Katie, Drug and alcohol worker
The Conservative government, with the backing of the Labour Party, has gone against the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, by introducing a blanket ban of Nitrous oxide (nos).
The drug is also known as ‘laughing gas’. You would have seen its canisters littering the ground.
There have been 45 deaths related to the drug since 2010, and other cases of young people becoming permanently disabled. Any death or disability caused by this gas is a tragedy.
Yet rather than providing more addiction support services, rather than investing in youth support, rather than funding more rehabilitation clinics, the government is just appearing to be doing something by criminalisation of another substance. This does not tackle the reasons young people use nos, such as trauma, boredom or a lack of connection with their communities.
Criminal convictions for minor drug offences make it infinitely harder for young people to find work, and feed into a cycle of poverty, a major cause of drug use. The Tories’ decision to ban nos is clearly a political move, rather than a genuine attempt to protect young people and reduce anti-social behaviour.
As a drug and alcohol worker, I have supported many people through addiction. The vast majority of deaths, disability and anti-social behaviour are a result of heroin and alcohol addiction. There were almost 10,000 UK deaths from alcohol in 2021, and almost 5,000 deaths from drugs in England and Wales the same year.
Schools should be provided with resources to educate young people. Councils should stop cutting and privatising jobs and services, and instead invest in youth centres.
Ultimately, only with socialist policies to eradicate poverty, and when people have a genuine democratic say in how their communities are run, will we see the end to the causes that drive drug-related deaths, crime and anti-social behaviour.
