The newest drug trash on SF streets? Nitrous oxide canisters

The colorful canister looks like it’s got something fun inside — maybe silly string or whipped cream. But if you spot an Exotic Whip can on the sidewalk or behind the counter of a convenience store, you’re actually tripping over the latest piece of drug paraphernalia littering San Francisco’s streets: the nitrous oxide tank.

Twist the spout of an Exotic Whip can, and a fast, cool flow of nitrous gas shoots out, ready to be inhaled. Hold it in your lungs for a few seconds, and as the chemicals cut off oxygen to your body’s vital organs, your nervous system will slow, and a flurry of dissociative effects will set in. The “trip” is brief — about 60 seconds — but while the effects can pleasantly sedate the body, the chemicals can also block the metabolism of vitamins and trigger side effects. Heavy or repeated use can also lead to asphyxiation, brain damage, and death.

Whippits, hippie crack, laughing gas, noz — whatever you call it, nitrous oxide has been a popular, cheap, and risky way to get high for decades. It’s traditionally been packaged in 8-gram steel cylinders of pressurized gas that can produce three short-burst highs at less than a dollar a pop.

But the drug is exploding in popularity right now in San Francisco and across the U.S., in part because gray-market culinary companies are giving the old drug a new spin, blowing up the size of canisters and wrapping them in playful graphics and colors clearly intended to appeal to teenage eyes. The new products, which can be found in many smoke shops and convenience stores around town, hold up to 375 times more nitrous than the old steel cylinders — a veritable all-you-can-tweak buffet.

Nitrous oxide has long fallen into a regulatory blind spot due to its use as both a dental anesthetic and a culinary tool (it’s the stuff that makes whipped cream foamy). It is illegal for adults to purchase nitrous with the intent of inhaling and strictly prohibited for anyone under 18. Though the new large canisters wink at their off-label uses through design elements and market placement in smoke shops, they are sold legally as a way to turn cream into foam. 

The canisters have boomed in popularity since the pandemic, especially among youth, according to multiple research papers, as well as local smoke shop owners who sell the tanks for anywhere from $20 to $150. 

“Some of the high school children [trying to buy these], I catch them a couple of times,” said Suman Dakal, who works at The Town Smoke Shop on Mission Street, just a few blocks from Mission High School. “They stay on the corner and send the oldest-looking one in. I notice they are kids because they have backpacks and come after high school time.”

In fact, The Standard spotted one of the largest Exotic Whip canisters, a 3,000-gram tallboy, discarded on the street right across from Mission High. 

Doctors around the world have clocked the upgraded canisters as an increasing threat to minors. However, the San Francisco Unified School District said in a statement that it has not received reports about nitrous abuse among students.

Inarguably, the canisters are becoming a common sight on city sidewalks. Mike Gunn, 67, who lives in Visitacion Valley, said finding drug paraphernalia of any kind is unusual in his neighborhood. So he was flummoxed by the sheer size of the 3,000-gram Exotic Whip canister he found during a morning run in December.

“I had no idea they made them that big,” he said. “I’m used to seeing one or two dozen of the little whippits on the street in the Sunset or around Golden Gate Park, but nothing like that.” 

Jason Fienberg, 26, was walking around his Glen Park neighborhood when he stumbled upon a spent 700-gram canister labeled “GREATWHIP” on the sidewalk. “I don’t even know where people get this stuff,” he said. “We already have problems with vapes and how that’s marketed toward kids, and then now it’s nitrous oxide. That’s a pretty hard pivot and could mess you up pretty bad.”

Feinberg posted a photo of the litter on Nextdoor and received dozens of comments from neighbors who have also found canisters lying around. 

While the drug has been popular since the days of Phish parking lots, it took off as a Gen Z-catering trend on TikTok in September. At the same time, “galaxy gas,” “whippits,” and “nitrous oxide” rose sharply as search terms both locally and nationally, according to Google Trends. 

Georgia-based company Galaxy Gas halted production of its products in mid-September after recognizing widespread abuse, according to The New York Times, but the gas is still available for purchase on Amazon, without the need for age verification. The Exotic Whip canister that Gunn spotted in his neighborhood seems to be the go-to product in San Francisco’s nitrous oxide market: It was the brand The Standard spotted most often at smoke shops and convenience stores.

Exotic Whip has sold more than 2 million products each year since 2018, the Amsterdam-based company said in 2023. Analysts expect the global market for nitrous oxide to more than double in value from $1.47 billion in 2024 to $3.19 billion in 2033. Representatives of Exotic Whip did not respond to requests for comment. 

Reddit threads and online reviews reveal a mixed reception of the product. “Only time I got exotic whip it didn’t hit as hard as like a smart whip and it had a horrible oil/metalic taste so never again for me,” said one Reddit user. 

Although nitrous oxide has caused death by asphyxiation, several smoke shop owners said the tanks are among their most popular products. “Ever since they hit the market, it’s been an overnight thing. Next thing you know, it was like, ‘We need tanks,’” said one owner of a smoke shop in the Mission who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

One San Francisco resident said they have been using the drug roughly once a month for three years, switching between the small “crackers” and the large tanks. 

“I think the tanks are a cleaner experience than cartridges,” the person said. “You can look inside a whip creamer after you use a bunch of them, and there’s, like, this kind of grease inside the container.”

This person said continuous use of nitrous oxide leaves them with a fuzzy feeling in the head but added that the hangover is not as bad as those that come with alcohol use. The user often pairs nitrous oxide with other intoxicants — mainly psychedelics — to kick the effects into overdrive. 

“It’s not, like, a primary intoxicant,” the person said. “It’s like salt. You wouldn’t just eat salt; it’s things you flavor a meal with. So they go really well with psychedelics. And I don’t think they’re so great on their own.”

What’s clear is that the canisters are becoming an ordinary sight on San Francisco streets, alongside broken window glass and discarded meth pipes. A few weeks after Gunn spotted the empty Exotic Whip tank in Visitacion Valley, he found another on the same street.