The party drug known as hippy crack is not a ‘medicinal product’ and is illegal, senior judges ruled today.
Four men have had appeals against their convictions thrown out, bolstering a new law banning legal highs including Nitrous Oxide – better known as laughing gas.
Hundreds have been arrested and 50 dealers prosecuted and even jailed under the Psychoactive Substances Act since it came into force in May 2016.
In August several prosecutions were dropped over fears the law was too general and laughing gas could be exempt because it also has medicinal and industrial uses.
But today, in a vital test case at the Court of the Appeal, four men caught in possession of Nitrous Oxide canisters were told they are guilty of a crime.
‘Hippy crack’ nitrous oxide is an illegal drug after four men had appeals against their convictions rejected today
Nitrous Oxide canisters, from which gas is pumped into balloons before being inhaled, litter festival sites (Glastonbury pictured) after the crowds have left and are found lying on streets all over the UK
The gas, first synthesised in 1772, had been used for centuries as a pain killer by dentists and doctors during childbirth, they said.
Party and festival goers are more interested in its ‘euphoric’ effects, but that does not stop it being a medicine, the Court of Appeal was told.
It is even widely used in the catering industry as an easy and entirely innocent way of whipping cream, said barrister, Sam Stein QC.
But now the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, has thrown out the appeals, noting that Nitrous Oxide can be positively harmful to health.
Canisters found on the four men were of the catering type and that was ‘a strong indicator that they were not medicinal products,’ he said.
They were supplied to punters for ‘purely recreational’ purposes and their use was certainly not ‘beneficial to health’, he added.
Nitrous Oxide canisters, from which gas is pumped into balloons before being inhaled, litter festival sites after the crowds have left and are found lying on streets all over the UK.
Nicholas Chroussis, 22, of Bath, pleaded guilty to possessing Nitrous Oxide with intent to supply in July.
In September last year, during the Boundary Festival in Brighton, security guards found 245 Nitrous Oxide canisters in his rucksack.
He insisted the canisters, packaged as cream chargers, were for his personal use, but the judge said his mobile phone indicated that he was dealing.
Kenan Buckley (left) and Ryan Egan (right) were both charged with possession of a psychoactive substance with intent to supply at Glastonbury – but their defence QCs successfully argued that the laughing gas cannot be counted as a ‘psychoactive substance’ and the cases were dropped in August
Sonny Chapman, 27, of London, was convicted of two counts of possessing the gas with intent in August.
A total of 408 cannisters were found in his car after he was stopped in September last year, along with several bags of balloons.
And, when a self-storage unit owned by Chapman was searched, 13,800 more canisters were found and seized.
Chapman had claimed that almost all the canisters were to be used to whip cream in his small catering business.
Abel Tesfay, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to possessing Nitrous Oxide with intent in August.
Police found him with 200 canisters of the gas, along with balloons, whilst patroling the perimeter of Brockwell Park, South London, in July.
Armande Bryce, 22, Southwark, was also convicted ofhaving Nitrous Oxide with intent in August.
He was searched at the Secret Garden festival, near Huntingdon, in July last year, and 191 gas canisters were found in his man bag.
He also had balloons on him and, when his tent was searched, 1,084 more canisters were found.
Bryce said the canisters in his bag were for his personal use and those found in the tent were not his.
Challenging all four convictions, Mr Stein said that none of them could be guilty of an offence under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.
Sellers of ‘hippy crack’ for recreational use were warned they faced up to seven years in prison under a Government crackdown on legal highs
Drug charity Release say the new law is ‘fundamentally flawed’ and has called for all cases to be reviewed.
Kirstie Douse, head of legal services, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We think that those previous prosecutions and convictions need to be reviewed as well’.
In July last year, William Cook, 29, became one of the first people in Britain convicted under the new law.