Although teens and young adults are the most likely individuals to develop a whippit addiction, adults who work around large quantities of nitrous oxide are also particularly vulnerable to it. Examples include dentists, doctors, or food service workers. One person’s reaction to whippet abuse may be more or less severe than another person’s, which can be dangerous, especially if a person decides to abuse nitrous oxide for the first time while they are alone. Yes, Galaxy Gas is a brand that offers nitrous oxide dispensers intended for culinary purposes. As with whippets, Galaxy Gas has been abused for the high created by inhaling the nitrous oxide.

Are Whippits Addictive?

That’s nearly double the number of people who reported using the next most common inhalant. Filling a balloon with nitrous oxide allows the gas to warm up, and it gives people some control of how quickly it’s released into the mouth. Those reasons explain why huffing and other forms of inhalant use are uncommon with nitrous oxide. The name is likely related to the charger’s intended purpose — to refill whipped cream dispensers. Whippets may not be physically addictive in the same way some other illegal drugs are, but chasing the high you can get from whippets can be psychologically addicting. Nitrous oxide is commonly used for sedation to help people relax during medical procedures.

It can also cause frostbite because the gas gets extremely cold when it leaves a pressurized container. Nitrous oxide can cause laughter or dizziness, but it isn’t the same high as that of other common recreational drugs. When inhaled, nitrous oxide causes dizziness, pain relief and a floating sensation.

What Are Whippits and How Can They Be Abused?

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2015, around 684,000 adolescents in the United States used inhalants such as whippits. Although the substance, nitrous oxide, is safe for medical use, it becomes a dangerous one when used as a recreational drug. According to a study published in the Oxford Medical Case Reports, abuse of a whippits drug could lead to paralysis and death. Whip-its, sometimes referred to as “whippets,” is a slang term for whipped cream canisters that contain nitrous oxide. However, this can be dangerous, and can lead to addiction if abused chronically.

Whippets have long-term consequences

This happens because they mess with your body’s central nervous system, slowing down brain activity when they cut off oxygen. The high only lasts a few minutes, leading users to repeatedly sniff large quantities over a short period to continue the buzz. “When people pass out, they’ll drop the balloon or whatever and start breathing air,” Howard said. “If you’ve got a gas mask on, you won’t.” This is doubly true if you do what Andrew McCoy of Blacksburg, Virginia, did and put a bag on your head in order to get more nitrous oxide into your lungs. From here, our definition of “whippits” starts to get expansive.

1. And if you’re short on vitamins from breathing too much nitrous oxide (more on that below), you can be “topped up” and on the road to recovery in no time.
2. Whippits are small cartridges of an invisible gas called nitrous oxide.
3. The objects can be purchased legally online, but their only purpose is to open gas canisters.
4. Complete our fast, free, and easy verification process over the phone to determine the extent of your insurance coverage.
5. Some states are attempting to limit access and recreational “Whip-it” use by proposing bills to ban the “Whip-its” from smoke shops.

the dangers of whippet abuse

The reason why is that people will continuously binge this drug to feel high for more than that short period of time. Physical addiction and abuse of inhaled nitrous oxide are rare, but not impossible. It is, however, possible to become psychologically addicted to the effects of the whip-it drug. With regards to the whippits drug classification, the DEA scheduling status for Nitrous oxide in the United States is an unscheduled drug, illegal for recreational use. Often, the act of abusing nitrous oxide is a sign of a larger issue. As such, recovery from whippit addiction and abuse is a process that may require behavioral therapy in individual and group settings.

Nitrous oxide is sometimes called laughing gas because of its euphoric effects. It’s also used as a preservative and propellant in whipped cream dispensers. These are another name for whipped cream dispensers, which are cylinder-shaped canisters with a nozzle on top and a handle on the side. They’re used in commercial kitchens for holding ingredients that are going to be infused with nitrous oxide to make them foamy. But drug abusers also use them by placing a balloon right over the container and inhaling the contents. Nitrous oxide is well known as “laughing gas,” which is sometimes used as an anesthetic for medical or dental purposes.

After inhaling whippits, she was rushed to the hospital after experiencing a seizure. After her hospitalization, she went to rehab to receive treatment for a substance use disorder. Despite how dangerous whippits can be, the high from the substance only lasts for around 15 seconds, with a half-life of five minutes. While this may make whippits seem less dangerous, in many ways it makes whippits more dangerous.

Continuous inhalation of nitrous oxide at higher concentrations can be life-threatening, as the brain is deprived of oxygen. For example, using whippits with a bag over your head, or nitrous oxide tanks what is whipit with a face mask or in a small enclosed space, like a car, can result in irreversible brain damage and death. In some people, even minimal nitrous oxide abuse can provoke seizures, aspiration, irregular heart rhythms, trauma, or loss of lung or heart function that may be fatal. The lethality of nitrous oxide abuse is even greater when nitrous oxide is used with other drugs or alcohol.

This is because there is nitrous oxide inside whipped cream canisters to push the whipped cream out when people push down on the nozzle. Therefore, whippits act as a propellant and also as a preservative. People use whippits as a party drug because of their dissociative effects. Inhaling drugs in the dissociative class can make people feel giddy, euphoric, and almost like they are floating. Nitrous oxide use even produces somewhat of an out-of-body experience.

The gas was discovered in 1793 by scientist Joseph Priestley. The name “laughing gas” was coined in 1799 by a chemist called Humphry Davy. Davy described inhaling the gas as a state of ideal existence and began encouraging his friends and family to share the intense experience. If you’re medically unstable or have a history of substance abuse, additional treatment through an inpatient or outpatient treatment center may be recommended.