“Life’s not fair… and it sucks. Change it! Since I was a child, I have always believed in giving when I can, and sometimes even when I can’t. My grandfather used to go to the bank and buy gold dollars at Christmas and would walk around downtown Oklahoma City, handing them to random people. I learned from a young age that when people need help, you should help them. A few years later, there was a girl in my school who wasn’t popular or cute. Valentine’s Day was coming up, and that’s when we all gave our “sweethearts” cards and candy. I discovered that this girl wasn’t going to receive anything. That night, I went out and got her the biggest card I could find and some candy, making sure to place it in her cubby. She had no idea where it came from, and that wasn’t important, but it made her happy. The day the Murrah Building was blown up by terrorists, I worked from that day for the next 14 days without leaving without payment.,because it needed to be done. In high school, I got into more fights standing up for those who couldn’t defend themselves than I caused myself. Early in adulthood, a firefighter friend’s wife came to me telling me about a single mom who had a quadriplegic son needing a special chair he could operate with his mouth, but the chair cost $10,000. I started a fundraiser to raise the money and got my sports bike buddies to put on a show for the cause. We raised enough for the chair and growth kits (since he was young) and got him that chair. Then one day, I saw a church trying to raise money to send their baseball team to a big tournament in another state, so they organized a car wash. My girlfriend and I rode up on our bikes and asked how much they were short of their goal, which was $1,200. Even though it almost emptied my account, I had enough to pay my bills, so I paid the $1,200 to wash two bikes, preventing them from struggling in bad weather while trying to wash cars. Whenever I met people who needed a few bucks or physical help, I did what I could. While I was a police officer, I bought food for people who needed it, paid electric bills, fixed windows, and chased snakes (not a fan of stakes) out of their houses as well as helping addicts to rehabs and abused women to get away from the abusers when I could have just taken a report and moved on. I found a gravestone in the property room that had sat there for decades, no one doing anything to return it and I spent. Dozens of hours of my free time to find the kid’s family just to get the headstone back to where it belonged in a different state. I didn’t do it for the pat on the back or in the expectation of anything in return and in fact turned some down. I did it just because they needed a hand and it helped someone I never met before. I continued to keep the deeds to myself. I figured most people would have done the same. However now that I can hardly walk and have no transportation I can’t even get a government agency or individual person to give me a second look. $1 from 1/2 the people on any of the social media platforms would be more than enough to help me buy a used truck and enough time to heal and get back to work yet no one even gives me a second look. Can’t get any help from the alphabet soup of government agencies, lawyers, or even individuals, even those I helped when I didn’t need to. God help you if you find yourself getting mugged and the few like me aren’t around. So if you can help please do. Don’t just sit there and watch me decline to nothing. This is my hero. My Grandfather. Doing what’s right no matter if it cost him his life. World War 2 needed another person in a B-29 and he went, though he could have avoided it.
I have suffered from PTSD and Anxiety for some time. My doctor gave me some medication and the symptoms started to lessen. I kept on this combination and was doing ok for a few years but as time went on it started to become less and less effective. I started looking for natural remedies and I came across several papers written by places like the Chicago School of Medicine and other reputable labs and schools there was lots of support for the use of Nitrous Oxide and its positive effects of nitrous oxide and its benefits directly on PTSD. In addition, it had “no lasting effects” as the half-life of NOS was under a minute which meant i could use it but after a minute or so the “intoxicating effects” were gone. Perfect!
In addition, I had contacted several counseling places and they either told me they had no openings or didn’t take my insurance.
After some research, I found that Nitrous Oxide (NOS) was easily available. I found a few local stores here in Stillwater that sold NOS. I decided to try it so I looked up the closest store that carried it, Smoke Land. I thought it strange that a smoke shop would carry this substance but I was more concerned about the mental issues I was having and getting relief.
I went into the shop and found a plethora of bongs and other “smoking” supplies as well as “legal” mushrooms and other drug-type candies and other items. However, the first thing I saw were rows and rows of cases of NOS canisters. Hundreds, different flavors and sizes varying between 235 grams ( can about 4” by 4”) up to and including 3000 gram (approx 4” by 18”) cans. They mostly came in boxes so you couldn’t see much. The exterior talked about 99% pure or medical grade. Those were the marketing phrases in bold large print all over the box. It was only after getting out a magnifying glass that you would see on the back of the box that you were not supposed to use this but for making whipped cream and on another side there was a bunch of writing that was so small I and others couldn’t read it as the text was too small and too cramped to make out. This gave the impression NOS was fine.
I talked to a player about it and asked how it was used and she informed me that in the box came a disposable plastic nozzle. All that need be done was to screw the nozzle on slowly until a plastic pin in the nozzle depressed the Schroeder valve and released some of the gas and then just inhale. No valving, pressure control nothing. It was straight from the screw-on fitting on the tank to the atmosphere. No regulator nothing. It latterly just was a way to punch the valve open.
The employee informed me that a lot of people just inhale it straight from the valve but some use a balloon to allow the cryogenic gas to warm up first, then inhale from the balloon. Never said a word that NOS was not to be used in this manner just how to get the gas out of the bottle and into your body.
I decided to try it and bought the smallest can of a brand called Infuzed. The store was packed with that brand, so I figured it was popular and safe. After the purchase and being given my discount for having been a Police Officer in the past the employee. After the purchase, the employee opened the box and made sure the plastic nozzle was also in the box. They even match the color of the nozzle with the can. She took the nozzle out of the box and the small plastic bag it was in and demonstrated how to attach it. The nozzle was threaded just perfect to fit the fitting on the tank and that was it. She closed the box but before I left the Employee offered me a few balloons. This is the type of balloon that kids buy that has a rubber band attached to the closed end of the balloon then they blow up the balloon and use it to punch. These balloons are much thicker and more robust than your regular balloons. I took a couple, put them in my pocket, and left. I noticed there was a bearded man moving around the store including the back who appeared to be the owner or supervisor the whole time I was present.
I left and went home and followed the instructions the employee had given and much to my happiness it relieved some of my symptoms. There were about 30 seconds of some dizziness but then it seemed that all the negative effects were gone and I was back to normal, except I didn’t feel the mental issues I had been experiencing.
To me this was perfect as any time I started to feel at my max I could go take a short puff and I would be fine for hours and could have no intoxicating effects short of the 30 to 60 seconds upon initial use. I had found a panacea!
I went back to the same store and a couple of others and got the same treatment it was obvious this was not being sold for its intended purpose and the stores were using a loophole to are millions while they slowly drove people crazy, major medical issues of death without any due regard. Well after a short period of time, much shorter than the medication I had been given by my Doctor the NOS worked less and less. After about a month I had to use 1-2 640 gram bottles a day. I then began to experience losses of large amounts of time, By lost I mean gone. 30 to 45 min would have passed but to me, no time passed even though I had not taken any NOS in quite some time. I only discovered it when my significant other would talk about things I said or did that I was sure I had not.
After that, it progressed to where I was having severe difficulty walking straight. Within approximately 2 months I had gotten to where I had lost my job and was falling and injuring myself, sometimes badly, and crashed my car, again during a blackout period.
It was just a day or two later when I was found unconscious in my driveway by a neighbor that it all came to a head. I have zero memory of what happened between that day and a couple of weeks later when I woke in the hospital. When I woke up my legs no longer worked enough to even stand with assistance. I had been off all my regular meds and NOS during that entire time but still was having hallucinations and other mental issues but I guess because I was not dead the hospital decided it was time to go. They transferred me to a facility in Tulsa called Boulder and they sent me back to the hospital. They kept me a bit longer and then kicked me out again. I was asking for mental examination treatment but was offered just to go back to Boulder. I went and was all but begging them to take me in but after the joke of an evaluation I was told that since I had been off all the meds for a couple of weeks and I was not threatening to kill a bunch of people I did not meet their criteria and kicked me back to the street.
Luckily my mom, aunt, and significant other were there to help. We spent the next few days going to different mental health facilities and though they ALL agreed was I could be treated with some counseling for the PTSD and maybe some meds, NONE not a single one after doing my “evaluation” was willing to take me in either wrong insurance and again since I was not threatening to kill a bunch of people I didn’t qualify. I continued to go on still not taking any medications and the difficulty I was having getting someone to listen and help me I was getting mentally more unstable.
Finally, I got an appointment with “Boulder” here in Stillwater for yet another evaluation now a month after my release from the hospital. I went with my mother and my initial filling out paperwork just to get another eval from someone who had a higher degree than a counselor. They were nice and friendly but then they told me that it would be at least a week before I “saw” anyone. I told them as long as I can get some help I’ll do whatever I need to.
When I came back to Boulder I was given an iPad and sent into a private room. There I met with a woman who when asked directly if she was a doctor admitted she was a nurse. She had little interest in what had transpired so far but instead asked me about a list of different symptoms, like do I have trouble sleeping and if I had nightmares. After each symptom, I said yes to she called off some drug that she was going to give me. About ½ way though she mentioned a medication I had read a lot of negative things about and asked her about them. Her response she held her hand out like she was holding an iPhone and started swiping up and down her hand and told me that the nice thing about today is we all have Google and can look up any questions there. She then moved on to her next symptom. By the time she finished she had “prescribed’ me 6 possibly 7 new meds I had never taken before and told me she would send them in. She also pointed out that these meds could take 4 to 6 weeks to have any effect. What was I supposed to do until then? She also never addressed the fact I couldn’t;t walk. Then she was done. After the Google comment, which is partially how I got into this place to begin with, I immediately fired her. This was on a Thursday I believe and I called my regular doctor and asked for an extended appointment so I could go talk at length. Shortly after they set me an appointment just a few days away and part of that was due to the weekend.
I went into Dr. Hill’s office who took me pretty much straight to an exam room. I told him the story and showed him the printouts of the “meds” Boulder had prescribed and Dr. Hill scrunched up his face and said that one of the meds she prescribed was basically Benedryl. He also pointed out that in the dosages she prescribed the meds would not have any effect as they were far too low for a grown human man. Also, my legs not working was due to NOS destroying B12 and Acetic Acid in my body and the B12 pill was useless and I needed B12 injections. He scheduled me to come in for those once a week for 3 weeks and then 1 time a month thereafter. Since I started the shots my legs are still really weak but I can stand and walk a bit which after being on the B12 pills for 3 weeks had done nothing. His suggestion was to put me back on 2 of the meds he had given me previously and told me he would try and help me get into a local psychologist but his suggestion was not to even start the meds Boulder had prescribed.
Dr. Hill left for a few moments and told me the doctor he wanted me to see didn’t accept my insurance but that I needed to find a Psychologist as this was a mental issue. Dr. Hill told me to keep him in the loop and I left. I restarted the meds by Dr. Hill and within a few days I felt better. My family found a local place that said they were willing to help me called CREOK but I can’t get in to do yet another eval for a couple of weeks, but now I feel better and under control, and I feel I could swing it. I contacted them and they seemed more than willing to help but I couldn’t get in until Jan 27th, 2025 I told them I wanted in as soon as possible and he did what he could so now I am hoping this makes a difference but I am willing to try whatever they want. I am in crisis mode and I want help!
These manufacturers are knowingly and purposefully selling dangerous substances without a reasonable warning. I went back into the original store I purchased it from but this time with a camera and a witness. The first this Angie (my Girlfriend) noticed was how the employee greeted me. Like she and I have been friends for years. I walked around videoing the whole store and there were no products that would connect to the fitting on the NOS bottle that was capable of even hooking to a device to dispense whipped cream or any other culinary supplies in the whole store. I then walked through the way the employee instructed me to use the NOS the “real” way showing the nozzle and talking about the balloons and sure enough she confirmed all that info again to both Angie, my camera, and I. I did some tests on the smallest can of NOS they sold and found that there is so much pressure inside the can it maxed out my pressure gauge at 60 psi before it started to blow apart. There were 10+ full balloons worth of gas and that was the smallest can. The big cans contained 3000 grams more than most restaurants could use in a year.
Both the manufacturers and distributors are knowingly causing harm to people and don’t seem to care. I went to one store, Discount Smoke Shop where the owner was present and I know this because he told me he was the owner and while they were selling me a big can of NOS suggested that I try adding these magic mushrooms gummies to the mix.
I was not wise in taking medical advice from Google but when you can’t think straight you may try anything to get relief. But at no point even after the retailer knew what I was wanting it for did they point out that it says in this tiny writing not to inhale. In addition it also, in equally small hard to read writing that it is illegal to sell this product to anyone they even “suspect” of doing anything other than making whipped cream.
The last insult to injury is that the hospital removed my front dental plate but then couldn’t find it. I’m not rich, and that was expensive. Angie was sure I had it in when I got to the ER, and there is a pic of it in my mouth. Yet, it was never returned. My mother and I called every place, including the ambulance I had been in since my last known possession of it, and all had no idea. On top of that, they acted like they didn’t care at all about even trying to find or replace it. That is my property that was not returned and feels like stealing. I don’t care if I get my previous pair back or a new pair, but they need to be replaced.
Lastly how many people’s lives may have been saved if we cared when people say they need mental treatment? When I was a police officer one of the things I learned was that the mass majority of school killers and mass shooting events had asked for help previously at some point. But I guess because they weren’t standing in the store with firearms hanging off every spot on their body and weren’t pointing a firearm directly at a human, they don’t qualify for help.
So here I am, almost 3 months since the incident, and the only help I received was from my personal doctor, who is doing as far as I can tell, the best he can.
These cans of NOS need to be removed from the OTC shelves, the stores and manufacturers closed and fined and laws written to control the substance and heavy penalties for violating the laws. They are not even being held to the writing on the sides of the box! These stores are harming Oklahomans and other Americans with no repercussions whatsoever and this needs to change immediately.
If you are willing, please contact me asap as it has been almost 4 weeks since the incident. I have reached out to many government agencies with zero help. I just need a cheap used truck, a Psychologist, and time to maintain my bills as the next step is the street. I am down to the last $500.
Greg Cunningham
Go Fund Me
https://gofund.me/4348cdf4