‘Everyone’s gagging for it’ – how Britain got high on nitrous oxide
Barry Smith spent this summer clinking as he walked. The 26-year-old painter from Devon sold nitrous oxide at four UK festivals. Before each event, he loaded his van with 20 boxes containing 480 canisters, bought online at 25p each, and hundreds of balloons. (This is considered small-time in the nitrous oxide racket.) His pricing is flexible: a balloon base rate of two for £5 (a markup of 1,000%) or five for £10. But prices can plummet to zero for mates or skyrocket for strangers once he’s running low.
Standing largely in one spot, holding a nitrous dispenser, or “cracker”, that resembles a coffee flask, Barry (not his real name) handed balloon after balloon to revellers attracted by a high-pitched hissing noise. He used the cracker to dispense the gas into latex balloons, while his girlfriend handled the payments, either in cash or by using a card machine borrowed from a friend’s ice-cream company. “It’s like a family business,” he jokes. Trade is brisk. “People just swarm at you – everyone’s gagging for it.”
Barry’s main objective was simply to cover the cost of a festival ticket, make some pocket money and have fun. For him, part of the attraction is chatting to wasted partygoers (he also has no problem getting high on his own supply). “I’d say we made about 600 quid profit at each festival,” he says. “It’s crazy that people spend all that money for such a short high.”
As for festival security, Barry says: “You just try and be a bit sly.” His van is rarely checked at the gate. Once, he was standing
