San Francisco considers retail ban on laughing gas sales

Smoke shops near San Francisco music venues, and even one across from a public library and playground, are at the center of a new push to ban retail sales of nitrous oxide in the city. Supervisor Danny Sauter is proposing the restriction as health officials warn that whippets, the slang term for inhaled nitrous oxide, are seeing renewed use among young people.

The proposal targets a legal gap rather than the drug itself. Recreational use of nitrous oxide is already illegal, but adults 18 and older can still buy it for food-related purposes, a loophole that allows smoke shops to sell canisters and tanks that can then be inhaled for a brief high. San Francisco’s Department of Public Health said it is aware of canisters being sold in the city, including at or around music venues, and it has been telling the public about the risks while discouraging sales outside legitimate uses.

Health officials say the concern is not just that the product is available, but how it is presented and where it shows up. Sauter said he does not want the products displayed near places where children spend time. He pointed to large canisters openly for sale in some San Francisco smoke shops, with some tanks priced as high as $150, and said marketing for certain products appears aimed at younger buyers.

The city’s health department also says it is illegal to be under the influence of nitrous oxide outside a legitimate medical or dental setting. Dr. Sarita Satpathy of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society said the early effects can feel euphoric and deceptively harmless, even though the long-term consequences can be serious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that widespread availability and ease of access may be driving misuse, and a 2025 CDC report described a sharp increase in adverse medical encounters tied to nitrous oxide misuse in Michigan from 2019 to 2023.

The issue has already drawn action elsewhere in the Bay Area. San Jose, San Mateo and Santa Cruz have all banned nitrous oxide sales, and San Jose police cracked down on smoke shops in August 2025, finding four locations illegally selling nitrous oxide, mushrooms and cannabis and arresting five employees and business owners. San Jose’s Tobacco Retail License program also gives city officials another enforcement tool against smoke shops, a model San Francisco supervisors may study as they weigh how to police the same border between lawful retail sales and recreational abuse.

Any ban would still have to clear the Board of Supervisors, where ordinances generally need six votes and two separate meetings at least five days apart. If the measure advances, the debate is likely to hinge on whether a retail ban can shrink youth exposure and neighborhood nuisance, or whether it mostly pushes sales and use somewhere else.