MP Mark Garnier has welcomed recommendations that have been made by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to curb the devastating impacts of nitrous oxide.
It comes after Mark was at the forefront of a campaign to curb the sale of the substance, often known as laughing gas, which is freely available on the internet in small canisters.
The ACMD has made 7 recommendations in the report to Government on how to curb the use of the substance and the measures needed to tackle supply.
These include exploring approaches to non-legitimate routes of supply, reducing health harms with a public health campaign, more powers for the police to confiscate the substance and monitoring health harms.
It also includes a recommendation on restrictions on canister sizes that are not found to have legitimate uses and closing down websites selling nitrous oxide for non-legitimate uses. These are both measures Mark called for during a Westminster Hall debate he secured in Parliament on the issue last year.
Reacting to the publication Mark welcomed the recommendations by ACMD and called on the Government to implement them in full.
He said: “I’m pleased that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has found that there is a clear need for additional measures to reduce the health and social harms of nitrous oxide. Laughing gas is no laughing matter and has ruined countless lives. Action needs to be taken to reduce the use of the substance and curb online sales.
“The recommendations from the Advisory Council is an important first step. I hope that the Government can implement these recommendations as soon as possible and I will be working with Ministers to ensure that it does.”
