A trend of inhaling nitrous oxide from whipped cream chargers — also known as whippets — is raising concerns about substance abuse among young people, including on college campuses.

Galaxy Gas is a company that sells whipped cream chargers legally marketed as culinary products. They contain nitrous oxide, and recently, trends and social media videos have popularized inhaling the gas to get high, particularly among teens and young adults.

While people have been using nitrous oxide as a drug for decades, Galaxy Gas has been criticized for using designs that are appealing to young people and selling nitrous oxide with various flavors.

Social media posts are giving the drug wider exposure. Google searches for nitrous oxide and Galaxy Gas were at an all-time high this September.

Now the products have made their way to NC State — two four-corner stores and smoke shops surveyed on Hillsborough Street sold Galaxy Gas and another sold whippets of a different brand.

Jeffery Fay, alcohol and other drug education coordinator for Prevention Services, said the fast-acting drug can cause fits of laughter and decreased awareness. 

“It leads to dizziness,” Fay said. “Sometimes people laugh on it, which is why [it’s called] ‘laughing gas.’ It eases pain. Some research has said that it might even act on opioid receptors. So it has been used in some trials to assist with opioid withdrawal. It just changes your perspective.”

Fay said misusing nitrous oxide causes a range of lasting health issues.

“The repeated use of nitrous oxide can impact you neurologically,” Fay said. “It also impacts B-12, which leads to a lot of medical issues like neuropathy, nerve pain. It can impact the way that you walk. It impacts your memory. It impacts your mood. If you use a large quantity, it can induce a mental health crisis. You’ll see people who go to the emergency room because they’re having hallucinations, tactile, verbal, auditory hallucinations — psychosis.”

Patrice Nealson, a professor in marketing, compared Galaxy Gas’ advertising strategy to tobacco mascot Joe Camel. The mascot was portrayed with motorcycles or cars and the advertising was also placed in magazines for young people. 

Nealon said some of the branded merchandise Galaxy Gas sells, such as space-themed lunchboxes and ice buckets, speak to a younger demographic. She said she was not entirely sure if Galaxy Gas was targeting college students who want to get high on laughing gas. 

“But just looking at the advertising message, it doesn’t sync with their supposed target market,” Nealon said.

John Kuzenski, a professor of entrepreneurship with a concentration in business law, said it is legal to buy and own nitrous oxide, but selling it for recreational purposes and inhaling it is illegal. 

“If you’re saying one thing but doing another with kind of a wink and a nudge behind the scenes, then that can certainly be seen as bad faith by a court,” Kuzenski said. 

Kuzenski said this was the case with the Joe Camel ads, but he does not think this is the case with Galaxy Gas. 

Kuzenski said Galaxy Gas has disclaimers on their products stating that their product is not to be inhaled, and that potential customers also have to agree to a disclaimer not to inhale the products before they can visit the Galaxy Gas website. 

“Courts generally have sided in the favor of those kinds of what are called click wrap disclaimers in the Internet era,” Kuzenski said. 

Kuzenski said the company provides recipes for their flavored nitrous oxide products and even paused sales of their products.

“So by and large, I think the company is on reasonable legal footing here to say we’ve done what we can,” Kuzenski said.

Bill Rand, a professor in marketing and analytics, focuses his research on social media and said he saw posts about nitrous oxide when conducting his research — he sees parallels between e-cigarette companies such as Juul, which offered flavors like cotton candy or gummy bears, and Galaxy Gas’ flavors.

“In the e-cigarette case, different flavors, crazy flavors were one of the number one reasons why people below the age of 18 were using e-cigarettes,” Rand said. “I don’t think that’s too far from what the Galaxy Gas flavors are.” 

Rand said the freedom pop flavor that Galaxy Gas released in July is an example. 

“This is obviously a reference to ice cream popsicles,” Rand said. “That’s kind of a weird flavor choice for something that’s supposed to be an adult product.”

Rand said he could not find any official social media account of Galaxy Gas and that other users shared posts about how they inhale Galaxy Gas. 

Rand said of the posts mentioning Galaxy Gas, one post that educates about the dangers of inhaling nitrous oxide has the most impressions.