Florida could soon ban the sale of nitrous oxide at vape shops and convenience stores.
The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed SB 432, which would would prohibit the possession, sale, furnishing of nitrous oxide, making it a third-degree felony. The measure is now headed to the Senate floor.
If it passes Florida would become the fifth state to ban nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas," often sold in canisters of the dissociative anesthetic drug traditionally used at the dentist's office but also sold at gas stations and smoke shops.
The law would not apply to designated grocery stores and supermarkets licensed by the Florida Department of Agriculture, but would apply to convenience stores.
It would also not prohibit the sale of a finished food product in which nitrous oxide is used solely as a propellant, like a whipped cream can.
"Nitrous oxide has legitimate culinary and medical uses, but small-and large-format canisters are increasingly being marketed with bright packaging and flavoring and sold at vape shops and convenient stores," said bill sponsor Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville.
The bill is named "Meg's Law," after Meg Caldwell, a 29-year-old Central Florida resident whose relatives say she was addicted to nitrous oxide and died behind a smoke shop after an overdose.
When inhaled, nitrous oxide displaces oxygen, but how it creates its euphoric effect is still not fully understood. Heavy use can cause pernicious anemia, a severe result from vitamin B deficiency. Brain damage and suffocation can also result from prolonged or continuous oxygen deprivation, according to Dance Safe, an advocacy group for drug use education.
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In the bill, the clause banning nitrous oxide replaced a measure that would have labeled 7-Hydroxymitragynine, also known as 7-OH, a Schedule I controlled substance in Florida law.
Last year Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an emergency order that banned the sale of 7-OH products, and tonics and energy shots with the drug were pulled off shelves by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Yarborough said he re-wrote his bill to remove the 7-OH provision after negotiations with the House and added the measure about nitrous oxide after discussions with Sen. Darryl Rousson, D-St. Petersburg.
A 2025 study showed nitrous oxide deaths increased by 600% from 2010 to 2023, with 23 deaths in 2010 and 156 deaths in 2023.
Florida does not distinguish nitrous oxide deaths in the Medical Examiner Commission's annual Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons report.
Also included in the bill is an exemption for xylazine use in animal products approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Xylazine, also known as "tranq," is an animal sedative but is frequently found in the illicit drug supply.
Both Yarborough's bill and the House version (HB 309) also create criminal penalties and mandatory minimums for the trafficking of xylazine, which is already on Florida's Schedule I list. The House bill is also ready for a floor vote in that chamber.
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