It may be no laughing matter for Whip-It fans and Phish tour participants, as Supervisor Danny Sauter wants to ban the sale of nitrous oxide in San Francisco, in SF\u2019s latest nanny-state hippycrackdown.<\/p>\n
Of all of the drugs causing social ills in San Francisco, you would probably have to put nitrous oxide, aka Whip-Its or laughing gas, at the bottom of that list. Fentanyl killed nearly 750 San Franciscans last year<\/a>, nitrous oxide killed precisely zero<\/a>. <\/p>\n Oh sure, there were a couple of wacky incidents where a guy got busted with 100 tanks of nitrous outside the Dead & Company show<\/a>, and where Bob Lee murder \u00a0trial<\/a> character Khazar Momeni was allegedly huffing Whip-Its in her car and got charged with a DUI hit-and-run<\/a>. But these occurrences were mostly just a source of giggles, and were not really tragic.<\/p>\n Yet the SF Board of Supervisors may have another schoolmarm episode like that attempted 2010 Happy Meal ban<\/a> that brought national mockery onto our city<\/a>. At Tuesday\u2019s SF Board of Supervisors meeting, District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter proposed a complete ban on the sale of nitrous oxide in San Francisco. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n \u201cI am introducing a drafting request to prohibit the sale of nitrous oxide,\u201d Sauter declared at Tuesday’s board meeting. \u201cThe recreational use of nitrous oxide, often referred to as laughing gas or Whip-Its, has been exploding in popularity in San Francisco, and across the US.\u201d <\/p>\n Sauter does have a point that nitrous-huffing is on the rise<\/a>, though public health researchers concede that \u201cdeaths have remained fairly small compared to other dangerous substances.\u201d <\/p>\n But a number of other California municipalities are jumping on the nitrous-banning bandwagon. San Mateo County has banned the retail sale of Whip-Its<\/a> and other forms of nitrous, as has Santa Cruz County and the City of San Jose<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sauter also complained that “nitrous oxide canisters create other problems, too. A San Francisco Standard article last year<\/a> noted widespread reports of canisters being found littered on streets, sidewalks, and parks.\u201d <\/p>\n I live right off Mission Street, and this is something I have not personally ever seen. But on a nearly everyday basis, I see discarded marijuana joints on the sidewalk, which any kid could just pick up and take a hit from.<\/p>\n State law already prohibits recreational nitrous use, but smoke shops and head shops use the implausible technicality that they\u2019re selling \u201ccream canisters\u201d for making whipped cream products. And yes, there is probably a surge in popularity of nitrous-huffing since the new larger canisters<\/a> started appearing in head shops, replacing the legacy “cracker” model. <\/p>\n But banning nitrous oxide still feels like a solution in search of a problem, in a city like San Francisco that already has an endless supply of drug problems.<\/p>\n