The Product, The Pipeline, and the Players

Nitrous oxide has legitimate uses in medicine, auto racing, and cooking. What was happening in Florida smoke shops had nothing to do with any of those things. The complaint lays out a deliberate distribution strategy designed to funnel a dangerous, addictive drug to recreational users while hiding behind a “food product” label.

• Nitrous oxide was first synthesized in 1772. Its effects when inhaled include dissociation, euphoria, and a sensation of floating. Those same effects are what makes it a recreational drug target — and what makes it deadly at high doses or with repeated use.
• The complaint identifies eight manufacturer defendants: Galaxy Gas LLC (owned by Pluto Brands LLC, registered in Georgia), Dimo Hemp LLC and Fusion International Trading LLC (together branded as “Looper Whip,” with manufacturing traced to Shanghai, China), United Brands Inc. (Los Gatos, California), Sweet and Sour Holdings LLC (“Cosmic Gas,” Las Vegas), Monster Gas Inc. (Beverly Hills), and Baking Bad Group Inc. (Philadelphia).
• Seven Florida smoke shops are named as retail defendants: Fuego Smoke & Vape (Clermont), Just Smoke operated by Manki Investments LLC (Clermont), Hywaze Smoke Shop (Clermont), Outer Limits Smoke Shop (Clermont), Clermont Smoke Shop operated by A&A Smoke Shop LLC, Puffzilla Smoke Shop (Orlando), and Moe’s Smoke Shop operated by Givingo LLC (Orlando). All seven sold products directly to Margaret Caldwell.
• Products came in flavors including “mango smoothie,” “vanilla raspberry,” “cotton candy,” and “blue raspberry.” Researchers quoted in the complaint, including a Tulane University addiction professor, say these flavors serve a single purpose: appealing to young people and creating the false perception of safety.
• Products were sold in large-volume canisters exceeding 1 liter, which the complaint describes as “inconsistent with any culinary use.” When a CBS News reporter asked Galaxy Gas spokesperson Megan Paquin why such large containers existed, she claimed they were intended as an “erotic culinary lubricant.” The complaint treats that statement as a window into the company’s awareness that their culinary cover story had no credibility.
• Florida Statute §877.111(4) makes it a felony to knowingly distribute or sell more than 16 grams of nitrous oxide. The statute applies in the aggregate, not per canister. A single box containing multiple canisters that together exceed 16 grams constitutes a felony sale. The complaint alleges most of Margaret’s purchases exceeded that limit.
• Florida Statute §499.005(1) and (2) prohibits misbranding or adulterating any drug, device, or cosmetic. The complaint alleges manufacturers misbranded a dangerous, addictive chemical as a food product by adding flavors and decorative packaging.
• Distribution through smoke shops rather than restaurant supply stores is central to the complaint’s argument. The filing states plainly: “It cannot be argued that the sale of N-O Products through smoke shops is for culinary purposes. A smoke shop, which includes ‘headshops,’ by definition is a retailer selling products for inhalation and smoking equipment.”
• The nitrous oxide recreational market is projected to reach $3.19 billion by 2033. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of Americans over age 12 who reported ever using nitrous oxide grew from 12.5 million to nearly 14 million.

“A dangerous and technically illegal drug, nitrous oxide is widely available as long as everyone pretends it’s destined for use as a food product.” — The Atlantic, February 2025

The Non-Financial Ledger

Here is what the legal language does not fully convey:

Margaret Caldwell spent the last months of her life in parking lots. Not because she had nowhere to go. Because the product had taken over. She was purchasing nitrous oxide canisters from smoke shops — seven of them in the Clermont and Orlando area — and she was using them right there, on the pavement outside, in her car, in the lot. She did this again and again.

The smoke shop employees noticed. The complaint says some of them actually complained to her about the litter — the empty canisters piling up on their property. They knew exactly what she was doing. They watched her deteriorate in their parking lots. And then they sold her more.

On November 22, 2024, Margaret Caldwell died behind a smoke shop in Orange County, Florida. She had bought the product that killed her from that same shop. She was found where she had been using it.

The lawsuit was brought by her mother, Kathleen Dial, as the personal representative of her daughter’s estate. Kathleen is now a plaintiff in a class action, one of presumably thousands of people across the country who bought these products at smoke shops. But she is also just a mother, and her daughter is gone.

Margaret was drawn in by advertising that the complaint describes as portraying the products as “visually attractive and safe to use.” She saw it on social media. The products were flavored. They looked like fun. They were sold next to vapes and tobacco accessories in stores with names like Puffzilla and Moe’s. There was no serious warning label. Nobody asked her if she understood the neurological risks. Nobody told her that long-term use depletes Vitamin B12 and can cause dementia, paralysis, and imbalance. Nobody told her that the gas displaces oxygen in her lungs, and that if she inhaled enough of it, her brain would start to die.

The medical literature, cited in the complaint, is blunt about this. Pediatric emergency medicine physician Dr. Madeline Renny described the range of symptoms as moving from headache and lightheadedness all the way through passing out to death. She told CBS News that even a single use could prove fatal. Prolonged use, researchers have found, causes neurological damage that does not always reverse.

What Margaret experienced in those final months — the compulsion strong enough to drive her to parking lots over and over, the physical deterioration, the addiction that the complaint says was directly caused by manufacturers’ products — none of that shows up in a damages figure. It never does. Courts convert human suffering into dollar amounts because they have to. But the actual content of that suffering — the fear, the confusion, the degradation of her body, the loss of herself to a drug that seven stores kept selling her without a single intervention — that is what actually happened to a person.

Singer SZA, after watching the Galaxy Gas trend explode on social media, wrote publicly: “Is no one gonna talk about how galaxy gas came out of nowhere and is being MASS marketed to black children? the government is doing NOTHING?” She asked: “Something about the childlike designs and marketing is so spooky like.. stars and bright colors? you tryna entice the kids on purpose?” That question deserves a direct answer. The complaint’s answer is yes.

“Although they were each aware of frequent and repeated purchases, and some had even criticized her for littering their parking lot with N-O Product cartridges, Smoke Shop Defendants never once prevented her from buying N-O Products.” — Complaint, ¶51

That sentence, paragraph 51 of the complaint, is the whole story. Seven stores. Repeated purchases. Staff who noticed and said nothing that mattered. A woman who was not protected by the people who were profiting from her. She left behind an estate. Her mother left behind a lawsuit. The parking lot kept its lights on.

Legal Receipts: What the Documents Actually Say

These are direct quotes from the class action complaint, filed February 6, 2025, in the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Orange County, Florida. Nothing here is paraphrased.

“Manufacturer Defendants manufacture, import and market, and Smoke Shop Defendants sell, N-O Products specifically to consumers who are likely to use N-O Products recreationally, by inhaling the nitrous oxide gas and abusing it as a recreational drug.” — Complaint, ¶3

• This is the core liability allegation. Both the manufacturers and retailers are accused of knowing their actual customer base was recreational drug users, not cooks or medical professionals.
• The word “specifically” is doing legal work here. It frames the conduct as targeted and intentional, which supports both the strict liability and deceptive trade practices claims.

“Most importantly, N-O Products are distributed through smoke shops, such as Smoke Shop Defendants, rather than restaurant supply stores, betraying Manufacturer Defendants’ true intent in marketing these items for inhalation and use as a recreational drug, rather than cooking. It cannot be argued that the sale of N-O Products through smoke shops is for culinary purposes.” — Complaint, ¶5

• Distribution channel is being used as evidence of intent. If the product were genuinely a food ingredient, it would sell through food service suppliers. It does not.
• The word “betraying” is a deliberate rhetorical and legal signal that the manufacturers’ public-facing culinary framing was never credible, and that they knew it.

“In the last months of her life, she spent many hours in Smoke Shop Defendants’ parking lots while consuming these products. Although they were each aware of frequent and repeated purchases, and some had even criticized her for littering their parking lot with N-O Product cartridges, Smoke Shop Defendants never once prevented her from buying N-O Products.” — Complaint, ¶51

• This establishes actual knowledge on the part of the retail defendants. A store cannot claim ignorance about how a customer was using a product when that customer was visibly using it in their parking lot.
• The detail about staff complaining about litter specifically undercuts any future defense that the shops did not know the products were being inhaled on-premises. They knew. They kept selling.
• Under Florida law, this level of actual knowledge, combined with continued sales, strengthens claims for negligence and potentially punitive damages.

“Fla. Stat. §877.111(4) makes it a felony to knowingly distribute or sell more than 16 grams of nitrous oxide. Most, if not all, of the purchases Margaret made were of products that contained more than 16 grams of nitrous oxide. Furthermore, this statutory limitation does not apply on a per-canister basis, but rather in the aggregate. Therefore, distributing or selling a box of canisters which, in the aggregate, contain more than 16 grams of nitrous oxide, which each of Defendants has done, is a felony.” — Complaint, ¶38

• This is the most direct criminal exposure allegation in the complaint. Every boxed sale that exceeded 16 grams in aggregate was, under the complaint’s reading, a felony under Florida state law.
• The aggregate interpretation is critical. It means a retailer cannot subdivide liability by pointing to individual small canisters if the product was sold in a multi-unit box exceeding the threshold.
• This framing converts routine retail transactions into potential criminal acts, which significantly raises the stakes for any defendant attempting to minimize the harm as a regulatory or civil matter only.

“Manufacturer Defendants created and implemented a scheme to create a market for N-O Products and substantially increase sales of their N-O Products through a pervasive pattern of false and misleading statements and omissions. Manufacturer Defendants’ plan was to portray N-O Products as cool and safe, with a particular emphasis on appealing to minors, while misrepresenting or omitting key facts concerning N-O Products’ addictiveness, and significant risks of substantial physical injury and death.” — Complaint, ¶84

• This is the unjust enrichment allegation’s factual core. The phrase “scheme” and “pervasive pattern” are deliberate legal language signaling this was organized corporate conduct, not an accident or oversight.
• “Particular emphasis on appealing to minors” directly connects the flavored packaging and social media marketing strategy to a vulnerable population, strengthening both consumer protection and potential punitive damages arguments.
• Omissions are legally as significant as false statements under FDUTPA. Failing to disclose addiction risk or lethality risk to buyers is treated as deceptive conduct under Florida’s consumer protection statute.

Societal Impact Mapping

Public Health

Nitrous oxide abuse is producing documented, measurable neurological and physiological harm across multiple countries. The complaint draws on peer-reviewed medical literature and physician statements to establish the scope.

• Prolonged use depletes Vitamin B12 through functional inactivation, causing dementia, loss of balance, and paralysis. A peer-reviewed 2015 study in Practical Neurology, cited in the complaint, documents this mechanism. The damage is not always reversible.
• High-dose inhalation displaces oxygen in the lungs, leading to asphyxiation, brain damage, and death. This risk is specifically elevated when users lack clinical delivery systems or oxygen monitoring — meaning essentially every recreational user.
• Pediatric emergency medicine physician Dr. Madeline Renny of Mount Sinai told CBS News that symptoms run from headache and palpitations through passing out to death, and that even a single recreational use can prove fatal.
• A UK college student who inhaled two to three large bottles of nitrous oxide per day died from “long-term complications of nitrous oxide use.” Senior coroner Heidi Connor said the case “highlighted how hugely dangerous it is to use nitrous oxide.”
• A similar surge in hospital admissions among young people with neurological complaints was documented in the Netherlands, correlated with rising recreational nitrous oxide use. The pattern was described in medical literature cited in the complaint as “rapidly rising.”
• In Britain, where possession is now illegal, nitrous oxide was the second most-used drug among 16-to-24-year-olds in 2020, behind only cannabis. That trajectory preceded and predicted the U.S. wave that followed.
• The complaint identifies minors as a specific target demographic of the manufacturers’ marketing. Dr. Gail Saltz, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, confirmed that flavored products specifically appeal to children and create a false sense of safety.
• Galaxy Gas product videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube collectively generated millions of interactions, according to Psychiatric Times. This organic-looking reach was built, at least in part, through paid social media influencer contracts, which the complaint describes as inconsistent with any legitimate food or medical marketing purpose.

Economic Inequality

The economic harms of this industry do not fall equally. The marketing strategies documented in the complaint were designed to reach young people and communities of color. The costs of addiction and death are borne by families, not corporations.

• Singer SZA publicly called out the racial dimension of the Galaxy Gas marketing campaign, writing that it was “MASS marketed to black children” with “childlike designs and marketing” using “stars and bright colors.” No one disputed her characterization.
• Floridians spent approximately $410 million on disposable vape products alone, nearly ten times more per capita than New York. That revenue flows out of working-class households into corporate accounts registered in Georgia, Delaware, California, Nevada, and China.
• The nitrous oxide market’s projected $3.19 billion valuation by 2033 is built substantially on recreational drug sales that are, under Florida law, felonies. The companies profiting from this market face zero criminal exposure under the current enforcement environment.
• The complaint argues that individual damages are too small for each plaintiff to sue alone, which is precisely how corporations design their harm: keep each individual loss below the threshold where litigation becomes economically rational, while aggregating massive profits at the corporate level.
• A Missouri jury awarded $720 million to the family of Marissa Politte, a young woman killed by a driver impaired on nitrous oxide manufactured by defendant United Brands. That judgment — if ever collected — is the exception. The rule is that corporations pay nothing while families absorb catastrophic loss.
• The complaint notes that the damages available to individual plaintiffs are “insufficient to make individual lawsuits economically feasible,” meaning the only realistic path to accountability is a class action that aggregates thousands of claims. Without that mechanism, corporate profit from a felony drug distribution enterprise would continue uncontested.

The “Cost of a Life” Metric

What Now? Accountability Checklist

The complaint identifies specific defendants and specific laws. Here is where enforcement pressure can be applied and how regular people can push back.

Named Defendants (Manufacturers)

• Galaxy Gas LLC / Pluto Brands LLC — P.O. Box 2630, Kennesaw, GA 30156. Galaxy Gas is the brand most associated with the social media trend. Pluto Brands is its Delaware-registered corporate owner.
• Dimo Hemp LLC / Fusion International Trading LLC (“Looper Whip”) — Dimo: 8549 Wilshire Blvd #5134, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Fusion International: Shanghai, China, with a Los Angeles corporate office. The Shanghai manufacturing origin is significant for import chain liability.
• United Brands, Inc. — 120 Sierra Azule, Los Gatos, CA 95032. Already ordered to pay $720 million in the Missouri wrongful death case. Named again here.
• Sweet and Sour Holdings LLC (“Cosmic Gas”) — 800 N. Rainbow Blvd, Ste 208, Las Vegas, NV 89107.
• Monster Gas, Inc. — 9171 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 500 B4, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
• Baking Bad Group, Inc. — Suite 16289, 1635 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

Named Defendants (Smoke Shops)

• Fuego Smoke & Vape LLC — 2575 State Rte 50 #B, Clermont, FL
• Manki Investments LLC (“Just Smoke”) — 13809 County Rd 455 #102, Clermont, FL 34711
• Hywaze LLC (“Hywaze Smoke Shop”) — 663 SR 50, Clermont, FL
• Outer Limits Sales Two LLC — 12348 Roper Blvd, Clermont, FL
• A&A Smoke Shop LLC (“Clermont Smoke Shop”) — 4420 S Hwy 27 #7, Clermont, FL 34711
• Puffzilla LLC — 9000 S Orange Blossom Trail Suite C, Orlando, FL 32809
• Givingo LLC (“Moe’s Smoke Shop”) — 4079 S. Goldenrod Road, Orlando, FL 32822

Regulatory Watchlist

• Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) — Licenses Florida tobacco retailers. Every smoke shop on this list holds a DBPR license. License complaints can be filed publicly and trigger inspections.
• Florida Attorney General’s Office — FDUTPA enforcement authority. The same statute cited in this complaint empowers the AG to pursue civil penalties and injunctions without waiting for a private lawsuit to resolve.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — Nitrous oxide sold as a food product falls under FDA’s food additive and misbranding authority. The complaint’s misbranding allegations (Fla. Stat. §499.005) have a federal analog in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — Nitrous oxide is not currently a scheduled controlled substance at the federal level, which is the legal loophole the complaint’s Atlantic quote references. Rescheduling petitions can be submitted by any member of the public.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — The paid influencer campaigns described in the complaint, particularly those that did not disclose the commercial relationship, may constitute deceptive advertising under FTC rules on endorsements and testimonials.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — Fusion International Trading LLC’s manufacturing in Shanghai creates an import chain. CBP can flag shipments of products that violate U.S. consumer protection or drug distribution laws upon entry.

Mutual Aid and Grassroots Resistance

• If you or someone you know purchased nitrous oxide products at a Florida smoke shop, contact Morgan & Morgan’s Complex Litigation Group directly. The class action seeks to include all U.S. purchasers from smoke shops. Contact information from the complaint: JYanchunis@forthepeople.com, 201 North Franklin Street 7th Floor, Tampa, FL 33602, (813) 223-5505.
• Document and report smoke shops still selling these products in Florida to the Florida AG’s consumer protection hotline. A verified consumer complaint creates a paper trail that strengthens both regulatory and civil enforcement.
• Harm reduction organizations working with young people in Orlando, Clermont, and surrounding Lake and Orange County communities should be aware that nitrous oxide addiction resources are scarce. The American Addiction Centers (americanaddictioncenters.org) maintains a dedicated nitrous oxide inhalant abuse resource page.
• Share the actual science, not the marketing. The 2015 Practical Neurology paper on nitrous oxide’s neurological effects, cited in the complaint, is open access. So is the Psychiatric Times analysis from September 2024. Young people seeing Galaxy Gas on TikTok are not seeing these.
• Contact your Florida state legislator and ask whether they are aware that Fla. Stat. §877.111(4)’s 16-gram felony threshold is routinely exceeded by retail sales at thousands of smoke shops statewide, and whether they intend to do anything about enforcement.