Well I have read about people dieing after consuming a peanut or peanuts for that matter, yet I have yet to hear of any government crackdown on peanuts.... Im sure that there have been more people who have died of peanuts then "laughing gas" surely there is another motive for this ban, taxes, like cigarettes and alcohol maybe....

Thom Schmidt, London,

Although it is a shame that this person has died "next to a large cylinder" of NOS this by no means says he died because of it, it is a known fact that this was a suicide just the same as the people who sit in a car with a pipe in the exhaust and through the car window, what will the government do next ban cars or even bring a law in that nobody is allowed to sell bags without holes in it.
The nanny state at it again I think.

Tom Phillips, Leeds, UK

**and something like eating a carrot will probably also deplete your B12

Nicholas, Brighton,

Its not nonsense,some one has died from it.What else is there to say? If it can kill one it can kill more.If people need any type of drug to have a good night out then they seriously need to get a life.

Jen, Bath, England

As for the side effects, any dizziness is usually gone after a few minutes unless you have taken a very large number of balloons in an evening in which case it may last for a couple of hours. Sometimes, if you take too many, they may give you a slight headache. If you hold a lungful of nitrous in your lungs, instead of breathing in and out to the balloon, the pressure can cause nitrous oxide to enter your stomach and this can give you a stomach ache. The most annoying side effect by far though is partial amnesia to any visions obtained in the dream state. If you try to explain exactly what your dream contained, before the time you have figured out how to put in into words you have forgotten enough of the details that you cannot explain it anymore.

Nitrous oxide does deplete your B12, so it is important to take vitamin supplements, and a long term vitamin deficiencies (of any v

James McGuigan, London, London

Nitrous Oxide, when bought in reasonable quantities online, costs about 20-25p a cartridge. Some nightclubs in central London sell balloons for between £1-2 each.

For organizers running a clubnight, this can be a significant added profit (in some cases the difference between a profit and a loss), as it is almost always the venue running the bar and cloakroom, with the organizers only collecting the entrance fee (and profits from selling glowsticks, face paint and balloons).

Due to the cost, the quantities a person would consume within a club are fairly small, maybe 3 or 4 in a night. Though at private house parties, nitrous can be a bit like a packet of pringles "once you pop, you just can't stop", and a group of friends getting though 100+ in a night is not unusual, the number is usually limited by the quantity of cartridges taken to the party in the first place. I have known people who have consumed outrageous numbers of balloons with no long term side effects.

James McGuigan, London, London

Good Lord, they give this stuff to women in labour precisely because it is so safe and cannot harm either her, or the baby, even if inhaled in large amounts over the several hours of your average labour.

I got through two whole canisters of this with my first child - proper large canisters, not the fiddling little capsules they inflate balloons in clubs with. Funnily enough I'm fine, and so is my grown up son.

What a load of nonsense - again - from our hysterical knee jerk government.

Save the money local authorities - go prosecute someone who does some harm... maybe prosecute the large numbers of clubs who sell alcohol to those under 18 - thats definitely harmful, against the law and out of control.

Shame on the councils who seek to spend yet more of our council tax money to enforce yet another bout of moral hysteria without being able to police the black and white regulations they already have.

jo adams, builth wells, wales

Although it is very sad that this guy died from the use of Laughing Gas, I understand that he was inhaling directly from a large canister of NO2, put a plastic bag over his head and died from asphyxiation.

Now the majority of Laughing Gas users inhale a small amount of gas from a balloon, from which I don't believe there has been one reported death in the UK.

However, giving the straight facts and educating people on safe use of laughing gas, will never get in the way of hysteria and scaremongering to sound tough on drugs. The fact that laughing gas has been inhaled via balloons millions of times over the last few years with no deaths or noticeable damage to health will not stop politicians or petty minded bureaucrats from the MRHA trying to stop what many consider to be a harmless bit of fun, just like they did with Magic Mushrooms a couple of years ago.

I'm afraid it's back to poisoning yourself on highly addictive alcohol or nicotine, but that of course generates lots of tax revenue.

Chris Bovey, Totnes, Devon

yet another example of this nanny state trying to control us me personally i don't use n2o but i don't begrudge others doing so

a woods, manchester ,

As a former devotee of N2O also known as laughing gas or Lachgaz, I can say that I am alive now and while a habitual user, more than10 years ago, found no contrary effects nor did my psychiatrist of the time.

Since you say that there is a loophole in the law, I would recommend the following to your readers: use a condom rather than a balloon; use a whipping cream dispenser, without cream, as the gaseous reservoir. Breathe air between inhalations from the "balloon."

Nothing on the books remains to criminalize usage of N2O, so it is better to give out practical information for those self-selected members of the public who choose to find out what Robert Southey, among others, was so ecstatic about. It is in the realm of a public service to disseminate life-saving precautionary words about an agent of bliss.

Morgan Russell, Vienna, Austria

Imagine they found someone dead next to packets of cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels, would the government then ban these from our shelves? Not a chance because they are tax revenue raisers and the government feeds off the vices of the communities they are suppose to support. Where does the government draw income from balloons? No where. The war on fun continues.

Damian Gelle, London, United Kingdom

I agree with the other comment, one death because some fool goes and inhales it out the canister and it hits the front pages, yet god knows how many people die every month of alcohol and smoking and no one blinks an eyelid.

Iain Simpson, Lincoln, Lincolnshire

It truly amazes me that there is such hysteria over the use of this quite innocuous, when used sensibly, substance.

The high is short lived and the hit from a single balloon is going to kill no-one. Mr Watts had put a bag over his head and was breathing the substance from a large cannister, not something you would see in a club or rave.

Perhaps the MHRA should look at banning Alcohol and cigarettes as these two kill more people than anything.

Nitrous? Cheap short lived buzz that is safer than binge drinking and chain smoking.

Mark Websper, Margate, Kent

So when is the Medicines and Health-care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) going to issue the same warning and notice regarding alcohol ?

Chris Straiton, Hove, East Sussex