Apparently, in New York you need to be 21 or older to buy cans of....whipped cream. Yes, you read that right. That is because whipped cream cans contain nitrous oxide (N2O, whippits, or laughing gas) as a propellant, that can give one a brief high when inhaled. If you honestly felt your IQ just drop ten points or more while reading this....
It is hard to begin to list all the ways this law is both stupid and wrong on so many levels:
- Of all the abusable inhalants out there (glue, paint, gasoline, aerosols, gases, solvents, "poppers", "rush", etc.) out there, nitrous oxide, especially in the form of whipped cream cans, is probably the least dangerous one of all.
- Many far more hazardous abusable but legal substances have either no age limit at all, or an age limit of 18 at most. Singling out whipped cream makes zero sense whatsoever.
- There is not currently any reported trend of teens and young adults using whippets in large numbers, nor was there before the law went into effect either. It is really not a very popular way for young people to get high.
- Other sources of nitrous oxide gas can be readily purchased online.
- Whipped cream is clearly NOT only used as a way to get high. But it is yet another thing people need to show ID for these days, because reasons.
- And last but not least, setting the age limit at 21, fully three years higher than the age of majority (18), is inherently overreaching, illiberal, arbitrary unjust and ageist discrimination.
In other words, there is absolutely ZERO justification for such an ageist abomination. But sadly, we are not really all that surprised that they would do this. First it was alcohol, then tobacco, then cannabis, and then it was only a matter of time before they would find a way to make 21 the new 18 in other ever more illiberal ways as well. As capitalism devolves to "late capitalism", so too does ageism devolve to "late ageism" as well, with all of its increasing absurdities.
UPDATE: Apparently, the way the actual law is written, it really only applies to whipped cream chargers, those little steel cartridges containing nitrous oxide for use in fancy whipped cream dispensers, not cans of whipped cream itself. Those chargers are the ones that are more likely to be used to get high by cracking and discharging the contents into a large balloon and then inhaling from the balloon. Still a ridiculous law, but they are apparently attempting enforcing it beyond its actual scope by requiring ID to buy whipped cream cans.
For the chargers specifically, we could almost understand setting the age limit at 18 perhaps. But 21 is way too ridiculous either way. And any age limit on the whipped cream cans is beyond ridiculous.
(The UK appears to be even more into the moral panic about nitrous oxide lately, exaggerating the dangers, and there has been talk about banning it, but interestingly nothing about a 21 age limit.)
