They’ve often been considered a harmless buzz (that you could buy from Anne Summers when you were 15), but now the FDA are advising consumers to stop buying and using poppers.
The warning against amyl nitrite comes after a growing number of deaths and health concerns believed to be linked to the product.
“The FDA has observed an increase in reports of deaths and hospitalizations with issues such as severe headaches, dizziness, increase in body temperature, difficulty breathing, extreme drops in blood pressure, blood oxygen issues (methemoglobinemia), and brain death after ingestion or inhalation of nitrite ‘poppers,'” they added.
OK, but I feel like half of those ‘side effects’ are what people take the drug for.
However, as Out notes, poppers can also be dangerously problematic when taken alongside pills like Viagra and Cialis, as they both cause blood pressure to drop.
There was a previous threat to their legality in the UK in 2016, but so far its only Canada that banned them outright.
Poppers are still on sale in the US while the FDA says they will “monitor” health-related incidents connected to them, and take “appropriate action to protect public health”.