Ditched gas cylinders and the law

Legislation is rather a blunt tool and the use of legislation to prohibit the use of a substance where being blunt the main complaint is regards littering is perverse in the extreme!

Regular readers will know that as well as my ‘day job’ at Alstom I spend some time picking and tidying local roads in an attempt to keep the area tiddly, the main difference between my good self and other wombles is that I sort the rubbish so it can be recycled, cans in one sack, plastics in another and if I am feeling particularly antagonistic then McDonalds in a third sack to drop off at the closest drive through.

I had hoped that the legislation which came into force at the back end of 2023 would greatly reduce or even eradicate the amount of empty, or nearly empty nitrous oxide cylinders that I pick up, these cylinders are large and designed to be used by professional catering firms to ‘aerate’ cream. However many find their way into the hands of people who sniff the gas for what was a ‘legal high’, although with it now being prescribed as a Class C drug I guess unless you are in pain and it’s professionally administered by a paramedic then it isn’t a ‘legal’ high any more.!

I recently took the decision to tidy up a short stretch of road, maybe 1/2 mile long, that I hadn’t picked since the Christmas period and it was now looking a bit tatty, the rubbish included 886 can and the pile of steel cylinders shown in the photo plus 12 aluminium cylinders of the same size.

So all of those cylinders had been purchased, sniffed and ditched in the time that this was an illegal activity.

That got me thinking about how many arrests had been made since the recreational use of nitrous oxide had been made illegal, and a summary of the figures makes interesting reading!

In my area, that’s to say Durham constabulary there have been no arrests for possession of Nitrous Oxide.

Essex 3 arrests (13/11/23)

Nottingham 1 arrest (26/2/24)

Oxford 1 arrest (4/12/23)

Manchester 3 arrests (3/2/24)

Bolton 1 arrest (21/1/24)

Looking at details in all of these cases more ‘serious’ Class A and Class B drugs were seized, with the nitrous oxide being a side-line, like movies you get the headliners then on the third or fourth screen ‘also starring’, so when you look at the headlines you think ahh good, but read the report and the truth somewhat different!

There was a FOI request that West Yorkshire police responded too, with details below:

West Yorks Area

?19/20?? 1 arrest

20/21?? 4 arrests then 2 charged

21/22?? 4 arrests then 2 charged

22/23?? 7 arrests then 2 charged

To put in some context, this is the 4th largest police force in the UK with around 4,500 serving officers and the amount of arrests related to this drug were minimal, with drink driving in December resulting in 340 arrests giving more background and context into a known issue.

I have searched high and low for details on a conviction which only involves use of nitrous oxide without success, all details were for Class A drugs, plus bladed weapon plus large amounts of cash, and oh they had some gas. I would guess that the fine for using will be similar to cannabis, so up to ￡90.

Ironic isn’t it that if you are caught sniffing the gas you may get fined up to ￡90, but the primary issue of littering typically has a fine of ￡400…………maybe bringing in new legislation that isn’t being policed as a sole ‘crime’ was really a waste of time and more stringent policing of littering would have best resolved the issue?