Laughing matter: Nitrous oxide popularity falling as drug users choose ecstasy

Laughing gas is disappearing from the Amsterdam street scene, according to the annual drug monitor Antenne. Five years ago, over half of Amsterdam’s nightlife crowd used nitrous oxide. Last year, it was 16 percent. Ecstasy is still on top as the most popular party drug, Parool reports.

According to Ton Nabben, a drug researcher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, an accumulation of factors contributed to laughing gas’s nosedive in popularity. A big factor is that the government banned nitrous oxide as a recreational drug on January 1, making it harder to come by. Its image has also suffered. “Young people also see around them that friends who spent a lot of time on that balloon develop all kinds of complaints. So that’s a deterrent,” he said to Parool.

The Antenne drug monitor is drawn up annually by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences for Jellinek. The researchers interviewed clubgoers, festival audiences, doormen, and bouncers, among others, about drug use in the party scene.

The researchers found that, after a significant pandemic dip, the use of most illegal drugs is now back to the 2019 levels. Ecstacy is still the most used party drug, with 66 percent of club and festival visitors using ecstasy in the 12 months before they were surveyed. That is the same as in 2017. The use of cocaine, amphetamine, and ketamine has also returned to that level.

That’s not all that surprising, according to Nabben. “During the lockdowns, the entire nightlife culture came to a standstill. Yes, then the use of ecstasy also decreased dramatically. But because we have been running this monitor for so long, we know the significance of the drug in the nightlife. It remains normal.”

Almost half of the clubbers and festival attendees don’t use drugs at all while partying. 38 percent only drank alcohol, and 7 percent remained completely sober. Nabben thinks this may have to do with a new group of partygoers - Gen Z - who live more consciously. The monitor does not provide hard figures on this, but interviews indicate that the new generation “wonder whether things can be produced differently” in a more climate-friendly manner, he said. “We do see a shift there.”