SC may outlaw ‘whippets.’ What’s the push to crack down on drug some say target teens

A loved one becoming addicted to nitrous oxide, also known as whippets or laughing gas, spurred Charleston County resident Michelle Beaver to advocate for reform on the flavored drug sold in vape stores.

The incident, and hearing from families who were negatively impacted by the drug, pushed her to ask her representatives in the South Carolina State House to do something about the recreational use of nitrous oxide.

Nitrous oxide is a gas some inhale to get a euphoric, high feeling. It can also cause dizziness or loss of consciousness, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s also the ‘laughing gas’ administered in doctor’s or dentist’s offices and helps foam whipped cream.

“It’s hard enough to battle the illicit substances that are flooding our streets,” Beaver told lawmakers Tuesday. “It’s even more perplexing to find that there are other drugs quietly and legally being sold in almost every vape, smoke shop and corner store that’s destroying our loved ones and tearing our families apart as well.”

Now, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Ed Sutton, D-Charleston, would restrict the sale of nitrous oxide in South Carolina. It would be illegal to sell whippets for recreational purposes and only adults could purchase nitrous oxide for some exempted reasons, like home cooking or prescribed pain management.

Sutton told lawmakers he didn’t know the recreational use of the drug was an issue until Beaver reached out to him.

“There’s this thing called Galaxy Gas, and it’s nitrous oxide,” Sutton said Tuesday. “But Galaxy Gas is a commercial marketing term, and it is flavored nitrous oxide that is being sold in vape shops. It is sold in a colorful packaging, and it’s so kids can get high on the stuff.”

The drug, also known as laughing gas, has several adverse health effects, including asphyxiation, blood clots and brain damage with regular use, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Deaths associated with the drug rose between 2010 and 2023 as more people used nitrous oxide recreationally, according to an article written by public health researchers at the University of Mississippi and the University of Illinois that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July 2025.

Nitrous oxide is also used for commercial and medical reasons, including food or beverage production and pain management at the doctor’s or dentist’s offices.

The nitrous oxide containers sold in vape stores are typically not for those purposes though, Sutton said. Brands sell the large canisters of nitrous oxide in a wide variety of sizes and sweet flavors, including birthday cake, mango pineapple and French vanilla. The bill wouldn’t allow flavored nitrous oxide to be sold in vape shops, Sutton told lawmakers.

“People, Betty homemaker, isn’t going to a vape shop to get massive cans of flavored nitrous oxide,” Sutton said.

Sally Foster, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association, said law enforcement supported a ban. But on a personal note, she told lawmakers she had a “dear friend” who took his life using nitrous purchased in Columbia and encouraged them to pass a ban.

“He was able to walk into a business gas distributor here in Columbia and purchase it,” Foster said. “He’s not a businessman. He was just suicidal.”

“This is a problem, and it impacts families,” she continued. “It impacts friends of these families.”

While the General Assembly only has five more full days before its legislative deadline, the bill still has a shot at becoming law this year. It cleared the state Senate unanimously in March, and an initial House panel gave the bill approval Tuesday.