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Speaker 1: Now an Auckland woman is urging the government to regulate

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Speaker 1: the retail supply of nitrous oxide, which a lot of

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Speaker 1: young people know out there as nangs. The twenty four

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Speaker 1: year old was inhaling the NANGS for a back injury

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Speaker 1: and has now lost feeling in her legs. The gas

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Speaker 1: can be brought from dairies and vape shops for legitimate

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Speaker 1: reasons like baking cakes, I suppose, but the sale or

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Speaker 1: purchase for the purpose of inhaling is already banned. Auckland

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Speaker 1: City Hospital Neurology Registrar doctor Shelpin petellers with us. Hey, Shelpin, Hi,

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Speaker 1: how much of the stuff would you have to suck

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Speaker 1: in to lose feeling in your legs?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have seen a really wide range. We've seen

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Speaker 2: people inhaling hundreds of canisters per day coming into symptoms,

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Speaker 2: and we've seen people using only a handful of ten

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Speaker 2: canisters or so with a pre existing BE twelve efficiency

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Speaker 2: and also coming in with symptoms.

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Speaker 1: Will the feeling in the leagues restore itself or is

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Speaker 1: that it?

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Speaker 2: We have been looking into this and following up our

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Speaker 2: patients to WRUS. Most people do recover, but so far

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Speaker 2: it looks like they're taking a very long time to recover.

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Speaker 2: Most people six months down the line still have numbness

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Speaker 2: and aren't back to walking only. So it's quite a

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Speaker 2: serious condition that can have long lasting consequences for these

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Speaker 2: otherwise young sittin'well people.

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Speaker 1: How much of this are you seeing?

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Speaker 2: We are? We are seeing, you know, we're seeing presentations

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Speaker 2: to our neurology department at Alkan City Hospital. Not infrequently

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Speaker 2: we've had we've had, we know, at least a monthly

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Speaker 2: or so, we'll have a serious case admitted to the wards.

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Speaker 2: We're unable to walk because they're so severely affected. And

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Speaker 2: then maybe others out there in the community with mild

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Speaker 2: of symptoms that are not presenting to hospital that we

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Speaker 2: don't know about.

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Speaker 1: Now, Shelpin, I thought we had rules around the stuff.

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Speaker 1: I thought people shouldn't be inhaling it for a bit

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Speaker 1: of a cake.

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Speaker 2: I'm not a super flued up on the exactly, just lashing,

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Speaker 2: but yes, I believe it is. It's I believe it's

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Speaker 2: illegal to well, it's not legal to sell it for

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Speaker 2: someone with the intent of them using it for inhalation.

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Speaker 2: That's I believe the law.

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Speaker 1: Apparently, did you realize. Apparently it works like this. If

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Speaker 1: you go to the dairy and you say, can I

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Speaker 1: have some of those well, I don't know what you

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Speaker 1: call them nangs, but I don't know anyway, probably not

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Speaker 1: calling them nangs to the dairy guy, right, because then

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Speaker 1: he knows what you're up to. But if you say

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Speaker 1: you want some of the gas canists is apparently he

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Speaker 1: says what do you want them for? And then you're

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Speaker 1: supposed to say baking a cake and then he goes, okay,

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Speaker 1: even if it's like eleven o'clock at night. That's ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's that's a concern for us. We're we're

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Speaker 2: really worried that young people have access to such huge

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Speaker 2: numbers or large volumes of nycrosoxide and they're coming to

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Speaker 2: serious health. That's our primary concerns.

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Speaker 1: Okay, now, explain something to me. Why are people using it?

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Speaker 1: Like I thought? Look, I was young ones, right, And

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Speaker 1: I'll admit that I did it when I was young

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Speaker 1: one time, and all it was was about a thirty

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Speaker 1: second weird experience and then nothing more. What's the fun

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Speaker 1: in that?

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Speaker 2: You've got me there? But it appears to me that

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Speaker 2: people use these uses nitrosox side chemists regularly, just for

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Speaker 2: a repeated feeling of a feeling high. The chemical itself

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Speaker 2: doesn't appear to be chemically addicting, like like nicotine and cigarettes,

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Speaker 2: but people do chase this high again and again and again.

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Speaker 1: Is this basically what is this laughing gas?

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Speaker 2: Isn't it is? But laughing gas that's used in hospital

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Speaker 2: is actually a mixture mostly nitros oxide and some something

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Speaker 2: out some of the stuff, but it's similar.

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Speaker 1: Okay, hey Shelpin, thank you, I really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: That's doctor Shelpin could tell neurology Redistroyer All cland City Hospital.

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Speaker 1: Seems to me, the problem there is that the rules

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Speaker 1: the problem. The problem is that the rules are so

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Speaker 1: easy to get around. Right If you just say you're

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Speaker 1: baking a cake, it's bloody eleven o'clock at night, and

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Speaker 1: you're like completely wasted, and you tell the dairy guy

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Speaker 1: you're baking a cake, that's the that's all he needs

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Speaker 1: to be able to sell it to you. When I

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Speaker 1: did it, I would have been probably like early twenties,

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Speaker 1: and it was back then it was kind of a

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Speaker 1: new thing, I think, And I did it as far

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Speaker 1: as I can recall, just the once and never wanted

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Speaker 1: to do it again because what happened was after you

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Speaker 1: do it in the balloon thing after that just a reminder,

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Speaker 1: I was in my early twenties, right, so don't judge

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Speaker 1: me for it now, like basically a totally different person.

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Speaker 1: But it was like my head, it was like everything

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Speaker 1: slowed down and it was like vision. My whole experience

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Speaker 1: of reality was like a skipping CD. It was like

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Speaker 1: as I sort of slumped backwards from it, and then

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Speaker 1: after I got up, I was like, that was na.

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Speaker 1: That was not a good time. That was really bizarre,

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Speaker 1: and you lose complete ConTroll of yourself. So I don't

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Speaker 1: know how somebody can do enough of it to make

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Speaker 1: their legs go numb. But ever, each to our own,

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Speaker 1: I suppose For more from Hither Dupless Yellen Drive, listen

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