If you’ve found small silver cartridges in your teenager’s room, seen your kids watching videos of people inhaling from balloons or heard them talking about “whippets,” you’re probably wondering whether it’s something to worry about.
Here’s the truth: nitrous oxide might look harmless, but it isn’t. Deaths linked to nitrous oxide have risen sharply, increasing from 23 in 2010 to 156 in 2023, and heavy use can cause serious, even permanent nerve damage. Even more concerning, it’s still easy to buy in many places, often packaged in ways that make it seem harmless or even fun.
In this article, we’ll walk through what whippets are, how they affect the body, why they’re riskier than they seem, how teens are getting them and what to do if you’re concerned.
What Are Whippets?
The term whippets, also spelled whippits or whip-its, refers to small steel cartridges containing compressed nitrous oxide (N2O). The cartridges are manufactured for a legitimate culinary purpose: they fit into whipped cream dispensers and aerate cream under pressure. A standard charger holds 8 grams of gas. For decades, they were sold primarily in kitchen supply stores and restaurant supply chains.
Recreationally, the cartridge is discharged into a balloon. The user inhales the gas from the balloon. The high lasts approximately 30 to 60 seconds and is characterized by euphoria, lightheadedness, distorted sound and a brief dissociative sensation.
The effect ends quickly, so users typically repeat the process many times in a single session. This rapid repetition is the core driver of harm. Each inhalation may feel trivial, but cumulative exposure within a session and across repeated sessions is what produces serious injury.
Street names include:
- Whippets
- Whippits
- Whip-its
- Laughing gas
- NOS
- Hippie crack
The gas is also the same substance administered as an anesthetic at dental offices, which contributes to a widespread misperception that it’s medically safe in recreational contexts. In medical settings, nitrous oxide is carefully controlled and given with oxygen under supervision. None of those safeguards apply when a teenager is inhaling it from a balloon.
Who Is Using Whippets and Why
Nitrous oxide use is most common among adolescents and young adults. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, inhalant use, including nitrous oxide, is more common among teens than older age groups. Many teens underestimate the risks for several key reasons.
These factors include:
- Its association with dental offices, which creates a false sense of medical legitimacy
- The brief high, which makes individual uses feel harmless
- The fact that nitrous oxide isn’t a controlled substance under federal law, which many teens interpret as a sign that it’s not seriously dangerous
- Social media marketing, including brands like Galaxy Gas, which have made nitrous oxide canisters look like flavored novelty products rather than inhalants, with candy-colored packaging and flavors like vanilla cupcake, strawberry cream and cotton candy designed to appeal to younger users
Research consistently shows nitrous oxide use is correlated with polysubstance use. Teens who use whippets are more likely to also use alcohol and cannabis. It’s rarely a standalone behavior, and its presence is often a signal of broader substance use that warrants attention.
Where Teenagers Are Getting Whippets: The Availability Problem
To understand why whippets are so easy to access, it helps to look at how they’re sold. Nitrous oxide is widely available in stores and online, sold legally as a product used in food preparation.
The Culinary Loophole
Nitrous oxide chargers exist in a legal gray zone. They’re not controlled substances under the federal Controlled Substances Act and have legitimate uses in food service. It’s sold for legitimate culinary use, which makes misuse difficult to regulate.
Beginning around 2023, companies began exploiting this loophole more aggressively. Galaxy Gas and similar brands produced large-format canisters with flavors and packaging that had no clear connection to professional baking. These products were sold through smoke shops, vape stores, gas stations and major online retailers.
TikTok searches for Galaxy Gas returned videos of young people getting high, and the brand quickly became a social media trend. The company paused sales in September 2024 following regulatory pressure, and the brand was sold weeks later.
Litigation against Galaxy Gas and similar manufacturers is ongoing. Lawsuits allege the products were designed and marketed for recreational inhalation despite known health risks. A jury awarded the family of one victim $745 million after a driver lost consciousness while using whippets and struck another car.
Where They Are Sold
As of early 2026, whippet canisters remain available at many smoke shops, vape retailers, gas stations and online platforms in most U.S. states. Brand names parents should be aware of include:
- Galaxy Gas
- GreatWhip
- Baking Bad
- Miami Magic
- Monster Gas
The flavored, large-format canisters are the primary recreational product. Standard 8-gram culinary chargers are also misused, but they represent a different and older product category.
The Changing Legal Landscape
State-level regulation has accelerated significantly since 2024.
Key examples include:
- Louisiana passed one of the first comprehensive bans on retail nitrous oxide sales in 2024
- New York has prohibited sales to anyone under 21 since 2021
- Alabama, California and Michigan have banned recreational use
- Oregon requires ID verification and restricts sales to buyers 18 and older
- Tennessee passed legislation in January 2026 imposing fines on retailers selling whippets recreationally, effective July 2026
- Multiple California cities and counties, including Orange County and Newport Beach, have enacted local ordinances making recreational nitrous oxide sales a misdemeanor
- South Carolina and Minnesota have active legislation in progress
The regulatory picture is moving fast, but it remains a patchwork. In many states, a teenager can still walk into a smoke shop and purchase nitrous oxide canisters without age verification. Parents shouldn’t assume that local availability means it’s legal or safe.
What Nitrous Oxide Does to the Body and Brain
The High
Nitrous oxide is a type of anesthetic that changes how the brain processes pain and perception. It works by blocking certain receptors in the brain, similar to how ketamine works, but less strongly. It also affects other systems in the brain and increases dopamine, a chemical linked to pleasure and reward. This is what causes feelings like euphoria, lightheadedness and a sense of detachment.
That dopamine release is part of what makes nitrous oxide habit-forming, even though many people don’t see it as addictive.
Acute Risks: What Can Go Wrong Immediately
The most immediate risk is oxygen displacement. Nitrous oxide replaces oxygen in the lungs when it’s inhaled. In enclosed spaces like a car, closet or bathroom with the door shut, this can quickly lead to low oxygen levels, loss of consciousness and even death.
Immediate risks include:
- Loss of consciousness
- Lack of oxygen (hypoxia), which can be life-threatening
- Asphyxiation in enclosed spaces
- Falls or accidents while disoriented
Loss of consciousness during use is a documented cause of death. People can also be seriously injured if they fall or have an accident while under the effects.
The FDA has warned that inhaling nitrous oxide can result in serious injury or death.
From 2023 to 2024 alone, reports of intentional nitrous oxide exposure increased by 58%.
Researchers have warned that the U.S. may be at the early stages of a growing public health problem, with deaths and hospitalizations rising as the drug becomes more widely available.
The Hidden Long-Term Risk: Vitamin B12 Inactivation and Spinal Cord Damage
The most serious and least understood risk from whippet use is damage to the nervous system. It’s often not obvious at first, and by the time symptoms appear, significant harm may already have occurred.
Nitrous oxide interferes with vitamin B12, which the body needs to keep nerves healthy. It can permanently disable B12 so it can’t do its job. Vitamin B12 helps build and maintain myelin, the protective coating around nerves. Without it, the nervous system begins to break down over time.
This damage can lead to a condition called subacute combined degeneration (SCD) of the spinal cord.
Symptoms can include:
- Numbness or tingling, often starting in the hands and feet and moving upward
- Weakness in the legs
- Trouble walking
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Muscle stiffness (spasticity)
- Loss of bladder control
- In severe cases, paralysis
These symptoms have been reported in people in their early twenties after repeated use.
A key issue is that standard vitamin B12 blood tests may appear normal even when damage is occurring. Nitrous oxide creates what’s called a functional deficiency, meaning B12 is present but not working properly.
More accurate testing includes measuring methylmalonic acid (MMA) and homocysteine levels, which can show whether B12 is functioning correctly.
Parents whose child has neurological symptoms after whippet use should ask for these tests, not just a standard B12 level.
A 2024 analysis found that among people with neurological symptoms from nitrous oxide use, 25% had spinal cord damage, 37% had nerve damage in the limbs and 38% had a mix of both. Research also shows that recovery is possible if use stops early, but delays can lead to permanent damage.
Cardiovascular Risks
B12 inactivation can raise homocysteine levels in the blood, which increases the risk of blood clots. Blood clots such as deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis have been reported in young, otherwise healthy people using whippets. In one widely reported 2025 case, a young woman developed 36 blood clots in her neck, lungs and head after repeated nitrous oxide use. She died months later.
Psychiatric Effects
Heavy, repeated use can lead to serious mental health effects, including psychosis, problems with thinking and memory and mood changes. Researchers have found that a cycle can develop where nerve damage from B12 depletion causes anxiety and mood symptoms, and the drug temporarily relieves those symptoms. This can lead to repeated use.
Over time, this can make use feel harder to control. What looks like a choice may partly be driven by changes in the brain, which is one reason it can be difficult to stop without support.
Signs a Teenager May Be Using Whippets
Physical evidence is often the first sign.
Common physical signs include:
- Small silver cartridges: About the size of a finger, often found in a room, backpack or car
- Deflated balloons: With no clear reason for use
- Large branded canisters: Such as those from Galaxy Gas
- Sweet smell: A faint, sweet odor in a car or enclosed space after use
Behavioral signs can include:
- Withdrawing to use alone or in private
- Unexplained spending
- Brief episodes of dizziness or disorientation followed by a quick return to normal
The high is short, so these episodes can be easy to miss. Repeated use within a short period, such as multiple cartridges in one session, increases the risk of harm.
Neurological warning signs that require medical attention include:
- Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
- Muscle weakness
- Trouble walking or stumbling
- Loss of balance or coordination
A standard physical exam won’t detect B12 inactivation. The specific blood tests described above need to be requested.
How to Talk to Your Teenager About Whippets
Research shows that shame-based or overly alarmist conversations make teens less likely to open up. The goal is to share information and make it clear they can come to you without automatic punishment.
Several key facts are worth sharing, especially since many teens may not know them:
- Dental use doesn’t mean safe: Nitrous oxide used in medical settings isn’t safe when used recreationally
- Normal B12 tests can be misleading: A normal result doesn’t mean the nervous system isn’t being damaged
- Nerve damage can be permanent: Spinal cord damage from heavy use may not fully reverse
- Legal doesn’t mean safe: The drug isn’t controlled, but that’s due to outdated laws, not low risk
If you’ve already found cartridges and are having this conversation after the fact, ask open-ended questions. For example, ask whether they’ve noticed symptoms like tingling, numbness or weakness.
If neurological symptoms are present along with known or suspected use, seek medical care promptly rather than waiting to see if symptoms improve.
When to Seek Professional Help
A single experimental use of nitrous oxide, while not ideal, is unlikely to cause permanent harm in a teenager with normal B12 levels and no underlying absorption issues. However, the risk increases quickly with repeated use.
You should seek professional help if your teenager:
- Uses nitrous oxide regularly
- Uses large amounts in a single session
- Shows any signs of neurological symptoms
There’s no FDA-approved medication specifically for nitrous oxide use disorder. Treatment generally follows the same approach used for other inhalants, including behavioral therapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), along with treatment for any co-occurring mental health conditions.
Research suggests that some teens use nitrous oxide to cope with anxiety or depression. This means treatment needs to address both substance use and underlying mental health issues to be effective.
If neurological symptoms are present, treating the B12 deficiency becomes the priority. This requires stopping nitrous oxide use completely, along with B12 treatment through injections and supplements. Physical and occupational therapy may also be needed. Early treatment improves the chances of recovery.
If your teenager is using whippets regularly or you’re concerned about substance use more broadly, NationalRehabHotline.org offers free, confidential guidance 24-7. We can help you understand treatment options, navigate insurance or cost questions and find programs that support both substance use and mental health needs.
