(Image Caption: I took this picture at a smoke shop in the late summer of 2024. That’s when I first noticed this substance making a comeback from when my son misused it in 2011. This same product is sold legitimately in cooking stores. By the way, the store in which this photo was taken was right across the street from a school.)
Whipped cream isn’t just a topping for apple pie. The gas that propels it from the can, nitrous oxide, can also be misused as a drug to produce a brief but intense high.
Why was my Redi Whip going flat all the time?
Around 2011, every time I got the Redi Whip out to add to my coffee, it was flat. I thought my son Charles had left it out on the counter too long. I assumed he was tipping his head back and squirting it into his mouth. Surely that was why it was flat.
At the next session with our counselor, the mental health professional my husband and I were seeing to try and stop our son’s march toward addiction, I mentioned the mystery of the Redi Whip. The counselor suggested that my son wasn’t squirting whipped cream into his mouth but “huffing” the nitrous oxide from those cans. That’s what he suspected was making the Redi Whip flat. I stopped buying it because I wasn’t going to fund his drug habit.
Although this wasn’t his drug of choice and it wasn’t every day, it was more a high of convenience for him. I bouth the Redi Whip, why not suck out the gas and get high? He didn’t seek it out otherwise. But it was part of his journey to substance use disorder–a journey in which he tried pretty much everything because getting high was an obsession before it became an addiction.
Much later, as I was preparing our house for sale, I found at least a half dozen Redi-Whip cans hidden in the attic eaves, along with a lot of empty beer and liquor bottles. He didn’t ever buy the canisters.
Polysubstance misuse is common today, and it certainly was in my son’s case
My son’s addiction started because he wanted to numb thoughts of suicide and find sleep because he had a sleep disorder, a circadian rhythm disorder called DSPS (circadian misaligned), that we never found an answer to. While I did know about the sleep disorder, I did not know about his thoughts of suicide until after his death by suicide.
Eventually, Charles would become addicted to heroin..
No laughing matter
Fast-forward to today, and we see that this drug, also known as whippets, whipped-cream chargers and laughing gas, is making a comeback.
While the small cannisters are sold legitimately in cooking stores and online to propel homemade whipped cream from the container, they are also prominently promoted and displayed in smoke shops and convenience stores as a method of getting high.
They’re also being found in fraternity parties on university campuses. And these are not rare occurrences.
What does Nitrous Oxide do?
Nitrous oxide, also called “laughing gas” and “hippy crack”, is a very short-acting sedative that slows down the nervous system by restricting oxygen flow to the brain, producing a high. The substance produces vapors that can lead to short-term impaired vision and speech as well as nausea and drowsiness.
It can also have more dangerous side effects like heart failure and long-term memory, attention, and judgment problems, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Long-term use of inhalants is also associated with mood and anxiety disorders such as depression, permanent brain damage, paralysis, and death.
People who use inhalants breathe in the fumes through their nose or mouth, usually by “sniffing,” “snorting,” “bagging,” or “huffing.” Although the high that inhalants produce usually lasts just a few minutes, people often try to make it last by continuing to inhale repeatedly over several hours.
Signs of Drug Use
by Anne Moss Rogers & Stas Novitsky. Stas is a person in long-term recovery and this is a practical guide on what to look for in your home/at work and in the person’s behavior.
Learn behaviors and clues that indicate drug use:
- Paraphernalia to look for by drug type
- Physical signs to look for by drug type
- Brand & generic names of addictive prescription drugs
- 30 easy-to-read pages w/ bullet points and photos
What are the risks of using nitrous oxide recreationally?
Some people use nitrous oxide recreationally to achieve a momentary euphoric high often doing back to back hits to maintain the feeling. However, inhaling laughing gas more often than it’s needed can cause serious and potentially life-threatening health complications. Occasional use at the dentist for example is highly unlikely to cause serious issues. But repeated use of nitrous oxide can cause:
- Low blood pressure (hypotension).
- Low oxygen (hypoxia).
- Fainting.
- Heart attack.
- Nerve damage.
Signs and behaviors a person might be misusing an inhalant drug
This includes whippets (whipped cream chargers) as well as other inhalants like air dusters, dried-out sharpies, tubes of glue etc.)
- Watery eyes
- Impaired vision, memory and thoughts
- Secretions from the nose or rashes around the nose and mouth
- Headaches and nausea
- Appearance of intoxication
- Drowsiness
- Poor muscle control
- Changes in appetite
- Anxiety
- Irritability
What are the signs of inhalant use around the home?
- Clues around the home for inhalants in general can include:
- Air duster cans are missing, and there are lots of cans/aerosols in the trash.
- Whipped cream is flat – Addicts suck the gas from the Redi-whip can making it flat or order/buy whip-its (Nitrous oxide chargers for cream and foam whippers)
- A lot of dried-out Sharpies, glue containers, or gallon milk jugs are thrown away in odd places (people often put the glue in an old milk carton to sniff)
- Rags for sniffing, tubes of glue, balloons, nozzles including small straws that should be attached to air dusters.
- Seizures (Call 911)
Legal doesn’t mean safe!
Just because it’s available in cooking stores doesn’t mean it’s a safe drug. If you have someone in your household misusing substances, they are likely to experiment with this, too. There are many substances not banned or outlawed that are deadly and addictive. So don’t be lulled by the “it’s legal” message.
We never thought our son would become addicted to heroin and die by suicide. We thought we “raised him right.” But there were influences beyond our control and a generation with deficits in coping skills who turn to drugs to numb the pain.
They’ll take everything
That’s what these drugs do
Strip your motivation, jail, probation, heavenly elevation
That’s what these drugs do
I’m sorry mom and dad,
that little Charlie is a problem bad,
sicker than a vomit bag
Ether-clogged rag,
inhalants make time lag….
—–Charles Aubrey Rogers, Excerpt from the Rap Song, “What These Drugs Do“
Sources for this Article:
- Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas), Cleveland Clinic
- Inhalants, NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse
- Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, Cleveland Clinic
- NIH (National Institute of Health), No Laughing Matter: Presence, Consumption Trends, Drug Awareness, and Perceptions of “Hippy Crack” (Nitrous Oxide) among Young Adults in England
- Inhalant Use Disorder, Cleveland Clinic
Speaking Topic: Diary of a Broken Mind: Addiction, Depression, and the Tragic Link to Suicide
AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives. She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.