Nitrous oxide: The label ‘potentially addictive’ may do more harm than good

The label is not required to craft optimal public health responses, provide harm reduction and guide the management of health harms when their etiology and consequences are already well understood as they are for nitrous oxide. Adding the label of ‘addiction’, like criminalization, as in the case of nitrous oxide, is not helpful and may add to stigma and reduce treatment seeking. In line with previous conclusions based on existing research on consumers and acknowledging its mechanisms of action, nitrous oxide does not appear to fulfil the necessary criteria to be labelled a substance of dependence, or if it does, a more accurate term would be as a substance with the potential to induce a mild use disorder, with a low potential for dependence in the general population.