How worried should I be about NOS

[Seasonalanxiety]

DD is 14. Due to the weather we've had a lot of her friends (7 or 8 mixed genders) round all weekend as they can't go out. They took over the top of the house (DD's bedroom, spare room, study) and I went up to check on them reasonably regularly. They appeared to be hanging round, playing music and watching TV and phones. All fine.

I went into her room last night to retrieve half our crockery. On the floor near the bin were two nos (nitrous oxide) canisters with another couple in the bin.

I was very very angry. Grounded her etc. However she claims to know nothing about them, says they weren't doing nos. I then got a long apologetic text from her friend... apparently she found the canisters in the pocket of the borrowed jacket she was wearing, panicked as her parents would be furious if they found them and ditched them. DD says she'd never be stupid enough to leave them in the bin that I empty but I'm not daft and I frankly don't think I believe her.

I've looked at FRANK and it seems like it's relatively harmless, non addictive and lasts a couple of minutes. Health issues few and far between but only with extreme use. However what am I missing? What can I share with her to get her to see that this is foolish? Her friends are all clever sporty children who do well. I'm really surprised as I wouldn't have thought they'd have been interested in this sort of shit. Shows what I know. I'm also really angry that it happened in my house when I was responsible for the other children.
Anyone know anything about this and how worried should I be?

Bumping

I think I'd speak to DD and say I need to speak to her friend's parents about it, as it seems the friend is saying they belong to her parents. It may only be a bluff. I don't really know what this stuff is, but the dds ought to be discouraged from experimenting with any form of drugs.

AFAIK this is pretty harmless stuff. I have used it myself on a number of occasions and never had any ill effects (and I'm old and boring and quite health-conscious).

I think the only realistic physical dangers from using it would be

(a) falling over in the middle of the road while under the influence and getting run over by a car

(b) breathing it in for so long that you get oxygen deprivation. However, this is unlikely to happen with canisters, because they're so small. I think there have been very rare cases of idiots hooking themselves up to industrial-sized tanks of the stuff and dying of oxygen deprivation, though.

NB this is only my personal opinion based on a bit of googling and using the stuff.

HOWEVER, it is illegal now (it used to be a bit of a grey area) and on that basis alone I would give my kids a good talking to and punishment if I caught them using it.

I would also be concerned that drug use of any kind is not a good thing to get into, especially at 14, and would have a go at them because of that.

I'm well aware of my own hypocrisy here, but I think it's part of a parent's job to discourage this sort of thing!

OTOH you don't actually have any proof of who used it, or where. So this might be a situation where you tell your DD that IF she ever uses it then you will kick her arse! And then monitor the situation.

P.S. I'm sorry, but I don't know of any resources which you could use to show your DD. Mostly this is because NOS in itself seems to be pretty harmless! I have heard it described as the CBeebies of drugs...

Hopefully there is something online about the illegality and the potential criminal record etc which might be scary. I think it is only illegal to supply it, though, and not illegal to possess it. Sorry, this is not very helpful.

Sorry, me again.

Did you also find any balloons in or near the bin? Balloons are necessary for actually using NOS. So if there were no balloons then it might suggest that the NOS was used elsewhere at some other time. Does your daughter have any balloons in her room for no good reason?

You also need a "cracker" to get the NOS out of the little silver bottle and into the balloon. There is absolutely no reason to possess a cracker except for this, so if you find one of these then she really does have some explaining to do. It's a little metal cylinder with a lid that unscrews. Will post a pic if I can.

Cracker. You can't access the NOS without one.

Thank you. Really helpful. No balloons BUT a cracker was there.

I'll be honest. I smoked a bit in the 90s and spent a few years heavy duty clubbing - but this was in my late teens and early 20s. Not 14.

Having found the cracker i know what was going on unless it came with the canisters. I'm just disappointed in her and her friends.

Oh, bugger. Sorry to hear that.

This is quite a difficult one, because no doubt they can google stuff themselves and know that it's not very dangerous or illegal. But nevertheless it's not something you would want going on at that age and under your roof!

I have a 14yo myself and am currently having issues with him lying to me... teenagers are a PITA!!

Hope it gets sorted soon.