{"id":948221,"date":"2026-11-01T01:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948221\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:44:19","slug":"how-one-young-australians-addiction-as-a-teenager-is-bringing-about-drug-legislation-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948221\/","title":{"rendered":"How one young Australian\u2019s addiction as a teenager is bringing about drug legislation changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Sam Bramman was fresh out of high school and enjoying his newfound freedom when he was introduced to a silver bulb of pressurised nitrous oxide, also known as a nang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The then-19-year-old already knew of the drug through popular media and seeing it on shelves at convenience stores and was convinced it was just a \u201charmless party drug\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">But that first, brief high in 2023 started a six-month-long addiction which ended in a Queensland hospital\u2019s psychiatric ward, hundreds of kilometres away from his home in Sydney, after he fell into a drug-induced psychosis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-h2mhmv-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Reflecting on his downward spiral, Bramman said he is lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI was that addicted to nitrous oxide and that clouded by the addiction that I would do it while I was driving,\u201d he told 7NEWS.com.au.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThat was really, really bad because nangs make you dizzy and pass out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cSo, when I was in my psychosis and on the way to Queensland, I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up on the wrong side of the road on the highway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt must have been like, 2am or 3am, so there were no cars luckily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/135a07213818fb377b3e4083eb22f63dd105efe7.jpg\" alt=\"Young Aussie Sam Bramman is advocating for limiting access to nitrous oxide after becoming addicted to the gas at just 19 years old. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Young Aussie Sam Bramman is advocating for limiting access to nitrous oxide after becoming addicted to the gas at just 19 years old.  Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He said the addiction led to him losing any sense of \u201cright or wrong\u201d and he \u201cdefinitely would have died\u201d if his parents hadn\u2019t tracked him down in Tweed Heads to help him.<\/p>\n<p>Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/google-icon.84c242a8..png\" alt=\"Google News logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI was completely out of my mind. I was walking around the streets all day screaming at cars,\u201d Bramman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI was so different to who I was before I started trying nangs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He was placed into an involuntary stay in hospital which began his long road to recovering from the addiction. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Bramman has turned his life around in the several years since he first became addicted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He began running to help get past a depressive episode and later launched No2Nangs to advocate for legislative changes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">His story and advocacy led to Bramman being invited to stand beside NSW Health Minister Ryan Park to announce new laws which would make it harder for people to purchase nitrous oxide in the state. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The new legislation makes it illegal to sell nitrous oxide to people under the age of 18, offer same-day delivery, sell canisters larger than 10g or sell between the hours of 10pm-5am. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Retailers must also keep stock out of view from customers while suppliers will have to \u201ckeep accurate records of nitrous oxide sales for food, beverage or wholesale purposes\u201d. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/059213e6de686646d6313dd01dc240969e82bc3d.jpg\" alt=\"The pressurised gas is considered a \u2018harmless\u2019 party drug by some but can often lead to severe addiction and health issues, even death.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>The pressurised gas is considered a \u2018harmless\u2019 party drug by some but can often lead to severe addiction and health issues, even death. Credit: Matthew Horwood\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The ACT announced it would follow NSW\u2019s lead by introducing the same laws later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Bramman said it was surreal to look back at where he came from to make such a change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI was once addicted to this drug and I used my past experience with it to not just dwell on it and live my life in regret,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI chose to use that experience to build on my future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">But those efforts are far from done, as Bramman wants laws to change at a federal level to stop other states from lagging behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Queensland in particular has become a massive market for the sale of nangs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mobile phone apps have been launched dedicated to users getting rapid delivery of canisters as large as 4.6L despite laws prohibiting their sale for recreational use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Meanwhile, Victoria is described as the \u201cnang capital of Australia\u201d, with a range of canister sizes seen littered across Melbourne\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Bramman is now looking to expand on his charity work by working joining Track4Change, a 24-hour run with more than a dozen other runners to raise money for a number of causes such as the Cancer Council.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/more-numb-than-anything-aussies-stranded-in-cambodia-as-forever-cruise-shut-down-c-23090350\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\u2018More numb than anything\u2019: Aussies\u2019 life-at-sea dream ends abruptly<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">3 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/disaster-and-emergency\/extremely-distressing-8-year-old-girl-seriously-injured-in-wolf-attack-at-a-german-zoo-c-23091503\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Girl seriously injured after shocking attack at German zoo<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">1 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Bramman was fresh out of high school and enjoying his newfound freedom when he was introduced to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63564,1730,515942,43,44,5847,62245,84,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-948221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-act-news","tag-drugs","tag-drugs-alcohol","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nsw-news","tag-nsw-politics","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}