Whippets: Growing Michigan Drug Problem May Soon Go Away

Michigan lawmakers are looking at ways to make it more difficult to obtain nitrous oxide huffing tools to curb the increasing drug problem known as "whippets."

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What is a "Whippet?"

Inhaling nitrous oxide is not what the band Devo had in mind when they created the 1980 classic "Whip It."

Nitrous oxide's legitimate uses are for pain relief, food preparation, and boosting the performance of cars.

Whippets is a slang term for inhaling nitrous oxide as a party drug. The name came from whipped-cream aerosol canisters that people open to misuse the gas inside to create a high that lowers your mental and physical pain. The problem with the nitrous oxide containers is they are legal for teenagers under 18 to purchase and teens are the largest groups of whippet users.

Whippets are dangerous and can be fatal. Recreational use of whippets can cause a serious risk of lack of oxygen to the brain, fainting, uncontrolled falling, and cold burns when using whipping cream cartridges.

Michigan Lawmakers Are Working to Regulate Nitrous Oxide

According to WOOD, Michigan's Senate is working on a bill aimed at banning the sale of a tool called a "whippet" to keep people, mainly teenagers, from inhaling or huffing nitrous oxide.

Michigan lawmakers want to prohibit the sale of nitrous oxide paraphernalia that is referred to as "crackers." These items can be found at convenience stores, gas stations, and even smoke shops. The only use these crackers have is that they are tools for huffing nitrous oxide.

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Both bills that are proposed have already gained support in the Michigan House and Senate and are likely to become law 90 days after Governor Gretchen Whitmer puts her signature on them.

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Getting rid of the tool used for whippets is going to have an impact on lowering their usage but teenagers have been inhaling nitrous oxide long before there was a tool. Hopefully, the legislatures find a way to make it impossible for kids to get their hands on nitrous cartridges altogether or the problem won't go away.