detritus of #drugs...
this #trashtodon discovery sent me down a rabbit-hole that led to (regulation of) flavored vaping, with retailers (possibly manufacturers too?) branching out to flavored NO2
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@inquiline depending on where you found it it's more likely from street racing than drugs in socal (you can use NO2 to up your speed with various modifications to your car)
this is along the LA River path so there is some racing going on but not cars, idk if NO2 gets used in modding the little motorbikes? i also saw smaller cartridges on another occasion (for some reason i have a positive association with these from childhood, my dad would occasionally make seltzer in a handheld device and they seemed kind of magical)
@inquiline The small ones might be CO2 from jerk "avid cyclists" who can't be bothered to bring home their trash when they fix a flat (some/most of us are old school enough we still use little hand pumps and not fancy CO2 fillers).
ETA: I see the big ones in gutters/curbs on the sort of streets where people like to show off how fast their modded cars can go by me, which is why I was guessing the car use. The canisters are the large ones and look the same and I assume once they get used they get tossed out the window so they don't get additional fines if they get pulled over.
@inquiline @SRLevine people use these canisters to fill up balloons and then inhale the gas. Gives you a high by asphyxiation basically. Exactly the same canisters I see in different countries in Europe. Dutch newspaper had an article about how its three dutch guys that started exporting this globally, despite it being banned in NL. The article even mentions exports to California. https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/06/19/hoe-drie-nederlandse-dertigers-de-wereld-van-lachgas-voorzien-a4897469
What a very strange thing.
@inquiline you keep blowing my mind!
@inquiline yeah, the little ones are used for bicycle tires so finding them on trails is normal (and obnoxious)