NITROUS OXIDE-whats the deal?

[MY UNCLE]

I know many DSO-Heads that feel very strongly AGAINST nitrous.Done it a few times & felt good. Is it the nitrous itself the community has a problem with or is the unsavory people who sell it, or POSSIBLY both??? Love to get everybody's 2 pennies on this, thanks

[Tea]

The groups that swing gas for a living are douchebags on their best days, and violent criminals on most others.  If somebody wants to huff some balloons, have at it.  The problem is what this element brings to the vibe at festivals and other shows.  They will lie, cheat, and steal, and get violent to make a buck and don’t give a rat’s ass about anything else.

 

I’ve had a few run-ins with these mouthbreathers so I may be a little jaded…..punk-ass-punks.  YMMV.

[Mango]

The nitrous mafia is the primary problem.

 

However.

 

Take a look at the culture. You come out of the show, so high(whether on drugs or not), just had a spiritually connective experience. And then you come out of the show and want to pay inflated prices for a balloon full of gas(which kills your brain cells, massively) to a guy who doesn't take any part in the music but only comes to the show to make a profit off your dumb ass. A guy who is likely part of a group of nitrous sellers who are responsible for deaths within the community. And then you inhale said gas from balloon. Womp womp womp. Cheap thrill if you ask me but I wont judge you for your choices. I've done countless dumb things in my life. And then if you are like most post-show-nitrous-users i've seen, you promptly drop your balloon on the ground. Don't worry, someone else will pick it up later. Do you wonder why deadheads get a bad rap? You have your own tank, want to party privately? Go ahead. I don't care, don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing if used sparingly. Is it my idea of a good time? No.

 

So if ya don't know, now you know.

 

[Alabama Getaway]

Not to mention it is a real bitch to get any sleep if all you hear outside your tent is the hiss o the tank filling balloons.

[Dead duck]

I can deal with just about anything, but i cant stand a thief. And to steal at a GD/DSO type show is lower than low. When the mafia presence is high, the family atmosphere is less. More likely to see a fight and WAY more likely to have shit come up missing. If you dont at all care about the music, You can STAY HOME. I wont miss you

[Rude]

The solution is regulation and taxation

[August West]

I snapped a valve once on those scumbags outside Englewood, when they had it by the bus. Joseph got me involved in that one. We had asked them to politely move away from the bus, and they wouldn't so I snapped it. Things could have went really wrong there but thankfully they didn't. I remember back in the day Tiny snapped one, and they picked up the tank and clocked him over the head with it. It's just really bad for the scene. Can't stand those losers who sling that garbage. 

[Mango]

Call the cops on them....oh wait....paid off? who knows...

[Muddy Waters]

What everyone else said. Darkness, negative energy,  bad mojo.

 

I'm older though, I don't recall seeing it at shows in the Mid to late 70's early 80's.  Maybe I just did not notice...

[ducats]

What everyone else said. Darkness, negative energy,  bad mojo.

 

I'm older though, I don't recall seeing it at shows in the Mid to late 70's early 80's.  Maybe I just did not notice...

basically showed up with the touchheads

[Ammagamalin Crew]

Once the monster arrived, it sucked all the money away from grilled cheese, beverage, and arts and craft sales making it even more difficult to get to the next parking lot and into the next show. Sleeping next to a tank dispenser ruined any chance of getting the small amount of sleep you could in a lot community, and it really took the conversation levels right down to the bottom of no enlightenment. As mentinoed above, the sales people wouldn't work with an sense of comraderie.

[Tom Banjo]

Okay.  I don't care what you do behind closed doors but we want to promote a family friendly atmosphere at these shows.  Keep the nitrous tanks with the needles and do your drugs that pull you away from enlightenment behind closed doors.  I can list a myriad of reasons why I would prefer to see the nitrous scene go away, but I think I can even tie it into the talker issue.  The fact of the matter is that I want to attend concerts with people who are being respectful of their neighbors.  Outlaws, maybe, but we need to have etiquette, we need to follow the golden rule.  When someone is talking incessantly at the concert in the middle of a group of dancer's, they are being disrespectful to those dancers.  They are disrespecting the music and I really don't think they should waste their time coming to the concert.  These people that sell an in the moment addiction that rivals crack at a super inflated price don't care about the music, the people they take money from, or the scene around them.  Their only care is to take as much money as they can out of the scene and into their pockets all the while avoiding the police.  The use of nitrous often leads people to become violent and malicious towards others.  It can certainly lead to theft and other unsavory elements associated with an addictive drug culture.  At the very least, a very high percentage of users become disrespectful of their environment.  The trash left behind after a large nitrous presence is disgusting.  It disgusts me and if you respect the Earth, it disgusts you.

 

Please don't take this as condemnation of how you choose to party.  We all have vices.  I imbibe drugs that pull me away from enlightenment.  I certainly don't claim to a be a saint, but remember family environment.  We want all to feel welcome.  Balloons are children's toys.  We don't need our kids seeing that.  

 

Sometimes its more important to do what is right than to do what you think is fun.

[Rude]

You can't compare nitrous to needles lol. Im on nitrous at the dentist every 3 months I see him. Actually I believe that nitrous allows us to tap into our subconscious while we are awake. At the dentist I seem to figure out the meaning of life every time I go. It's these new people with ear pieces and lookouts who don't go to shows who are the problem. In the day nitrous vendors went to the shows and used it to pay for their tour just like the chicks selling kind brownies. If you don't like nitrous don't do it. It's just like any other substance. No ones forcing u to do any of them and there's always someone making big bucks off everything. If there was no money being made on the production of kind nugs, we'd never see them. I don't hear people bashing the dude making 250k a year with a greenhouse. I know peeps that have gone broke and gone to rehab from herb. In moderation most things can be fun.

[Tom Banjo]

I think you missed the point of the comparison. I think the cut off straws and the powder drugs should stay behind close doors. The nitrous scene creates an unavoidable vortex that young kids can't help but see. I wasn't even trying to condemn needles. We all have our own trials and tribulations. Morphine and oxycontins are used legally widespread. Some people swear by them. Obviously you swear by nitrous. Maybe someday we can go to the dentist together.

[nwnj steve]

I had to pop in just to say I can t believe there" s someone here actually defending that CRAP!god bless

[Rude]

Lol I don't swear by nitrous. I get that the dealers nowadays are not heads and are shady. Never saw the nitrous mafia until a Panic show recently. Way shady. I get that they are trouble. I just think that nitrous itself is being demonized. I love a balloon post show. I'm usually asleep within 30 minutes after that. I even think when Rob E blogged about nitrous his problem was with the nitrous mafia peeps and not nitrous itself. I mean if u went to dead shows u undoubtedly had a few balloons.

And btw Rick, my dentist is a serous nitrous pusher lol. The second u sit in the chair he gets the gas flowing. When he comes back to talk with you u are already in lala land lol. And to expand on the meaning of life i found in the debtist chair I realized that whether I took deep or slow breaths I felt the same thing. I correlated that to life in that no matter how u live we all end up in the same spot in the end. It made so much sense at the time; not as much now

[Rude]

I had to pop in just to say I can t believe there" s someone here actually defending that CRAP!god bless

There are so many people that do stuff I've never done and won't do. Are u telling me that in your days of following the dead u never did a balloon?? And if u did your share in the past how can u judge me that I enjoy a balloon. I don't touch any of the really hard stuff, but I don't judge anyone who does. I've had my share of demons in my life and who am I to judge anyone on what buzz they enjoy.

And btw I've probably only had 5 balloons in the last 10 years lol. 1 at 2012 jubilee and I enjoyed it.

[redeyedbert]

1990 Pittsburgh.  Camp at someones farm half hour outside of town.  We get back from the show and a guy walks up and tells us his friend has a tank.  Give him what you want and enjoy.  We all gave him $5 and huffed countless balloons.  Eventually nobody felt good.  The next day, headache, and just a gross feeling.  That pretty much did it for my group of friends.  I had one other balloon in 1991 and it was a good one where a random stranger messed with me in mid high.  

 

I don't know if there was a nitrous mafia in 1990-91.  I was young and it seemed pretty cool at the time.  Now I think it's stupid.  Youth only has one way to know if it's stupid and that is experience.  I wish they would just listen, but they probably won't.  Don't huff countless balloons!  The headache sucks!

 

I just thought, I've never known a nitrous junkie.  That speaks to how bad it is right there.  Nobody can probably inhale that for years and live.  

[nwnj steve]

rudedoggg,I deffently  did that crap years ago,I worked in resturants and used to get tanks,when I was 13 years old I work up on the floor of the local a&p supermarket ,I was huffing the whip cream and passed out and the manager was standing over me freaking out .I got up and freakin ran out of there so fast .Things have changed though and the scene has changed as stated before ,the is so much violence involved these days ,I seen the dead scene change over the years and its happening with the dso scene ,the bigger they get the more problems there will be in reference to that shit ,what ever people want to do is there business unless it starts to affect the scene as a whole then its up to us to try to make it better.

[Alabama Getaway]

Lets all just have a few chocolates and enjoy the music! Never been a huffer and don't really try to tell others how to enjoy their show but the trash left over really bothers me. Also it seems now days I see to many folks sucking a few balloons and really thinking they are experiencing a true mind expanding experience without ever having or going to have a experience with anything else that might take them deeper, last longer and go further to enhance their consciousness. Just my two cents.

AG

[ducats]

rudedoggg,I deffently  did that crap years ago,I worked in resturants and used to get tanks,when I was 13 years old I work up on the floor of the local a&p supermarket ,I was huffing the whip cream and passed out and the manager was standing over me freaking out .I got up and freakin ran out of there so fast .Things have changed though and the scene has changed as stated before ,the is so much violence involved these days ,I seen the dead scene change over the years and its happening with the dso scene ,the bigger they get the more problems there will be in reference to that shit ,what ever people want to do is there business unless it starts to affect the scene as a whole then its up to us to try to make it better.

the only problem becomes when "they" start to outnumber "us"

[ducats]

Lol I don't swear by nitrous. I get that the dealers nowadays are not heads and are shady. Never saw the nitrous mafia until a Panic show recently. Way shady. I get that they are trouble. I just think that nitrous itself is being demonized. I love a balloon post show. I'm usually asleep within 30 minutes after that. I even think when Rob E blogged about nitrous his problem was with the nitrous mafia peeps and not nitrous itself. I mean if u went to dead shows u undoubtedly had a few balloons.

And btw Rick, my dentist is a serous nitrous pusher lol. The second u sit in the chair he gets the gas flowing. When he comes back to talk with you u are already in lala land lol. And to expand on the meaning of life i found in the debtist chair I realized that whether I took deep or slow breaths I felt the same thing. I correlated that to life in that no matter how u live we all end up in the same spot in the end. It made so much sense at the time; not as much now .

150 shows - no baloons here

[Tom Banjo]

Ducats, you bring up a good point, but I think historically its been proven relevant that sometimes the minority needs to speak up and help direct the course of the majority.  The majority are not always right.  True democracy is not an ideal form of government.  The minority that remember to respect this music, each other, and the Earth need to remind the majority who have forgotten.  I believe it was Edmund Burke that stated "the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."

[sonomajon]

I preface this with blaming my activities on youth...Starting around 1976 we would sneak in a dispenser and whippets to the shows...SO we may have been early adopters of this...The Pirates ball was a nitrous laden affair courtesy of the Hell's Angels...I was at a Super Bowl party with Parish a few years back and he mentioned there would always be a bunch of empty whippet canisters on the floor in front of Jerry...I wish we had been more conscious about cleaning up...

[nwnj steve]

I remember a Garcia show at the Rutgers gym around 82 that after the show leaving there were hundreds of whippit canisters all over the floor ,people were sliding all over the place.The first time I seen the balloons being sold at a show was at a allman brothers show at radio city .mid 90s .