“There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.” Psychologist and philosopher William James, under the effects of nitrous oxide.

As a kid growing up in the 80's and 90's in St. Louis - nitrous "whippets" were sold in every grocery and convenience store. I never considered myself a drug user when I was a teen - because every drug I enjoyed (nitrous, cough syrup, caffeine pills) were all legally available....unlike those dirty hippies and their marijuana!

It's been decades since I hit a balloon - but man those moments when I did were incredible.

I had hoped this was going to be about N2O as an oxidizer for rocketry.

Sorry for the horribly off-topic post, but as a car enthusiast, nitrous used to be one of the cheapest ways to make your car faster. However, recent price fluctuations (and making sure nitrous is reserved for medical uses first), along with the advent of a market flooded with cheap turbos from China, have made nitrous not worth the investment.

One promising technology that may gain some traction is compressed air [https://casupercharging.com/]. It's still a forced induction method and relatively simple to install compared to procharging or supercharging. That said, forced air has some major drawbacks — a very large tank, for one.

>While Hadland says it would take a lot of repeated heavy use of nitrous oxide to see these effects, over time such use could also cause permanent neurological issues.

This is not a could. Repeated abuse of nitrous, perhaps as little as daily use over 2 months, does cause neurological issues, including spinal cord damage and paralysis [1].

[1] https://sci-hub.ru/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31625167/