CLYDE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A mother is calling for legal changes after her son, a U.S. Air Force veteran living in St. Clair County, died by suicide following what she describes as a devastating addiction to nitrous oxide.
“When I saw the pictures, I was horrified,” said Julia Charleston, who eventually found hundreds of empty nitrous oxide canisters covering every inch of her son’s home in Clyde Township.
“It looked like a war zone,” she said. “There were hundreds and hundreds of empty canisters strewn about every single square inch of the house.”
Her son, 34-year-old Robert Howland, had served in the Air Force and was trying to rebuild his life after previous struggles with addiction. Charleston said she knew he was facing challenges, but didn’t realize the extent of his substance abuse—or that he was even using nitrous oxide.
“Everything was out of my control, and I could not. I could not fix this,” she said.
Charleston filed a missing person’s report after she saw photos of the inside of her son’s home and flew from her home in Alabama to help with the search. She hadn’t heard from Howland in a long time and her last communication was a cryptic email he had sent. His home was found unlocked; his beloved dog left behind. Two months later, police discovered his body in his truck about 45 minutes away. He had died by suicide the night he went missing.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t help him out of the darkness,” Charleston said. “I would move heaven and earth to help get him out of the addiction of nitrous oxide if I could.”
Nitrous oxide — commonly known as “laughing gas” — is widely available online, inexpensive, and legal to purchase. While often sold as a food propellant, it’s increasingly misused as an inhalant drug, with side effects that can include paranoia, psychosis, and irreversible nerve damage.
“Memory impairment, depression, mood changes, anxiety,” said Dr. Varun Vohra, a clinical toxicologist at Wayne State University.
“It can lead to what we call sub-acute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. It can lead to neuropathy,” he said.
Dr. Vohra recently published a CDC-backed study showing that reported cases of nitrous oxide misuse in Michigan quadrupled between 2019 and 2023. Emergency room visits tied to the drug spiked more than 130 percent last year in the state. Local 4 was the first news outlet to report on the study.
“Invariably across all data sets, it’s going to be an underestimation of the true injury burden across the entire state, because our data is only as good as the cases reported,” Vohra said.
Despite the dangers, nitrous oxide remains largely unregulated. There are currently no federal or state restrictions on its sale or use.
“You can buy it online from Amazon, just doing a quick Amazon search,” Vohra said. “Now we’re seeing more commercial products — these large, large tanks, anywhere between, you know, two- and four-liter tanks.”
Some of those tanks were found in Howland’s house. Though labeled “for food purposes only” and “do not inhale,” Charleston and others said the reality is far different.
“Those things cost $25. Is that how much a life is worth? $25? It’s just ridiculous,” Charleston said.
She believes her son didn’t have a choice in the end.
“When you try to quit nitrous on your own, it pushes you into this complete and total darkness,” she said. “It’s either do more drugs, or… or kill yourself.”
In Howland’s memory, Charleston has founded a grassroots organization called People Against Nitrous Oxide. The group is advocating for warning labels, age restrictions, or a full ban on the product.
“Stop selling this poison. Get it out of the hands of our loved ones,” Charleston said. “We’ve got to do something. We have to do something.”
Charleston says Howland dreamed of helping fellow veterans. Now, she hopes her mission can help save others from the same fate.
“Get help,” she said when asked what advice she had for those using nitrous oxide to get high. “Like, you can’t do this on your own. You cannot stop using nitrous oxide on your own.”
