People aren’t just hitting Galaxy Gas for online gags—it’s increasingly showing up in real-life streets, particularly in Atlanta. Imyouski, a 22-year-old from the city, who, like others in this story, asked to be identified by a nickname to candidly discuss drug use, has done over 10 canisters and made a YouTube video about getting baked on Galaxy Gas. He told me it’s sold in all the local smoke shops. “It’s like an epidemic, all the young folks are on them,” he said. “It’s too obtainable, I could literally drive down the street right now and go grab me how many I want… One day, somebody’s gonna wanna see how high they can get off that, and they overdose.”
Imyouski criticized how Galaxy Gas is being “pushed out” to the public by retailers. He said many smoke shops are offering buy-one-get-one discounts on canisters, which can go for between $60 and $100, to coax people into getting more so their supply never runs out. He said one canister typically lasts a day. The euphoria makes it hard to resist buying as much as possible. “It’s like an air head—your brain just numb, your whole body numb,” Imyouski explained. “That’s the scary part: it makes you feel so good.”
Dr. MacLean said whippets seem to have a “relatively low level of physiological dependence,” but it’s worrying if socially isolated or lonely people “get really stuck in a habit of doing heaps and heaps of [nitrous oxide] alone in their bedroom without anyone there to look after them if they pass out.” Rather than outright outlawing the drug, she believes education must improve. “Not like, ‘Don’t do it, you’re gonna die.’ More like, explaining that if you’re gonna do it, keep that use not everyday, minimize the number you use, use with other people.”
Others are less concerned about its harms. KB, a 17-year-old rapper from the southside of Atlanta, told me Galaxy Gas is everywhere, and that he’s personally done “probably over a million hits.” His favorite flavor is Blueberry Mango. “This shit makes me feel good, it’s a lot to explain,” he said, adding that some of the whippets are CBD-infused, which adds to the pleasurable sensation. He says he’s seen kids as young as six or seven years old hitting whippets.
KB recently gained traction with “Whippets,” an unofficial theme song for the Galaxy Gas mania. The nitrous turns his voice deep and burbly as he raps about getting geeked and having sex on whippets. “I was the first one to do it—I don’t think nobody did a whippet on a track before,” he said. In the hyperactive music video, he and a crew of friends swagger around slinging dozens of Galaxy Gas canisters; he crosses the street with one in each hand and a third tucked in his pants. “Off the whippet, you know how that go!” he groans on the hook.
Dr. Joseph Palamar, an associate professor at NYU Langone who studies drug use, said he’s noticed an increase in inhalant use among the youth. He’s especially worried by Galaxy Gas’ flavored options, which could make it appealing to young people. He compared the tricky regulatory situation to how the “date rape” club drug GHB is often sold as a “tiny little bottle of computer cleaner” to evade bans. “If these types of [smoke] shops are selling it—to me, that clearly suggests they know why a lot of people desire this product: to misuse it. Does this mean it should be taken off the market? I don’t know. Maybe there needs to be an age limit. Maybe it needs some more regulations,” Dr. Palamar said. “I would assume the next step might be for the FDA to get involved.”
The chorus of fear and condemnation is intensifying by the day. A recent tweet with over 300,000 likes suggested whippets were becoming “a national emergency.” The livestreaming site Kick, known as the more anarchic version of Twitch, just banned creators from using Galaxy Gas on stream.
Despite having some fun with whippets, Imyouski himself is pretty adamant that the trend has gone too far, and it’s time to stop fooling around. “I started thinking about it, and I’m like, this is really killing us, for real,” he said. “Put the Galaxy Gas down. We’re not bringing it into 2025.”
