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Newsnight has been told by leading clinicians across health trusts in the UK that they are seeing a sharp increase in nitrous oxide users under 25 with serious health issues. 

Nitrous oxide is often known as laughing gas or ‘nos’, and the legalities around its use are complex.

It is currently placed within the Psychoactive Drug Act 2016, which stipulates that it is illegal to supply the drug for recreational purposes, but possession is not illegal.

However the Prime minister is committed to banning the substance as a class C drug by the end of the year, which will make possession a crime.

Now medical professionals have written to the Policing minister Chris Philp saying that making possession of the drug illegal was “unlikely to translate to health benefits in our patients,” and that “fear of arrest could increase harm” as people may delay coming to hospital.

Newsnight’s Yasminara Khan reports. Produced by Ali Hamedani.

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