The addiction hooked Kevin Quigley fast.

“The things I would do to get just one more hit. This is a terribly addictive thing,” Quigley said.

Nitrous oxide, known as whippets or laughing gas, was supposed to calm and numb him.

Instead, the high took over his life.

“It really takes you away from reality,” he said. “Something just clicked for me like, ‘oh, this is the high I’ve been waiting for my whole life.’”

Quigley couldn’t get enough. Soon his car was filled with empty canisters. The habit cost him tens of thousands of dollars and left his body covered in scars.

“They actually become freezing cold. I was using in the car and not realizing that this freezing cold object was against my body,” he said explaining how the canister burned him.

“I definitely, in the peak of use, had a lo

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