Netherlands will ban nitrous oxide

The Netherlands will ban possession of nitrous oxide because a small fraction of car collisions are attribute to use of it.

The cops say (about a three-year period) there were almost 1,800 road accidents involving nitrous oxide, including 63 fatal collisions, according to a police survey reported by the Dutch public broadcaster ONS.

There were a total of 582 road fatalities in 2021. These figures are not quite comparable, but we can estimate around 20 road fatalities in 2021 that were related to use of nitrous oxide. That is a rather small fraction of 600. I don't think drugs should be banned for such small reasons. I believe they ought to try an education campaign to help people use nitrous oxide safely. Certain basic safety precautions that San Francisco hippies make an effort to teach each other could win the community's support and be more effective than a prohibition.