Catering supplier to Bake Off, Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen has to turn down dozens of suspicious orders for nitrous oxide as 'hippy crack' becomes big business
A catering supplier whose customers include TV cooking shows such as Bake Off, MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen has been refusing orders for the laughing gas nitrous oxide.
Chris Palmers, whose Manchester-based company Carrick exports the gas to companies across the UK, has added a number of suppliers to his banned list after becoming increasingly concerned with the high numbers being ordered.
The managing director has been working with Leicestershire Police for the past two years to help the authorities crack down on the growing number of people using the gas, which is also known as 'hippie crack', for criminal means and financial gain.
Mr Palmer described how his most recent order saw a coffee shop in Berkshire request a staggering 38,800 canisters of the trendy gas - which is also used as an anaesthetic by dentists and during childbirth.
Chris Palmers, whose Manchester-based company Carrick sells nitrous oxide to catering businesses across the UK, has been adding an increasing number of suppliers to his banned list
The amount ordered was enough to keep 39 coffee shops use their whipped cream dispensers for a year.
He told The Times: 'I got into this business so coffee shops could put whipped cream on their hot chocolate. Now they are using nitrous oxide bottles at raves and parties and they leave them scattered everywhere. It's a huge problem for my industry.'
In addition to this, Mr Palmer also received another order for 20,000 bottles from a Hampshire farm which did not appear to have any connection to catering business.
He added: 'There's no way a place like that needs so many. It's ridiculous.
'I'm getting big orders like this every single day. Farms. Ice cream shops. Newsagents. We're getting suspicious orders from all sorts of businesses.'The UK manufacturer, which was founded in 1985 and also produces menu covers, now keeps its nitrous oxide canisters in a secret warehouse in an effort to stop mounting criminal interest in them.
As part of their operation, Leicestershire police are working with an East Midlands operations to trace suppliers in the UK which they believe are distributing the gas to gangs and young people.
Nitrous oxide is a colourless gas, commonly found in pressurised metal canisters, which is usually inhaled by thousands of young Britons in order to achieve feelings of euphoria, relaxation and calmness.
The colourless gas (nitrous oxide casings at Bakers Hill) is usually inhaled by thousands of young Britons in order to achieve feelings of euphoria
The drug is listed under the 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act, which means it is illegal to give away or sell, and can lead to users falling unconscious or suffocating from a lack of oxygen.
The gas can lead to dizziness, a deficiency of vitamin B12 and anaemia and regular use can stop users from forming white blood cells properly.
Supplying the drug and trying to produce it can lead to up to seven years in prison.
Last month ministers were urged to clamp down on the booming craze after leading pharmacists called for a major tightening of the law.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the authors said the current law had 'not acted as a deterrent', and said that the situation had got worse in recent weeks as more young people stay at home.
The authors of the BMJ article – Royal Pharmaceutical Society chief scientist Luigi Martini, Amira Guirguis of Swansea University Medical School, and Mair Davies, former director for Wales at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society – wrote: 'The frequent presence of silver canisters on our streets – even during the Covid-19 lockdown – is a visible mark of the increasing incidence of nitrous oxide or laughing gas misuse.
'Tighter regulations around the sale of nitrous oxide online need to be imposed.'
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