Nitrous Oxide

(N₂O, Laughing Gas, NOS, Hippie Crack, Whippets)

TrippyWiki score: 4.2/10

What is nitrous oxide?

Nitrous oxide is typically used in cars or whipping creams but it is also an inhalable dissociative that can produce extremely pleasant psychedelic-like experiences. The inhalant is often mixed with other psychedelics to multiply the intensity of the trip.

The drug is also commonly given to children by dentists. This leads people to believe that nitrous oxide is safe but that isn’t always the case. Nitrous oxide can cause permanent damage to your brain, even if you only take it occasionally.

Why take nitrous oxide?

Nitrous…

Can, just like other psychedelics, give you insights into the nature of reality
Is the 14th most popular drug globally, thus we have a lot of trip reports to learn from
Intensifies your experience on other psychedelics
Is safe in the short-term unless you take the substance the wrong way
Always gives you a pleasant experience and doesn’t cause a “bad trip”
Usually doesn’t cause nausea or physical discomfort
Has a very short duration

Long-term benefits & side effects

Many of the benefits will only occur if you combine nitrous oxide with other psychedelics.
Some of the side effects are preventable and they will not happen if you follow the Safety checklist.

Nitrous Oxide…

Can reduce symptoms of depression
Can lower your levels of stress and anxiety, including social anxiety
Might make you more creative and open-minded
Gives you insights into the nature of reality if you combine it with other psychedelics
Has the ability to make you more conscious and loving
Can help you transcend the fear of death
Helps cure addictions to other substances
Decreases symptoms of alcohol withdrawal
…

Can cause physical damage and even death if you take the substance the wrong way
Is extremely addictive
Depletes you of vitamin B12
Might speed up the onset of schizophrenia if you’re genetically predisposed to it
Is neurotoxic and will cause long-term damage to your brain if you take the substance regularly
Decreases your white-cell count over time
Has caused extreme, long-term physical pain to those who take or used to take the substance regularly
Can cause seizures in rare cases
Is illegal in many places and you might get arrested for getting involved with the substance
…

How to take nitrous oxide?

There are 2 types of nitrous oxide: medical-grade and food-grade. If you can get your hands on medical-grade nitrous oxide, do it.

Food-grade nitrous oxide contains many impurities that cause a big portion of the neurotoxic effects. If you can only buy this form, do not take nitrous oxide too often if you don’t want to damage your brain.

Administration

You will need 3 things to take nitrous oxide:

8-gram N₂O charges (whippers)
Cracker (dispenser) with a rubber grip – if yours doesn’t have a rubber grip, use gloves
Balloon

Do not inhale directly from the cracker! N₂O is extremely cold and inhaling it directly can be lethal!

1) Put a balloon on a cracker
2) Twist the cracker to open the whipper
3) Twist the cracker back again and the balloon will fill up
4) If you want to add another 8-gram charge into your balloon, hold the tip of your cracker and reload. Beware that your balloon may not handle 16 grams and might pop.

Once your balloon is full, do not just inhale and exhale the inside of the balloon until you start tripping. Nearly every user makes this mistake and it will amplify the long-term side effects.

A much safer way to take nitrous is to inhale from the balloon, then inhale the air outside, then exhale outside of the balloon, and repeat 2-3 times.

This method ensures that your brain will stay oxygenated and the substance will be less neurotoxic. Breathing this way should also give you a more pleasant and predictable experience.

Sit down before you breathe the gas, or else you might fall.

Dosage

4-8 grams = Light dose
8-16 grams= Regular dose
16-40 grams = Strong dose
40 grams = High dose

1 whippet almost always contains 8 grams of Nitrous.

Since 8 grams should give you the desired effect, taking more is not recommended if you value your brain health.

Safety checklist

Integration

Keep in mind that integration is even more important than the trip itself. Taking psychedelics would be almost useless if you didn’t retain any lessons in your day-to-day life.

What will help you the most is contemplating about the experience – be it by journaling, thinking about the trip, or sharing your memories with a trusted friend.

Distracting thoughts can get in the way, which is why you want to spend the day after your trip without TV, social media, and other distractions.

If you can, spend time in silence and solitude. Meditate, go for a walk, contemplate the experience.

Duration

Onset = 0-1 minute
Peak = 15-30 seconds
Come down = 2-3 minutes
After effects = 10-30 minutes

You should notice the first effects within 20 seconds after you take the psychedelic
You will reach the maximum effect around the 1-minute mark
The whole trip usually lasts for 1-3 minutes
At heroic doses, your trip may last for even longer (up to 5 minutes in rare cases)

What does nitrous feel like?

Unlike other psychedelics/dissociatives, nitrous oxide is almost always going to give you a pleasant experience.

The drug is called laughing gas because it makes you laugh uncontrollably. People who try nitrous for the first time are probably going to laugh harder than they ever did in their lives.

As a dissociative, nitrous makes you disconnect from objects around you and, at higher doses, from the physical reality.

At higher doses, you are likely to notice some psychedelic effects. Spiritual insights are common to obtain but hard to retain.

You may go unconscious during the peak which is why you shouldn’t take the substance in a standing position.

Other short-term effects include:

Massive euphoria
A tingling sensation
Increased creativity and open-mindedness
Mindfulness, being present
Higher capability for love and compassion
Pain relief
Feeling one with all that is
Seeing life from a different perspective
Higher energy
Increased awareness
Sexual arousal
Feeling your emotions more intensely
Memory suppression
Time distortion
Visual effects (enhanced colors, distortions, …)
Increased heart rate
Headaches
Nausea
Vomiting
Anxiety, paranoia
Hypoxia
Vulnerability

The higher dose you take, the more intense these effects will be.

With that said, it is impossible to accurately describe the experience through human language.

Bad trips rarely happen on this substance.

You can combine laughing gas with other psychedelics to enhance their effects. This is the best method if you wish to reap benefits from N₂O. More on this in the Interactions section.

Interactions

Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin)
Nitrous oxide depletes you of vitamin B12 at a rapid rate. If you are already B12 deficient, the neurotoxic effects of laughing gas will be multiplied. Choose methylcobalamin instead of cyanocobalamin and take doses of 500-1000 mcg/day.
Qualia Mind
Along with 1000 mcg of methylcobalamin, Qualia contains 27 other ingredients designed to support and maximize your brain function. These ingredients act synergistically and many of them will protect you from the neurotoxic effects of nitrous.
LSD
Nitrous multiplies the effects of LSD exponentially. At the same time, it makes the experience more pleasant and decreases your chance of getting a bad trip.
Magic mushrooms
Just like LSD, magic mushrooms are great to combine with nitrous oxide.
DMT
DMT with laughing gas can give you the most intense and pleasant feeling you’ve ever experienced.
Weed
Marijuana also gets potentiated by laughing gas. The experience might be more pleasant but we don’t know whether or not it is safe for your brain long-term.
MDMA
Both of these substances are neurotoxic and the side effects may and may not multiply. With that said, combining N₂O and MDMA is safe in the short-term and will almost certainly give you a pleasant experience.
Dissociatives
Combining nitrous with other dissociatives isn’t common and there are not many trip reports on this. Just like MDMA, most dissociatives are neurotoxic so combining them with N₂O might increase the side effects.
Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, …)
Benzos will decrease the intensity of your experience and using this method may cause you side effects in the long-run.
Alcohol
Alcohol minimizes all the potential benefits the experience and makes nitrous more neurotoxic. If you take the two together, you are also likely to become more addicted to each of them. On top of that, the combination is likely going to make you unconscious and you may suffer from vomit aspiration.
Opioids, GHB, GBL
The problem of combining these with laughing gas is virtually the same as with alcohol.
Stimulants
The combination might lead to heart problems.
Tramadol
Combining the two can cause seizures.

Legality

As of 2021, food-grade nitrous oxide is completely legal.

If medical-grade nitrous is legal in your country, choose it over food-grade because it is a lot safer.

It is illegal to produce or supply nitrous oxide for recreational purposes but there is no penalty for possession.

FAQ

There is no such thing as tolerance to N20 but because of its long-term side effects, it is recommended to take the drug as little as possible. Taking nitrous oxide on a daily or even weekly basis will cause irreversible damage to your brain.

The drug prevents oxygen from entering your brain. The effects of the substance are a result of this oxygen deprivation.

Most importantly, you need to trip in a safe place where there are no dangerous objects around.

If you are a mentally stable individual, there is virtually no way you would develop any serious mental illnesses because of taking the drug.

The drug can be detected in your urine only for a few minutes after you’ve taken it. On top of that, a regular drug test would not detect anything.

The gas has a slightly sweet smell and taste.

While it is not dangerous to eat before inhaling the substance, it is not recommended either because N2O might cause you mild nausea. If you can, stop eating 2-3 hours before taking the drug.

Kids
Those who prioritize their long-term brain function
Immature people who are not willing to follow the safety guidelines
People who suffer from psychosis
People who have a familial history of schizophrenia
Those who suffer from HPPD
People who are going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder
If you’re going through extremely challenging times, you can take psychedelics but the trips might be unpleasant, beware of that

Food-grade nitrous usually costs around $1-$2 per 8-gram whippet. The substance is significantly cheaper when you buy it in bulk but think twice before buying a lot of it.

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