‘No dosh, no NOS’: Interview with a laughing gas dealer

Nitrous oxide, it’s no laughing matter.


With tuition fees up to £9,000, prices rising higher than wages, and apparently everyone spending much monies on Wavey Garms, most students need a way to earn a bit of cash on the side.

We spoke to a couple students who have taken it upon themselves to sell Nitros Oxide to earn a little bit of extra money.

Laughing gas has caused a media hysteria of late as ‘hippy crack‘, and a few deaths caused this summer by NOS has led to a crack down on the drug.

One student dealer, named Daryl for purposes of anonymity, said “that’s just the good old British media trying to make a shit- storm out of nothing”.

Daryl said “I only started selling it because of how easy it is, it’s legal to buy it from shops in the first place.

“I sell shrooms sometimes as well but NOS is just so simple to sell”.

Another student, we are ironically going to call Frank, said that he sold it first at festivals but when he came back to campus it just continued.

“The price of NOS canisters ranges, but generally I buy them from around 40p each and sell them for £1.

“I made £140 in half an hour once”.

Unlike other drugs sold, both dealers agreed selling NOS just seems less criminal.

Frank said “NOS isn’t really something you sell in a dark alley to a stranger, it’s more of a house party sort of drug, there’s no owing any kingpins any money, and the guys you shot to will always have a quid or two on them so you are never owed any money either”

We asked Frank about the kind of guys, who because it is so cheap, will always try and scrape a couple free balloons, and he just said “no dosh, no NOS”.

So if it is so easy to buy it, and so easy to sell it, whats the downside?

Daryl said “you can get blisters from it, and you have to sell a lot to make a decent amount of money”

Instagram was full of celebrities this summer sucking away on a balloon, even Prince Harry has been heard to dabble, so we asked Frank where would he draw the line?

“I would never sell too much too one person, because it starves your brain of oxygen, but if Harry would want a balloon or two I’d be there for him.

“The Obamas, the Dalai Lama, I have no prejudice when it comes to selling NOS”

But NOS dealing isn’t quite as glamorous as cocaine with the stars, Frank told us “obviously the bait, everyday, run of the mill NOS shotter isnt gonna be sitting in his dorm room with fresh charges and a sack of one pound coins from last nights house party thinking he’s that bloke off Scarface.

“It’s more Rick Ross for the middle classes”.

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