Just In Time For Pride, the FDA Is Fear-Mongering About Poppers

Sessi Blanchard didn’t hesitate to describe what she sees as the appeal of poppers. 

“They’re fucking fun,” said Blanchard, a member of the Lighthouse Learning Collective, an LGBTQ-focused arm of the National Harm Reduction Coalition. 

But the Food and Drug Administration’s recent tweet warning about the dangers of poppers—​​nitrites that can be inhaled and are popular in queer nightlife scenes—didn’t mention any of the drug’s positives, prompting backlash that the agency is stigmatizing a substance primarily used by a marginalized group.

“A single mistake can prove fatal,” the FDA tweeted. “We continue to receive reports of people dying or being severely injured after consuming poppers that resemble, and often mistaken for, popular energy shots. Drinking or inhaling poppers seriously jeopardizes your health.”

The tweet linked to a 2021 FDA alert noting that, “Health care providers are reporting increases in deaths and hospitalizations related to intentional ingestion or inhalation  of nitrite products for recreational use.” 

Blanchard, a trans woman who uses poppers, said the timing of the tweet, just before Pride month and at the end of state legislative sessions that enacted “the most violently anti-trans laws within recent memory” is concerning. 

“The fact that FDA chose to stir up unfounded alarm instead of publishing harm reduction guidance for poppers consumers as well as manufacturers reveals the agency's disregard for the safety and bodily autonomy of people who use drugs, especially those who are queer, trans or sex workers,” Blanchard said. 

An FDA spokesperson said the agency could not provide VICE News with data surrounding the accidental ingestion of poppers or elaborate on the timing of its tweet in time for publication. 

In addition to providing users with a head rush, poppers relax muscles in the anus and vagina, so they’re popular for enhancing sex; Blanchard said they can also make sex work easier. They’re typically sold in small bottles as cleaners or solvents and are marketed as not being for human consumption (to market them for humans would be illegal).  

Blanchard has only heard “urban legend” type stories about (straight) people accidentally drinking poppers, though she said there is a risk of spilling them when passing them around in the dark, which can cause burns if it touches the skin. Another danger is combining them with drugs used for erectile dysfunction, which can cause a person’s blood pressure to drop, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. 

Ironically, Blanchard said if poppers were regulated to acknowledge humans are using them, the bottles could be designed in a way that would prevent people from drinking or spilling them, and they could have proper instructions. 

Tyler TerMeer, chief executive officer of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said the FDA’s “abstinence-only messaging” around poppers is ineffective. 

“We know that many people in the LGBTQ+ community use poppers, and are able to use them without adverse effects,” TerMeer said.

“For the FDA to issue a blanket statement saying that these products ‘are not safe to ingest or inhale’ ignores the lived experience of people who have used these products safely for decades, and misses an important educational opportunity to share ways to reduce the chance for harm if using these products.”

Claire Zagorski, a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy, said in 10 years of working at an emergency room, she’s heard of someone mistakenly chugging poppers fewer than five times. 

If it does happen, she said it’s dangerous and can be fatal. That’s because the chemical in poppers can stop a person’s red blood cells from releasing oxygen, preventing it from getting to the organs. 

But there is a drug that reverses those effects, something Zagorski said the FDA should have mentioned in its warnings.  

“If you accidentally drink your poppers, don't panic. Just drop what you're doing, go to the ER and tell them and we can treat it and you will be OK.” 

Zagorski said the FDA missed an opportunity to connect with people who use poppers by framing their warning in a way that didn’t include harm reduction strategies. 

“Any time you're talking about a drug that's used during celebrations of joy by a community that's so threatened and maligned, it’s responsible to do it the right way,” she said. “No one likes to feel like they're being lectured. If the FDA had approached this as like, ‘Hey, let's talk about using this safely?’ it would have been a lot more useful and it almost certainly would have resonated better.”