout, those who say “yes,”
and fail to take the time and effort to search out reliable information, routinely end up
ingesting substances with little understanding of what to expect and without the benefit
of safe-use techniques. Kelly Hendershot’s death, for example, could have been
prevented had she been taught to remain in a sitting or prone position when using nitrous
oxide.
The
political posturing that occurred in the wake of Kelly Hendershot’s death, and which
occurs everyday with respect to outlawed plants and drugs, is not about reducing deaths,
violence, or injury. It’s about the hegemony asserting and re-asserting its
domination. It’s about the members of the dominant world-view fearing a loss of
consensus for their model of reality, and their desperate fight to maintain their
perceived self-identity. It’s about their fear of other perspectives, and their
frantic need to maintain a simple model of the world and a sense of control.
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