A man has become one of the first people in the UK to be convicted of supplying nitrous oxide after a change in the law.

Essex Police said Thomas Salton, 30, admitted possessing the substance with intent to supply at Basildon Crown Court.

The ban on nitrous oxide – more commonly known as laughing gas – came into force in November as part of a campaign to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Nitrous oxide, also nicknamed “hippy crack”, is now a class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Police said the conviction is one of the first since the law change.

Salton, of William Hunter Way, Brentwood, Essex, also admitted possession with intent to supply a class B drug, possession of a class A drug, and possession of criminal property, police said.

It comes after a vehicle, shown as having no valid insurance, was stopped and searched in Basildon on 1 December.

Officers found more than £38,000 in cash, nitrous oxide canisters and an amount of the class B drug ketamine in the vehicle.

Addresses in Brentwood and Vange were searched and further amounts of class A and class B drugs were found.

Salton is due to be sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on 19 February.

Possession of nitrous oxide, where a person intends to wrongfully inhale it for a psychoactive effect, is now an offence.

Read more:
How laughing gas addiction ‘messed up’ man’s life
What is laughing gas, and why has it been banned?

Dealers who peddle the drug could face up to 14 years behind bars.

It is still possible to use the gas for legitimate reasons, such as catering, pain relief during labour or in model rockets – but users need to demonstrate they are not intending to wrongfully inhale it.

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Superintendent Philip Stinger, of Essex Police, said there is “a proportionate approach to tackling those found in possession of nitrous oxide canisters”.

“But where we are dealing with a larger number of canisters, it is right we take robust and swift action and put this new legislation to use,” he added.

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