[HN Gopher] It's now illegal for anyone under 21 to buy canned w...
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       It's now illegal for anyone under 21 to buy canned whipped cream in
       New York
        
       Author : cwwc
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2022-08-28 20:07 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.insider.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.insider.com)
        
       | tenpies wrote:
       | I _love_ observing NYC, SF, and LA policies like this because it
       | 's so ridiculous.
       | 
       | An under 21 year old can go shoot up any substance - with the
       | guarantee that the police won't touch them - at any of the safe
       | injection sites, but progessive-heaven forbid that they want some
       | whipped cream for their ice cream or want to try a recipe that
       | included using one of these gas cartridges.
       | 
       | Canisters on the street? A disturbing eye sore that must be dealt
       | with swiftly. Needles on the street? A sign of progressive
       | tolerance and a reminder that drug users are the real victims.
        
         | feet wrote:
         | That's a non equivalency
         | 
         | Ability to purchase a substance is not the same as being
         | provided a space to use a substance obtained elsewhere safely
         | to curb overdoses
         | 
         | These policies are about reducing harm, prohibition itself
         | increases harm
        
         | 1_1xdev wrote:
         | It is ridiculous on the surface, I guess.
         | 
         | But those same progressive governments still make it illegal to
         | sell those drugs which can are used in the safe injection
         | sites.
         | 
         | So, this seems consistent to me, even if ridiculous on the
         | surface, because those more dangerous substances are treated
         | the same.
         | 
         | No one's getting arrested for inhaling no2, just like people
         | are not getting arrested for smoking weed or for shooting up in
         | the safe sites
         | 
         | Edit for clarity: the only thing that's actually ridiculous
         | about it IMO is that, obviously, there's a huge proportion of
         | people, under 21, buying whipped cream that aren't doing it to
         | get high
        
           | protonbob wrote:
           | Just use your whip cream in the safe injection sites. Problem
           | solved.
        
       | LatteLazy wrote:
       | Nitrous seems like about the best drug a kid could use. Basically
       | no risks, fast acting fast eliminated, non addictive, no evidence
       | of any long term negative effects.
       | 
       | Compare that to basically anything else you can inhale (or
       | swallow or snort or inject).
        
       | DaveExeter wrote:
       | I think you can still buy whippets in the Village head shops.
        
         | missedthecue wrote:
         | Or ebay
        
         | 1_1xdev wrote:
         | They're definitely sold. Does this new legislation change
         | things? Idk
         | 
         | Weed is openly sold in bodegas and smoke shops in the village
         | too, but none of them are licensed
        
       | Lacerda69 wrote:
       | The war against drugs is just working great.
        
         | elektrons wrote:
         | It really is, for the drugs.
        
       | Maursault wrote:
       | This is kind of silly. Nitrous oxide is not harmful unless there
       | is so much of it, it displaces the air and causes suffocation, or
       | it is abused in such quantity that it causes neurological issues
       | like persistent numbness. They should make it illegal for anyone
       | under 21 to purchase Scotchguard and the other harmful aerosols
       | that are popular inhalents, such as air freshener, deodorant,
       | fabric protector, hair spray, vegetable oil spray, and spray
       | paint. Those things hurt kids. No one has died or even hurt
       | themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme or
       | whip creme chargers, though people have suffocated on occasion
       | when using actual nitrous tanks.
        
         | cantSpellSober wrote:
         | > _No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling
         | the nitrous from whipped creme_
         | 
         | Sadly, not true (though it's rare)
         | https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coron...
        
           | Maursault wrote:
           | > The autopsy shows that Schoenig died from asphyxiation
           | 
           | Something doesn't add up. When you pass out from holding your
           | breath, you automatically start breathing again. What must
           | have happened is there was so much nitrous being used, and
           | not enough ventilation, and the nitrous displaced the air on
           | the floor. So he passed out, fell down, and when he would
           | have started breathing again normally, there was no air on
           | the floor to breathe. No one thought to open a door to let
           | the nitrous escape, so the CPR was in vain if there was no
           | air to get into his lungs. Then his friends cleaned up all
           | the empty whippets before the police arrived, and got their
           | story straight: "he did one whippet, and just died," when
           | there was probably hundreds of whippets being released in an
           | enclosed space, pushing the air off the floor and creating a
           | zone of asphyxiation.
           | 
           | So I suspect this is precisely what I described in my post,
           | asphyxiation from displaced air on the floor. The nitrous
           | itself did not hurt him, it just made him pass out because
           | there was no oxygen in his lungs when he was holding in the
           | nitrous. What killed him was asphyxiation, not toxicity to
           | nitrous.
           | 
           | Decades ago, 2 kids died this way in a pickup truck. They
           | even had the windows open, but the nitrous displaced the air
           | along the floor, they passed out and folded over, with heads
           | below the door-windows, and asphyxiated. More recently but
           | still years ago, a high school boy and girl died together the
           | same way crawling under a large advertising helium balloon to
           | hear their voices sound funny... but there was no air under
           | there, so they asphyxiated. The helium itself did not kill
           | them, it is inert. The lack of air causes asphyxiation, and
           | that is what it is fatal.
           | 
           | So, again, nitrous itself will not hurt you, has never hurt
           | anyone ever, but because it is heavier than air, it displaces
           | the air, and in an enclosed space it will push out all the
           | air, and death by asphyxiation occurs.
        
             | eth0up wrote:
             | The term is Inert Gas Asphyxiation, pretty much as you
             | described.
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation --
             | Approved by Exit International as a reasonably high quality
             | method of permanently checking out
             | 
             | See also the 3.19.1981 Columbia incident:
             | https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-
             | columbia...
        
       | alpaca128 wrote:
       | > Some 1 in 5 young people uses inhalants by the time they reach
       | eighth grade
       | 
       | Well, good thing they now got it under control by fighting the
       | symptoms. I'm sure the kids are not creative enough to find
       | alternatives /s
        
       | LiberationUnion wrote:
        
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