{"id":402599,"date":"2026-04-29T03:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402599\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T03:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:32:09","slug":"government-cracks-down-on-sales-of-nangs-dairy-and-vape-store-large-canister-sales-now-deemed-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402599\/","title":{"rendered":"Government cracks down on sales of nangs; dairy and vape store large-canister sales now deemed illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Branding such as \u201cL.A. Sokka\u201d and \u201cMiami Magic\u201d were considered \u201cclearly targeted towards kids\u201d, when sales to under-18s or suspected recreational users were prohibited, that meeting was told.<\/p>\n

Police issued written warnings<\/a> to Hawke\u2019s Bay dairies and vape stores, some of whom claimed to be unaware they were not to be sold for recreational use<\/a>. Court action was initiated in some neighbouring regions.<\/p>\n

Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Health Minister Simeon Brown said on Wednesday there was no reason for dairies or vape stores to be selling the up-to 3.3 litre canisters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry of Health has not identified any legitimate use for them and has not found evidence of caterers using canisters of this size,\u201d the ministers said.<\/p>\n

Their statement also announced nitrous oxide canisters over 10 grams would be automatically classified as psychoactive substances, regardless of claims they are intended for whipping cream.<\/p>\n

Imports of nitrous oxide would require approval from the Director-General of Health under the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and \u201cstronger settings\u201d would support law enforcement, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough recreational use of nitrous oxide is already illegal, misuse continues to grow and is becoming a serious public health concern,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harms can be significant and long-lasting and it is clear we need to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nitrous oxide does have legitimate medical and commercial uses, but recreational use is associated with real harm that is likely under-reported.<\/p>\n

In February, Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reported there had been at least two Hawke\u2019s Bay Hospital emergency department admissions<\/a> with nerve damage associated with misuse.<\/p>\n

Risks increase with heavy or repeated use, as enabled with the larger canisters, including damage to the nervous system and long-term neurological injury.<\/p>\n

Police were aware of serious and fatal crashes involving drivers inhaling, sometimes while driving.<\/p>\n

Mitchell said automatically classifying large canisters as psychoactive substances would make enforcement simpler and more effective for police.<\/p>\n

Anyone who sells or supplies nitrous oxide for the purpose of inducing a psychoactive effect already faces penalties of up to two years\u2019 imprisonment or fines of up to $500,000, but changes will \u201cclose loopholes\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga manu taiko Stewart Whyte, who helped call the January meeting, which sought a sales ban, said: \u201cWe are rapt that this has come from something started in this office. We were able to raise the issue and get the right people involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was surprised it had taken just three months, and was particularly pleased with the restrictions on imports.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than 50 years\u2019 experience in news gathering, with a particular concern for social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Branding such as \u201cL.A. Sokka\u201d and \u201cMiami Magic\u201d were considered \u201cclearly targeted towards kids\u201d, when sales to under-18s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,696,1558,56883,12639,40181,192015,7224,13023,6097,266,305,16484,207556,153431,111,43,139,48357,425,69,1118,90,48358,667,2735,653,1865,584,185923],"class_list":{"0":"post-402599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-announced","10":"tag-been","11":"tag-booted","12":"tag-crackdown","13":"tag-cracks","14":"tag-dairies","15":"tag-dairy","16":"tag-deemed","17":"tag-down","18":"tag-government","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-illegal","21":"tag-largecanister","22":"tag-nangs","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nitrous","27":"tag-now","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-of","30":"tag-on","31":"tag-oxide","32":"tag-sales","33":"tag-store","34":"tag-stores","35":"tag-today","36":"tag-trade","37":"tag-vape"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}