NOS to become officially illegal in two weeks after teen’s death

The ban on laughing gas has finally started to come into effect, after a top policeman demanded a crackdown.

A bill restricting the sale of psychoactive substances nationwide being rushed through parliament. Anyone caught selling nitrous oxide could face a whopping seven years in prison.

This comes following the death of 18-year-old Ally Calvert, who police believed had inhaled a balloon before his death.

But his family have angrily denied laughing gas was involved in the tragedy, with a post-mortem proving inconclusive.

Yesterday, Metropolitan Police boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for an end to NOS in the run up to Notting Hill Carnival.

He told BBC London Radio: “This nitrous oxide is getting more popular. When I go out on patrol at the Notting Hill Carnival the street is littered with canisters.

“It obviously affects people’s behaviour and they get some kind of high from it. Just to be walking that distance, there is a huge amount of litter of this stuff about.

“There is a law going through this year in Parliament about psychoactive substances and I suspect it is one being considered and is going to be banned”.

Yesterday, Lambeth Borough Council became the first in the country to vote for a “Public Spaces Protection Order”, which bans the use and supply of legal highs in public areas.

The measures will come into effect on the 17th August, with offenders facing a £1,000 fine.

Councillor Jane Edbrooke said: “Legal highs are simply not safe – we saw that just days ago with the death of a teenager who had inhaled laughing gas.

“It is our duty to keep our residents safe and this new order should deter people from supplying and using legal highs in the borough.”

Although an estimated 500,000 young people a year use laughing gas, it can also lead to oxygen deprivation, loss of blood pressure, fainting and heart attacks.

17 Britons died after taking ‘hippy crack’ between 2006 and 2012.

18-year-old electrician Ally Calvert fell ill after a party in Bexley, South East London.

The Police said they believed he had “ingested nitrous oxide and alcohol” before he collapsed in the street and died.

However, a relative of Ally’s posted on Facebook that the legal high was not connected to his death.

Ally Calvert died in the early hours of Sunday morning

They wrote: “As a family, we would like to express how overwhelmed we have been by the recent loss of Ally.

“We can now confirm, that the use of balloons/nitrous oxide did NOT cause the death of our baby, as we originally knew anyway.

“Ally had an underlying heart condition which lead to his passing.

“Unfortunately, regardless of where he was, or who he was with at the time, his passing was inevitable and this is the facts.”