Laughing gas parties aren’t new. They were initially arranged for the British upper class in the 1790s. One promotional flier for such a party in 1845 promised: “The gas will be administered only to gentlemen of the first respectability. The object is to make the entertainment in every respect a genteel affair.” It also quoted the English Romantic poet Robert Southey as saying “the atmosphere of the highest of all possible heavens must be composed of this Gas.” Southey’s credited with writing the popular children’s rhyme What are Little Boys Made Of? So the powerful gas may account for that business about “snips and snails and puppy dog tails,” a line saved from the grotesque only by the word “puppy.” Without the adjective it’s satanic (try it), but then so are little boys sometimes. And then they grow up and laughter is less easy to come by and…
This week in Los Angeles, 17 auto parts shops suspected of illegally selling nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for use as a recreational drug were raided. (Possession for recreational use qualifies as a misdemeanor in California.) The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department dubbed the year-and-a-half long investigation “No Laughing Matter.” They seized 367 tanks – that’s a street value of $20 million, and they broke up more than 350 illegal “laughing gas” parties.