Poppers

Poppers is a slang term given broadly to the chemical class called alkyl nitrites, that are inhaled for recreational purposes. Their primary recreational uses are as club drugs and as part of sexual encounters.

Poppers use is particularly common among gay and bisexual men and transgender people across the world due to their relaxation effect on involuntary smooth muscles (such as those in the throat and anus), the warmth and head rush they provide to users, and their overwhelmingly social use. Legal restrictions on the sale, possession, and use of poppers often cite safety concerns.

Poppers were part of club culture from the 1970s disco scene to the 1980s, and the 1990s rave scene made their use popular. As explained by Dr. Lucy Robinson, Sussex University history lecturer,

“If you trace the bottle of amyl [a type of alkyl nitrite] through late 20th-century history, you trace the legacies of gay culture on popular culture in the 20th century. We wouldn’t have had rave, disco or club culture as we know it today without the gay community.”

Most widely sold products include the original amyl nitrite (isoamyl nitrite, isopentyl nitrite), but also cyclohexyl nitrite, isobutyl nitrite (2-methylpropyl nitrite), isopropyl nitrite (2-propyl nitrite, increasingly, after EU ban of the isobutyl form), and, more rarely, butyl nitrite; however, to the extent that they remain unregulated or illicitly used products, compositions and the implications of altered formulations on user health can change without notice.

The French chemist Antoine Jérôme Balard synthesized amyl nitrite In 1844.Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, a Scottish physician born in the year of amyl nitrite's first synthesis, famously pioneered its use to treat angina pectoris. Brunton was inspired by earlier work with the same agent, performed by Arthur Gamgee and Benjamin Ward Richardson. Brunton reasoned that the angina suffer's pain and discomfort could be reduced by administering amyl nitrite—to dilate the coronary arteries of patients, thus improving blood flow to the heart muscle.

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