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Anyway, Lambeth has decided to invoke a new power, a Public Spaces Protection Order, which will allow the council to dole out fines of up to £1,000 [$1,500] to people caught using, possessing, chucking away, or selling legal highs such as nitrous oxide in the Borough. So, you could get fined £1,000 for 15 seconds of synthetic laughing. Or for dropping a little metal thing on the floor."We want to protect local people's quality of life and get on top of this problem," said Lambeth councillor Jane Edbrooke, cabinet member for neighborhoods. "Legal highs are linked to antisocial behavior, drug dealing, and particularly littering around south London nightlife hotspots such as Vauxhall and Clapham."The mess left in some of our neighborhoods after a Friday and Saturday night just isn't acceptable," continued Edbrooke, "with families having to witness this behavior on a regular basis, as well as coming across these canisters in their playgrounds, parks, and streets."Nitrous oxide is not a particularly harmful drug. Not compared to GHB or crystal meth, the real problem nightlife drugs in these parts of south London. NOS is a highly dangerous drug only in the minds of the general public, who have been fed a diet of hippy crack scare stories because it is the drug of the moment. Laughing gas is yet to directly cause a death in the UK (all the deaths linked to nitrous oxide, despite what the media says, are cases of asphyxia caused by contraptions used to take the drug). Next to laughing gas, GHB, crack, crystal meth—all of these things are diabolic.
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