'Serious concern' after 'laughing gas' canisters found near motorway
More than 40 were found
Last updated 14th May 2026
Merseyside Police have spoken of their serious concern' after 40 'laughing gas' canisters were found close to a major motorway.
They were discovered by PCSOs during a litter pick with representatives from Knowsley Council and RAF cadets.
30 canisters were collected in a local park, with a further ten in Memorial park, Southdene, during an open land search.
Also known as Nitrous oxide, it's wrongly perceived as being harmless, but it can have rapid and powerful effects on the brain and body.
Police say even a short inhalation can impair a driver's ability to react, slow decision-making, and alter perception of distance and speed.
Anyone who uses it can get dizzy, light-headed and feel detached, making it difficult to maintain safe control behind the wheel.
Officers are worried that people may be using it o the motorway, where the consequences can be especially severe.
Roads Policing Inspector Gavin Dixon said:
"We were genuinely shocked to find evidence of nitrous oxide use in such close proximity to a motorway. The effects of this drug are immediate and can severely impair a driver’s ability to control a vehicle.
"You might feel fine. You are not fine"
"The danger here is the incorrect belief that, because the effects are immediate, they are short lived; you can’t starve your brain of oxygen, incurring significant cell-death, and then get safely behind the wheel as if that never happened. You might feel fine. You are not fine.
"It only takes seconds of reduced awareness or a momentary blackout for a situation to turn catastrophic. Driving under the influence of any substance, including nitrous oxide, is illegal and incredibly dangerous, and we will take robust action against anyone who puts lives at risk in this way."
The force says anyone who's caught using nitrous oxide before or while driving 'will be treated with the utmost seriousness.'
Cllr Shelley Powell, Knowsley's Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods, said:
"Driving under the influence is completely reckless and can have potentially fatal consequences for drivers, passengers, other motorists and pedestrians, not to mention the life-changing effects on the friends and families of victims.
"The use of nitrous oxide, particularly in combination with drug-driving, is of growing concern and one which community safety partners in Knowsley take very seriously."
Dr Suzi Gage, Lecturer in Psychology and Epidemiology at the University of Liverpool, said:
"It will impact on your ability to concentrate, it will impact on your hand-eye coordination, your attention will be elsewhere.
"All of these things that you need to be able to drive on the road will be impaired and that puts yourself and other people at huge risk.
"An incredibly reckless idea"
"If you're trying to inhale from a balloon while you're driving - aside from the intoxication effects which are obviously going to cause problems - that's going to impact your ability to see the road in front of you.
"But then things like feeling dizzy, feeling nauseous, feeling a disconnection from yourself - that's really not what you want when you're driving a car.
"Using it behind a wheel is an incredibly reckless idea and also it's not just reckless for yourself, it's reckless for other people on the road, other people in your vehicle, pedestrians."