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here's a writeup that really stuck with me for the last decade about the surprising level of organized crime in selling nitrous at music festivals: https://www

here's a writeup that really stuck with me for the last decade about the surprising level of organized crime in selling nitrous at music festivals: https://www.villagevoice.com/2010/07/06/inside-the-nitrous-mafia-an-east-coast-hippie-crack-ring/ https://www.villagevoice.com/2010/07/06/inside-the-nitrous-m...

okareaman 6y ago
Headshop owners who sell nitrous to obviously addicted people are generally not good citizens. I'd guess they make most of their profit from addicts like me. I only got cut off once after a 2wk/$10k run when I was almost too sick and incoherent to make a purchase. Every other store gladly kept selling to me when I was in that condition.
Scoundreller 6y ago
It’s (comparatively) very cheap in bulk tank form. But that’s much harder to come by for most people. The small whippets cartridges... you’re paying for the steel, getting a gas in there and markups. If they filled it with room air, it would cost the same.
- okareaman 6y ago
  I could have looked for tanks to save money, but I surely would have died that way. I could control intake with cartridges because the limiting factor was that you had to keep cracking them. A case of 600 whippets one after another would last about 5 hours, so 2 a minute. I've heard too many stories of people dying with tanks.
  - rsync 6y ago
    Forgive me ... I am completely naive regarding this subject but find these descriptions both fascinating and confusing... Do I understand: if you're on a whippet bender you have to do a thing every 30 seconds ? It seems like that would interrupt and greatly diminish whatever pleasurable effects the substance was giving you ... in fact, it sounds somewhat stressful ...
    - sneak 6y ago
      You can put 2-3 into a dispensing canister at a time, but yes, every 60-90 seconds it requires interaction. This has probably saved a lot of lives, tbh. It's hard to suffocate yourself if doing so requires motor skills.
      - Scoundreller 6y ago
        In Australia, their paramedics have Penthrox tubes that have an anesthetic in them. The idea is that the patient can self-administer, but if they over do it, they get too messed up to operate the thing until it wears off again.
    - badconvincer 6y ago
      Yes, it’s a fleeting rush. I’ve probably done nitrous 5-6 times over a couple of decades but I can see the allure.
    - okareaman 6y ago
      Cracking whippets is like popping bubble wrap. It's a pleasant repetitive motion that becomes part of automatic muscle memory after a while. It becomes a meditation, like praying the rosary.

okareaman 6y ago

Headshop owners who sell nitrous to obviously addicted people are generally not good citizens. I'd guess they make most of their profit from addicts like me. I only got cut off once after a 2wk/$10k run when I was almost too sick and incoherent to make a purchase. Every other store gladly kept selling to me when I was in that condition.

Scoundreller 6y ago

It’s (comparatively) very cheap in bulk tank form. But that’s much harder to come by for most people. The small whippets cartridges... you’re paying for the steel, getting a gas in there and markups. If they filled it with room air, it would cost the same.

okareaman 6y ago
I could have looked for tanks to save money, but I surely would have died that way. I could control intake with cartridges because the limiting factor was that you had to keep cracking them. A case of 600 whippets one after another would last about 5 hours, so 2 a minute. I've heard too many stories of people dying with tanks.
- rsync 6y ago
  Forgive me ... I am completely naive regarding this subject but find these descriptions both fascinating and confusing... Do I understand: if you're on a whippet bender you have to do a thing every 30 seconds ? It seems like that would interrupt and greatly diminish whatever pleasurable effects the substance was giving you ... in fact, it sounds somewhat stressful ...
  - sneak 6y ago
    You can put 2-3 into a dispensing canister at a time, but yes, every 60-90 seconds it requires interaction. This has probably saved a lot of lives, tbh. It's hard to suffocate yourself if doing so requires motor skills.
    - Scoundreller 6y ago
      In Australia, their paramedics have Penthrox tubes that have an anesthetic in them. The idea is that the patient can self-administer, but if they over do it, they get too messed up to operate the thing until it wears off again.
  - badconvincer 6y ago
    Yes, it’s a fleeting rush. I’ve probably done nitrous 5-6 times over a couple of decades but I can see the allure.
  - okareaman 6y ago
    Cracking whippets is like popping bubble wrap. It's a pleasant repetitive motion that becomes part of automatic muscle memory after a while. It becomes a meditation, like praying the rosary.