Aurora cracks down on recreational nitrous oxide sales

Aurora officials are cracking down on the recreational sale of nitrous oxide, targeting flavored canisters and large tanks sold in vape and smoke shops.

The city’s ordinance, approved in August 2025, prohibits nitrous oxide when it is sold in a context suggesting recreational inhalation, such as in vape shops or smoke shops. Aurora says products marketed in large containers or flavors can be treated as dangerous inhalants even though nitrous oxide also has legitimate culinary and medical uses.

The local rule fills a gap in Colorado law. State statute prohibits abusing certain “toxic vapors,” but nitrous oxide is not included on the list of substances covered by that law. For Aurora licensing manager Trevor Vaughn, that gap was part of the problem.

“Colorado, unfortunately, does not have good regulation in this area,” Vaughn said. “Nitrous oxide is not listed as one of the toxic vapors in the statute, and there’s no clear regulation of it, both at the state and local level.”

Nitrous oxide is a colorless gas widely used in dental offices and food preparation, including whipped cream dispensers. Recreationally, however, it can be inhaled for a brief high. College student Ned Connor said he has seen the effects of that misuse firsthand.

“People get into such terrible states where it can force people into seizures and make people stand up and hallucinate,” Connor said.

One friend, he said, developed mobility problems after months of using nitrous oxide.

“After a few months of doing it, he started to lose mobility in the left side of his body,” Connor said. “His left leg would kind of just drag behind him, like a really severe limp, and his left arm … he couldn’t lift above his shoulder.”

Connor said another friend sometimes appeared to experience seizures after inhaling nitrous.

“I have a friend who will do them, and every time he just has a seizure, like his whole body shakes,” Connor said. “His eyes go back in his head, and you can’t really wake him up because they’re so heavily induced from the nitrous oxide.” 

Because nitrous oxide has legitimate culinary uses, it remains legal to sell in many settings.

“It isn’t treated as a drug; it’s just a commodity,” Connor said. “It’s like buying a bag of chips.”

Aurora officials said the problem is less the substance itself than how it is marketed and sold.

“They’re sold in a vape store, so you’re not seeing baking ingredients going along with that, along with the marketing on these cans and the flavors of these cans,” Vaughn said.

He said the products had become common in local vape shops before the city intervened.

“Very widespread,” Vaughn said. “It was very common in vape shops, and I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that it was in the majority of them when we finally started to address it.”

Aurora specifically points to large canisters and flavored products as signs that nitrous oxide may be marketed for recreational use.

“The fact that you can buy a cotton candy-flavored nitrous oxide canister is like super appealing to younger people,” Connor said. “When you know it’s a drug, and it has a cool flavor to it, that makes it way more desirable.”

The medical risks are also different when nitrous oxide is inhaled recreationally rather than administered in a clinical setting.

Colorado dentist Dr. Shauna Gilmore said nitrous oxide used in dental offices is carefully regulated and mixed with oxygen.

“We use a machine that regulates it so that you have a certain amount of oxygen and a certain amount of nitrous oxide,” Gilmore said.

Recreational users, by contrast, may inhale unmeasured amounts without supplemental oxygen.

“Most of the time people will just get a canister of nitrous gas, and then it replaces too many of the oxygen molecules, and the brain doesn’t get as much oxygen as it normally does,” Gilmore said. 

That can increase the risk of serious neurological complications.

“We’re not going for anything more than that,” Gilmore said, “where a lot of recreational users are going for a lot more than that.”

The products remain available outside Aurora. A Boulder vape store owner, who was not identified by name, said younger adults are among the customers buying nitrous oxide.

“I’d say young adults, college kids, you know, early 20s,” the owner said. 

The owner said the products are technically sold for making whipped cream but acknowledged they are also commonly associated with recreational use, often referred to as “whipp its.” In recent years, the store has shifted from small, unflavored cartridges to larger flavored tanks.

“I think in the last few years, like two or three, it’s been more canisters, like big canisters that are available, and I don’t think we used to sell those,” the owner said.

Connor believes tighter retail restrictions could reduce casual use.

“If places actually did get rid of retail purchases of nitrous oxide, people would use it far less,” he said. “Just for the average recreational user, they wouldn’t care enough to seek out another outlet for nitrous.”

After seeing the effects firsthand, he supports Aurora’s approach.

“If there is a way that cities or counties or states or even the federal government can stop mostly younger people, but anybody, from buying them for non-legitimate purposes, they should chase after that,” Connor said.