Investigation finds nitrous gas, known as whippets, being sold in several Pennsylvania smoke shops

By Liz Crawford, Nate Sylves

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — It’s not hard to find a smoke shop these days. From city corners to neighborhoods, they’re popping up everywhere and many sell e-cigarettes, vape products, cigars, and nitrous oxide, a gas also known as “whippets.”

That’s why a concerned father reached out to CBS News Philadelphia after he says his son became addicted to whippets. He wants to know how it’s legal to sell the product in smoke shops.

Lisa and Tim said that during their son’s college days, the drinking and partying seemed normal, but now looking back, it could have been a red flag. Soon after their son graduated and landed a job as a civil engineer, he became addicted to nitrous oxide. At the time, the couple, whose last name CBS News Philadelphia isn’t using to protect their son’s privacy, didn’t know much about the product, but they knew their son needed help.

“It causes a euphoria when you consume it, mostly through a process of depriving oxygen to the brain, and that will often lead to a feeling of high,” Dr. Daniel Neff, a psychiatrist at Mirmont Treatment Center, said.

Neff treats people for many kinds of addictions, including nitrous oxide.

“Sadly, I do have some cases where it becomes the primary drug of choice for someone, and those are very difficult cases to treat,” Neff said.

Over the last two years, Tim and Lisa said their son has been in and out of treatment centers at least six times, and with every relapse, his addiction worsens. Tim decided he needed to know more about his son’s addiction, like why he was inhaling whippets around the clock and why it was so easy for him to access.

“One of the unique things about it is that it’s a very short-lived high,” Neff said.

Once Tim understood why his son was using so much nitrous, he figured out why it was so easy for his son to find.

“You can go to any smoke shop and these days, there’s a smoke shop every five minutes as you go down the road. They sell them right there,” Tim said.

The parents said their son would buy out shops in his hometown on the regular. He’s able to buy large canisters that can cost up to $90.

The question is, should he have been allowed to buy it at all?

While, nitrous oxide can be sold for legitimate uses like in a dentist’s office for sedation or in a kitchen to make whipped cream, according to Pennsylvania law, it is illegal to sell nitrous oxide if there is reasonable cause to suspect that the product sold will be used for the purpose of causing a condition of intoxication by inhaling the fumes.

“You’d have to be pretty naïve not to see what it’s being used for,” Tim said.

CBS News Philadelphia went undercover and found whippets of all kinds in smoke shops in Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware counties. We found boxes of small canisters behind the glass counter and huge canisters displayed in the front window in many flavors. On South Street in Philadelphia, a nitrous oxide tank was for sale for $135 in apple flavor.

We reached out to several manufacturers of the products to ask if they monitor whether the gas they produce is being sold for legal purposes. A representative for ExoticWhip said the company “strongly condemns any misuse of nitrous oxide and firmly distances itself from any private sales for illegitimate purposes.”

An e-mail to CBS News Philadelphia said in part, “Our products — including ExoticWhip — are sold exclusively to verified businesses within the food and beverage industry, and our distributors undergo a comprehensive onboarding process requiring written commitments that the products will not be resold for inappropriate use.”

They also said there is a “growing concern” that counterfeit products are circulating and that they will look into the locations where we found their product to see if the sales were authorized.

Tim said his son has been able to find the products whenever he wants, so Tim notified a few police departments in the area about the widespread sale of whippets.

“One of the police chiefs responded, saying there’s nothing I can do because it’s hard to gauge intent,” Tim said.

Neff said it’s a tremendous problem, adding, “It is not tightly regulated. It’s readily available.”

Tim and Lisa said it’s a loophole in the law, and they want to get the law rewritten so no other family experiences this struggle.

One smoke shop owner in Philadelphia agreed to talk with CBS News Philadelphia but wanted to remain anonymous. The shop owner said it’s not their responsibility to ask what people are using the product for after they buy it.

The state of New Jersey requires a permit to sell nitrous oxide. Delaware, like Pennsylvania, does not regulate where it can be sold.

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