Around midnight on June 6 last year, when the Islamic festival Eid was being celebrated in Tower Hamlets, east London, a black BMW with tinted windows spun wildly out of control, mounted the kerb on Cotton Street and crashed into the pedestrian barriers with enough force to snap the metal from its concrete foundations.
asserted
BMW → celebrate → foundations
With shrapnel strewn across the tarmac and traffic at a standstill, a man climbed out of the driver’s seat, hood up and eyes down.
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hood → strew → seat
He threw the balloon back into the car before escaping uneasily on foot, in footage released online and first reported by news website London Centric.
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He → throw → Centric
When the Daily Mail visited the scene of the crash six months on, 47-year-old Vas – who walks down Cotton Street to work each day – tells us: ‘I don’t even notice anymore when a driver round here is sucking on one of those balloons.
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driver → visit → balloons
But I do walk as far from the road as possible because they’re out of control – it’s a death-trap.
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it → walk → control
The past few years has seen a huge increase in the number of drug-driving cases involving nitrous oxide.
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years → see → oxide
And many have taken place in areas with large South Asian populations such as Tower Hamlets, which has the highest number of Muslim residents in England and Wales at 40 per cent.
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which → take → cent
While laughing gas is not restricted to any one demographic, Alastair Noyce – professor of neurology at Queen Mary University of London – revealed that since 2022, 80 per cent of nitrous oxide admissions to his hospital, The London Bridge Hospital in central London, have been South Asian patients, the vast majority of them men.
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majority → laugh → them
Nos, it seems, has become the drug of choice for many young British South Asian Muslims who – according to one Imam – erroneously believe it not to be ‘haram’ or forbidden like alcohol under their religious code.
uncertain
it → seem → code
The result is a huge spike nationally, particularly around the most diverse parts of east London, Burnley, Manchester and Birmingham – where police seized £30,000 worth of nitrous oxide canisters in a raid on an industrial estate in December.
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police → seize → December
The past few years has seen a huge increase in the number of drug-driving cases involving nitrous oxide
Police seized £30,000 worth of nitrous oxide canisters in a raid on an industrial estate in Birmingham in December
On a street corner near the grand East London Mosque, in Tower Hamlets, five teenagers of South Asian heritage are chomping on fast food and cracking jokes, their large, branded, black puffer coats drawn up over their school uniforms.
‘How much do you want?’ one asks – to a chorus of laughs when we asked whether they knew where to buy laughing gas.
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they → see → gas
Never heard of it,’ says another – who gave his name as Omir – causing a further riotous outburst from his mates.
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who → hear → mates
It doesn’t take long to realise, walking down the Mile End Road and past Whitechapel Underground station, where Tube signs are written in Bengali, that in this corner of Tower Hamlets, nitrous oxide is as commonplace as fruity vapes and fizzy pop.
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oxide → take → vapes
Chatting to us while being fitted for a new thobe (traditional Islamic dress), 38-year-old Michael, who lives in the borough, tells us: ‘It’s a major problem.
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It → chat → us
I walk up this road most days and you’ll see young men behind the wheel with a balloon in their mouths, not caring, not trying to hide it.
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you → walk → it
‘It’s like they see it as a cool thing.
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they → ’ → thing
It makes them feel stronger than they are and they show off.’
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they → make → ?
Imam Dr Taj Hargey from the Oxford Institute of British Islam explains: ‘There are two main reasons why young Muslim men are going into drugs and all types of antisocial behaviour.
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men → explain → behaviour
‘First these young people are disenfranchised, alienated and disaffected with British society.
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people → disenfranchise → society
Many of them don’t finish school.
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Many → finish → school
They don’t go on to college or get further training.
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They → go → training
And they end up a shelf stacker or Uber driver.
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they → end → stacker
‘Secondly, the Imams don’t talk about what really matters to them.
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what → talk → them
Many come from Pakistan or Egypt, and they have the “old country” mentality which has no relevance, no pertinence to a young Muslim born in Burnley, Blackburn or Birmingham.
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which → come → Burnley
‘And when you have sermons that don’t talk about issues that matter, the youth are going to be switched off.
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youth → have → issues
And instead, they’re going to be switched on by laughing gas, nitrous oxide, weed and other drugs.’
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they → go → gas
In 2023, the council started a scheme called Know The Risk which sought to educate young people on the dangers of the drug.
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which → start → drug
‘Tower Hamlets has led the way with campaigns to educate people about the dangers of its use, and to tackle issues connected to it such as antisocial behaviour and littering,’ said a spokesman.
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spokesman → lead → behaviour
However, for some, the message simply isn’t getting through.
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message → get → some
Afrobeats singer Adekunle Gold, known as ‘Big Fish’ – who posts videos about living in Tower Hamlets – warns the number of ‘balloon smackheads’ in the borough has ‘blown up’ over recent years.
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number → know → years
More than 1,000 residents have signed a petition calling for action on the number of ‘drivers visibly using nitrous oxide’.
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residents → sign → oxide
Fatalities linked to laughing gas remain an issue across the country – and are not confined to any one community.
Grandmother Helen Klich, 67, retired from a 25-year career in the NHS just six days before she was killed in a car crash in Staffordshire by a driver high on Nos in December 2023.
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she → link → December
Thomas Johnson, 19, crashed his car in Oxfordshire while high on the drug, killing three teenage passengers in June of the same year.
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Johnson → crash → year
And more recently in February last year, 28-year-old Arran Donnelly lost control of his vehicle in Stockport after inhaling Nos, killing his sole passenger Ryan Evans, aged 27.
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Donnelly → lose → passenger
In September last year Baroness Caroline Pidgeon warned in the House of Lords that a ‘serious increase’ in drivers under the influence of Nos represented a ‘deadly danger’ to public safety.
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increase → warn → safety
To make matters worse, police and crime commissioner of the West Midlands, Simon Foster, has admitted that ‘it’s a greater challenge’ to catch those using Nos, rather than other drugs or alcohol, behind the wheel.
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it → make → wheel
‘I don’t think there is a test that can be used as there can, for example, in relation to a breathalyser or blood test for drug use,’ he declared.
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he → think → use
But what makes this latest surge in the recreational use of Nos all the more frustrating is that authorities promised to get a grip of the problem back in 2023 when the gas was made a Class C illegal drug.
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gas → make → 2023
Since then, numbers have continued to surge.
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numbers → continue → ?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests 3.3 per cent of people aged between 16 and 24 used the drug in the year ending March 2024.
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cent → suggest → year
…and 37 more, not listed.
The Aporia
