Joe Harker
A mum has given a warning about the danger of nitrous oxide, a drug also known as 'hippy crack', after her daughter died from inhaling it.
Carissa Garabedian said that her 30-year-old daughter, Ashley Weir, started taking nitrous oxide in 2020 after being introduced to it when she was working in a restaurant.
She said her daughter started buying small cartridges of the gas before moving onto larger tanks of it, explaining that Ashley would buy multiple canisters of hippy crack a day and went into rehab.
Between 2021 and 2023, Ashley was off the nitrous oxide for two years before she relapsed in August 2023, and she died on 29 November 2024 at her home in Florida 'surrounded by tanks of nitrous oxide'.
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The 30-year-old had suffered an accidental overdose, leaving Carissa 'broken' at the death of her daughter and wanting to warn others about the dangers.
"It was very hard for me to see her struggling so much," the mum said of her daughter. "We all worked together in many ways to try and offer whatever support, resources, guidance, love and input we could.
"All we know at the moment is that it was an accidental overdose caused by nitrous oxide but we're still waiting for the full autopsy report.
"I never thought I was going to lose her to this. I'm continuing to struggle everyday with the finality of it all. She was full of life and love and was an amazing individual with a heart of gold.
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"I feel like I'm expected to live every day with part of me that's completely broken. I think she always wanted to stop and she just couldn't."
Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is legal to possess in the US and is used as a sedative as well as being a component of whipped cream.
Tanks of it can be bought online or from shops, and the mother is worried about how easy it is to buy.
Carissa said her daughter was in therapy, but since nitrous oxide 'was so readily available, with no limitations' Ashley could buy it anywhere.
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"The legality of it all made it a very confusing thing. Why would it be sold everywhere if it was that dangerous?" the mum wondered, as she said more should be done to stop it from being sold in shops.
Carissa said: "I believe that many don't realise the impact that nitrous oxide has on your body - the deprivation of oxygen and the killing of the organs.
"It's a very debilitating and obviously deadly substance that is not being recognised by so many and is continuing to be sold.
"I 100 percent believe that if it wasn't as readily available, then it would have been more challenging for Ashley to stop taking it.
"Do vape shops really need to be selling these tank-sized cans of nitrous oxide? No one is walking into a vape shop to buy it for whipped cream, or for a dentists or doctors, it's very misleading."
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She continued to say that she believed there was 'nothing safe about nitrous oxide in any form or any amount', adding: "More should be done to keep this off the shelves for public selling. There's no reason the average person needs to be able to buy this."