A 24-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of dealing nitrous oxide in Jesmond.

The suspected drug dealer was stopped on a routine patrol of the streets of Jesmond on January 10th, and a haul of 100 canisters and £600 in cash was discovered.

Despite claiming he was delivering the canisters to a cream pie desert business, the suspect was arrested. According to Northumbria Police, drug dealers often use the catering industry as a cover for their dealing.

The man was arrested just minutes before midnight, further adding to the case against him – as, according to Northumbria Police, “this seems unusual operating hours for a catering company.”

The popularity of Nitrous Oxide has massively increased in the last 10 years, with the government stating that “a surprisingly high 7.6% of 16- to 24-yr-olds responding to the 2013/14 Crime Survey for England and Wales reporting nitrous oxide use in the preceding year.”

An former Jesmond resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, has stated that “everyone does it in first year [of university] because it’s so easily available, especially compared to other drugs and it seems milder in comparison.” They added that “no one seems to do it after first year. I think to a lot of students it seems less harmful than other drugs.”

Another anonymous interviewee, 22, claims to have never tried “NOs” but said so because they “never knew where to get it.” According to them “most dealers just sell weed, coke, ket[amine] and MD[MA], so I’d need to go to a new person to get NOs if I wanted it.”

When asked if they would take nitrous oxide in the future, they said: “I might try it eventually but I’m not planning on it anytime soon.”

There is a growing increase in the popularity of drugs in student populations. Findings from the Student’s Drug Survey in 2018 suggest that 39% of students currently use drugs, with a further 17% having done so in the past. Nitrous Oxide, according to the survey, was used by over half of respondents.

If you have information about drug dealing, report it to Northumbria Police on the ‘Tell Us Something” pages of their website.