'I see canisters daily after my daughter's death'

A mother says she feels "distraught" about young people illegally using nitrous oxide, after her daughter was killed by a speeding driver who had been inhaling the drug.

Natasha Woroch, 25, died in a crash in North Lincolnshire in July 2023. Her boyfriend, 25-year-old Connor Malpass, is now serving a jail sentence of more than 13 years for causing her death.

Natasha's mum, Rachel Jarvis, from Belton, North Lincolnshire, said she had hoped use of the drug would "fizzle out", but instead she sawthe discarded canisters "on a daily basis".

"I just feel people don't realise the effects of taking it, particularly whilst driving. If you could sit in my shoes for a minute you wouldn't do it."

Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is commonly used as a painkiller in medicine and dentistry, but it is frequently used as a recreational drug. It was made illegal in November 2023.

It is supplied in metal canisters and inhaled, often by using a balloon. It causes short-term euphoria, but can damage the nervous system.

Grimsby Crown Court was told Malpass emerged from the wreckage of the car with a balloon in his mouth.

Malpass, of Rectory Gardens, Wheatley, Doncaster, admitted causing the death of Miss Woroch and causing serious injury to two other passengers.

"I thought at the time it might just be a passing craze, and I really hoped it would just be a phase for young people, but clearly it's not," Miss Jarvis said.

"It's called laughing gas, but it's no laughing matter for us."

Matthew Butler, a volunteer lead at Renew, a drug and alcohol service, said nitrous oxide, which is a Class C drug, was relatively easy to buy online and young people were being attracted to it by "appealing" marketing.

"You can't go online and search for heroin and get that delivered to your door, but nitrous oxide does feel more accessible and more marketed towards young people," he said.

Most of the users he worked with were between 16 and 24 and many were introduced to the drug in party holiday destinations such as Ayia Napa, Magaluf and Ibiza.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, about 3.3% of people aged 16 to 24 used it in the year ending March 2024.

The figures for England and Wales also showed more than a quarter (25.4%) of those surveyed claimed it would be "very" or "fairly" easy for them to get the drug within 24 hours.

The BBC found large canisters were available to be bought online from dozens of websites offering discount codes, next-day delivery, brightly coloured packaging and a variety of flavours.

Nitrous oxide is sold legally within the catering industry for use in products such as whipped cream.

However, in August, three men from Yorkshire were jailed for their roles in importing 91 million canisters of nitrous oxide into the UK through a series of bogus catering firms.

Leeds Crown Court heard the trio used the fake companies to launder more than £16.7m made from the scheme.

The Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit said the group had traded in nitrous oxide "while fully knowing its ultimate use was to be sold as a drug".

Mr Butler said some online sites made nitrous oxide "look appealing, appetising and legal".

"By giving it these flavours, by marketing, branding and giving it the ease of access, it almost feels like it's not illegal," he added.

The BBC showed some of the colourful, flavoured and branded canisters to Yilmaz Ayedir, 48, the founder of a well-established dessert parlour in Hull who often buys canisters of nitrous oxide to make whipped cream.

He said: "I would never buy those canisters. I know a lot of people in the catering business and a lot of friends in this industry and I haven't seen any of them using those. I would say they are definitely not for catering firms like us."

Nitrous oxide has been linked to anti-social behaviour, including littering at beauty spots.

The BBC has seen evidence of its use at Beverley Westwood, a large common in East Yorkshire which is popular with walkers and families.

Joanne, a dog walker, came across "over a dozen" large nitrous oxide canisters scattered on the grass during one of her frequent walks at the beauty spot on 12 October.

"I was quite surprised to see that much drug paraphernalia on somewhere as beautiful and unique as the Westwood," she said.

One woman from East Yorkshire, who did not want to be named, told the BBC she spent five days in hospital after using the drug on a party holiday when she was 18.

"We would do it every night in the clubs because it was available to us, but I started to feel really ill, so I flew straight home and went to hospital. I had two CT scans, and I had to go on a drip," she said.

She warned anyone thinking of using it that it was "one of the most dangerous party drugs out there".

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