September 21, 2024 • 9 mins
The Government is working on a potential next step for addressing recreational nitrous oxide use.
New Medsafe advice says nitrous products, or nangs, sold for recreational use, fall under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, and are now illegal.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti, says the rising use of the drug is a trend seen globally in countries like Australia and the UK.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks,
i'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You want to nitrosyxide beverage yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Politics Central.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, there's the reason we played that, and I'm sure
my first interview he might be familiar with the dentist
from the Little Shop of Horrors, which talks who perhaps
over indulges in nitrous oxide. Anyway, the government is taking
urgent action to create stronger penalties for the recreational use
of nitros oxide after Medsafe's advice to put it under
these Psychoactive Substances Act twenty thirteen. So while the gas
(00:43):
has several legitimate uses, the number of people using it
recreationally is steadily increasing, often with extremely harmful effects. And
Health Minister Doctor Shane Retti joins me. Now, good afternoon, you, good.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Afternoon, Tim. I hadn't joined the dots with your previous
audio with dental but as I reflect back now, I
do so good. Fine.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, actually we did have some music jacked up just
to jog everyone's memory on that, but unfortunately our system
crash just as we're going to wear so we just
had to go cold with the Steve Martin's dentist.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now what is nitros oxide.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Oh, so nitros oxide. Obviously, it's a gas and it's
used for a range of purposes. In health, you use
it for a low level pain, really so for example
during delivery. It's often been a first go to for
some parts of delivery. Nitrosoxide. You are correct, it has
been used in dental. You could use it in any
low level pain, low, lowered and quite yeah, I guess
(01:42):
it is an anesthetic if you like, but very low
level pain you can use nitrosoxide. Whoever, it also has
another use that is industrially. It can be used for
in baking products, you know, whipping cream, adding substance to
cream for example. And one of my colleagues was telling
me also some parts potentially of rocket fuel, and maybe
even some high performance vehicles may use just a little
(02:03):
bit of nitrous So it's got a range of uses.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So why are people Why do people take it recreationally.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Because they get a high from it, the same high
you get when you seek pain relief. Is it as
a high? Obviously, it's a sense of euphoria as that
pain is relieved, and so people take it recreationally to
get that sense of euphoria.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So what's the danger then, Oh, the.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Danger is not insignificant at least three things. First of all,
altered consciousness. So as you take the nitrous and you
get that sense of euphoria, you can get a dizziness
and a lapse of consciousness, which can lead to accidents
and as you'd understand, if their vaulted consciousness. Secondly, there
can be mental health implications. There are reports of low
(02:51):
mood of frank psychosis with frequent and sustained use of
nitrous but also a nerve damage, so it causes a
myelopathy or a neuropathy, that is a damage of nerves,
particularly nerves out to the prephrey, out to fingers, toes,
upper limbs, lower limbs are causing a loss of sensation
and a weakness and for some people that can be permanent. Unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So obviously you're not going to stop legitimate use. So
what difference pragmatically do you think this legislation will make.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
So this has been the challenge not just for us
but for other jurisdictions. How do you not stop legitimate use,
but how do you stop recreational use? And so what's
happened here is for a While the thinking was that
the legislation that this came under was as an illegal
medicine the Medicines Act, and in some instances that had teeth,
in other instances it was hard to administer med Safe
(03:44):
have reached the determination that no, this is now and
when it's used for recreational use and illegal, unapproved psychoactive substance,
and that brings a different range of tools and a
different range of consequences, a lot more serious in some ways,
and as much as that there can actually be prison
sentences under the Psychoactive Substances Act, so fundamental different tool set,
(04:06):
pointing much more directly at those retailers. Mind you, it
can also be for possession and for use, but for
supply of nit yours oxide for recreational use, the Psychoactors
Substances Actor is now coming for you.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
What about And look, I just have to be inventive
on this. But I can imagine a vape shop might
still want to try and sell it and say, hey, look,
whip your cream with this great substance. We've got bakers
by this, and they just say, well, we're just advertising
it for baking use. How are you going to get
around the smart Alex.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Who just will pretend it's for some other use.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So what I'd say to that is a specialty baked
store is only for specialty bakes. You are there for
recreational baps. Therefore, products in your shop are not for
legitimate baking purposes. They are for recreational use. You must
not sell moosoxide from the specialty vape shop other stores
that have a mix of vape and legitimate food premises.
(05:02):
That's still something that we're needing to test, and this
is the first stage. There are other things that we're
looking to bring around this. For example, some of what
we're seeing in the international environment, for example West Australia
is something to look at where they're fundamentally about to
enable legislation that says you can only get so many
vage canisters and only from a registered food business. So
(05:22):
we're looking to see what in the international environment can
be our second tranch of things that we can bring
to this.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
How much of this is sort of just bringing out.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
A law to focus an issue on something that people
are doing casually, which is actually you know, there's an
educational side to it. You're trying to adjust people's behavior.
It's like, look this isn't cool, don't do it?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, the law was already there, it's not a new law.
But when we look at these consequences and the increasing harm,
we've certainly had concerns in our domestic environment. The international
environments have as well. And I've put to you that
anything that runs the risk of causing permanent nerve damage
is at least significant enough to be doing something with.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What do you do from an educational point of view
with this stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Oh? So it would be like you woul dream much
to do with smoke free and with alcohol. There is
that educational transfer of knowledge that this is not inconsequential.
It might seem like a single moment of euphoria, but
that one it can have addictive properties, and two there
are long term, sometimes irreversible consequences of using this product
(06:28):
and putting that information in front of people so that
they're able to make a benefit analysis. Is where the
educational component would be.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Are you able to observe any changes in behavior or
the abuse of the substance? From overseas legislation.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
So, some of this is relatively new in a wide
range of approaches. So in the UK they've made it
a type C controlled drug whereas as they stay in
Western Australia they look at regulating retailers as food businesses
or otherwise. So hard to see at this stage what
the sweet spot is from an intervention perspective. But we
(07:11):
don't want to wait, so we'll take any initial information
we can get from these overseas jurisdictions that we can
then put aside alongside what we're announcing today. As Tranch one,
we'll look to deploy the best of what we see offshore.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
What would you be saying to someone who, like if
you had a relative or someone new knews a young
person in your family was abusing this stuff, what would
your message be to them personally?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My measures to them would be, you run the risk
of permanent damage. You run the risk of having permanent
numbness in your fingers or your toes, and having permanent
weakness in your arms and your legs. That is not
worth a momentary high from this product. That would be
what I'd be saying to them.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Us there to do it for me.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Just a couple more questions on just something else I
just said. Lester Levey had a few challenges thrown at
him last week about the fact he was still teaching.
How are you feeling about the job he's doing and
his focus on reforming his role as the chair.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Yeah, I did see that last week. And what people
don't see as the very late night conversations is a
bit like my boss PM. Actually they work all night
and that's exactly what Lister does as well. And when
he said I believen one of his interviews, Look, I
do eight to twelve hours a day. I suspect it's
even more than that. Actually, he is totally committed to
this role. Yes, there are other things that he can
(08:24):
do with a structured life and organized diary, you can
do there, but here's one hundred percent committed to this role.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Excellent. I really appreciate your time this afternoon, Shane.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Enjoy the rest of your day, mate, say well, good on, Yeah, thanks,
that's Shane Retty, Doctor Shane RETTI should I say Ministry
of Health on the crackdown on nitrosox side? Actually, you
know what, if we're going to take anything out of
that interview, it was the advice that I that I
suggested that I asked he would give, and it's like, well,
you want to have permanent numberless and the medical consequences
and the risks you're taking job done for me, So
(08:56):
I think they're a huge part of this.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
It's just education, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to news talks.
It'd be weekends from three pm. Follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks,
i'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You want to nitrosyxide beverage yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Politics Central.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, there's the reason we played that, and I'm sure
my first interview he might be familiar with the dentist
from the Little Shop of Horrors, which talks who perhaps
over indulges in nitrous oxide. Anyway, the government is taking
urgent action to create stronger penalties for the recreational use
of nitros oxide after Medsafe's advice to put it under
these Psychoactive Substances Act twenty thirteen. So while the gas
(00:43):
has several legitimate uses, the number of people using it
recreationally is steadily increasing, often with extremely harmful effects. And
Health Minister Doctor Shane Retti joins me. Now, good afternoon, you, good.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Afternoon, Tim. I hadn't joined the dots with your previous
audio with dental but as I reflect back now, I
do so good. Fine.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, actually we did have some music jacked up just
to jog everyone's memory on that, but unfortunately our system
crash just as we're going to wear so we just
had to go cold with the Steve Martin's dentist.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now what is nitros oxide.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Oh, so nitros oxide. Obviously, it's a gas and it's
used for a range of purposes. In health, you use
it for a low level pain, really so for example
during delivery. It's often been a first go to for
some parts of delivery. Nitrosoxide. You are correct, it has
been used in dental. You could use it in any
low level pain, low, lowered and quite yeah, I guess
(01:42):
it is an anesthetic if you like, but very low
level pain you can use nitrosoxide. Whoever, it also has
another use that is industrially. It can be used for
in baking products, you know, whipping cream, adding substance to
cream for example. And one of my colleagues was telling
me also some parts potentially of rocket fuel, and maybe
even some high performance vehicles may use just a little
(02:03):
bit of nitrous So it's got a range of uses.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So why are people Why do people take it recreationally.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Because they get a high from it, the same high
you get when you seek pain relief. Is it as
a high? Obviously, it's a sense of euphoria as that
pain is relieved, and so people take it recreationally to
get that sense of euphoria.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So what's the danger then, Oh, the.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Danger is not insignificant at least three things. First of all,
altered consciousness. So as you take the nitrous and you
get that sense of euphoria, you can get a dizziness
and a lapse of consciousness, which can lead to accidents
and as you'd understand, if their vaulted consciousness. Secondly, there
can be mental health implications. There are reports of low
(02:51):
mood of frank psychosis with frequent and sustained use of
nitrous but also a nerve damage, so it causes a
myelopathy or a neuropathy, that is a damage of nerves,
particularly nerves out to the prephrey, out to fingers, toes,
upper limbs, lower limbs are causing a loss of sensation
and a weakness and for some people that can be permanent. Unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So obviously you're not going to stop legitimate use. So
what difference pragmatically do you think this legislation will make.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
So this has been the challenge not just for us
but for other jurisdictions. How do you not stop legitimate use,
but how do you stop recreational use? And so what's
happened here is for a While the thinking was that
the legislation that this came under was as an illegal
medicine the Medicines Act, and in some instances that had teeth,
in other instances it was hard to administer med Safe
(03:44):
have reached the determination that no, this is now and
when it's used for recreational use and illegal, unapproved psychoactive substance,
and that brings a different range of tools and a
different range of consequences, a lot more serious in some ways,
and as much as that there can actually be prison
sentences under the Psychoactive Substances Act, so fundamental different tool set,
(04:06):
pointing much more directly at those retailers. Mind you, it
can also be for possession and for use, but for
supply of nit yours oxide for recreational use, the Psychoactors
Substances Actor is now coming for you.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
What about And look, I just have to be inventive
on this. But I can imagine a vape shop might
still want to try and sell it and say, hey, look,
whip your cream with this great substance. We've got bakers
by this, and they just say, well, we're just advertising
it for baking use. How are you going to get
around the smart Alex.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Who just will pretend it's for some other use.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So what I'd say to that is a specialty baked
store is only for specialty bakes. You are there for
recreational baps. Therefore, products in your shop are not for
legitimate baking purposes. They are for recreational use. You must
not sell moosoxide from the specialty vape shop other stores
that have a mix of vape and legitimate food premises.
(05:02):
That's still something that we're needing to test, and this
is the first stage. There are other things that we're
looking to bring around this. For example, some of what
we're seeing in the international environment, for example West Australia
is something to look at where they're fundamentally about to
enable legislation that says you can only get so many
vage canisters and only from a registered food business. So
(05:22):
we're looking to see what in the international environment can
be our second tranch of things that we can bring
to this.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
How much of this is sort of just bringing out.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
A law to focus an issue on something that people
are doing casually, which is actually you know, there's an
educational side to it. You're trying to adjust people's behavior.
It's like, look this isn't cool, don't do it?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, the law was already there, it's not a new law.
But when we look at these consequences and the increasing harm,
we've certainly had concerns in our domestic environment. The international
environments have as well. And I've put to you that
anything that runs the risk of causing permanent nerve damage
is at least significant enough to be doing something with.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What do you do from an educational point of view
with this stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Oh? So it would be like you woul dream much
to do with smoke free and with alcohol. There is
that educational transfer of knowledge that this is not inconsequential.
It might seem like a single moment of euphoria, but
that one it can have addictive properties, and two there
are long term, sometimes irreversible consequences of using this product
(06:28):
and putting that information in front of people so that
they're able to make a benefit analysis. Is where the
educational component would be.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Are you able to observe any changes in behavior or
the abuse of the substance? From overseas legislation.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
So, some of this is relatively new in a wide
range of approaches. So in the UK they've made it
a type C controlled drug whereas as they stay in
Western Australia they look at regulating retailers as food businesses
or otherwise. So hard to see at this stage what
the sweet spot is from an intervention perspective. But we
(07:11):
don't want to wait, so we'll take any initial information
we can get from these overseas jurisdictions that we can
then put aside alongside what we're announcing today. As Tranch one,
we'll look to deploy the best of what we see offshore.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
What would you be saying to someone who, like if
you had a relative or someone new knews a young
person in your family was abusing this stuff, what would
your message be to them personally?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My measures to them would be, you run the risk
of permanent damage. You run the risk of having permanent
numbness in your fingers or your toes, and having permanent
weakness in your arms and your legs. That is not
worth a momentary high from this product. That would be
what I'd be saying to them.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Us there to do it for me.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Just a couple more questions on just something else I
just said. Lester Levey had a few challenges thrown at
him last week about the fact he was still teaching.
How are you feeling about the job he's doing and
his focus on reforming his role as the chair.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Yeah, I did see that last week. And what people
don't see as the very late night conversations is a
bit like my boss PM. Actually they work all night
and that's exactly what Lister does as well. And when
he said I believen one of his interviews, Look, I
do eight to twelve hours a day. I suspect it's
even more than that. Actually, he is totally committed to
this role. Yes, there are other things that he can
(08:24):
do with a structured life and organized diary, you can
do there, but here's one hundred percent committed to this role.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Excellent. I really appreciate your time this afternoon, Shane.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Enjoy the rest of your day, mate, say well, good on, Yeah, thanks,
that's Shane Retty, Doctor Shane RETTI should I say Ministry
of Health on the crackdown on nitrosox side? Actually, you
know what, if we're going to take anything out of
that interview, it was the advice that I that I
suggested that I asked he would give, and it's like, well,
you want to have permanent numberless and the medical consequences
and the risks you're taking job done for me, So
(08:56):
I think they're a huge part of this.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
It's just education, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to news talks.
It'd be weekends from three pm. Follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.