MI lawmakers move to ban ‘whippets,’ used to inhale nitrous oxide
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Michigan lawmakers are working to regulate nitrous oxide in the form of “whippets,” a growing drug issue.
The state sent up Senate Bill 57 and 58 aimed at banning the sale of a tool called a “whippet,” a whipped cream canister used to inhale or “huff” undiluted nitrous oxide, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“What these bills would do is prohibit the sale of the nitrous oxide paraphernalia, otherwise known as ‘crackers,’” said Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit.
Crackers are legally sold at gas stations, smoke shops, and convenience stores.
Chang spearheaded Senate Bill 57 prohibiting nitrous oxide paraphernalia, which passed through the House and Senate with bipartisan support.
“There is no legitimate purpose for these. The only use for them is to release nitrous oxide in order to inhale it,” Chang said.
Nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing or happy gas, is used legally in medical practices, dentist offices, and to fill balloons. But the high from personal use of a whippet can have damaging effects on the brain that last much longer than a bad day.
“Altered perception, motor coordination issues, we’ve heard of actual incidents where people have gotten into car accidents because they have been using whippets while driving,” Chang said.
Detroit has seen whippets flood the city so much that anti-whippet organizations have formed.
“We have built a strong coalition with the ‘Whippet Wipeout‘ coalition, which has done a clean up every year. And it is alarming how many whippets you can collect in a day: literally thousands of these items,” Chang said.
That is why the bills are supposed to stop direct access to nitrous oxide abuse through the cracker tool.
“I am hopeful that getting these bills signed into law, hopefully soon, that we will actually begin to see the issue of nitrous oxide abuse hopefully go down because again, that is what our goal is, is that we don’t want to necessarily criminalize folks, but we do absolutely want to help people from getting addicted to these nitrous oxide whippets in the first place,” Chang said.
Senate Bills 57 and 58 are headed to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk. If the Bills are signed into law, they would go into effect in 90 days.
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