Florida smoke shops, vape shops, and other tobacco-licensed retailers can no longer sell nitrous oxide as of Oct. 1, when Meg's Law took effect. The measure is part of CS/SB 432, which also creates a new crime of trafficking in xylazine, an animal sedative increasingly found in the illegal fentanyl supply.
The law is named for Margaret "Meg" Caldwell, 29, of Clermont. Her body was found in November 2024 behind an Orange County smoke shop where she had bought nitrous oxide products, NBC News reported. Her family says she died as a result of her addiction to the gas. Because the products were sold openly in stores, her sisters said she believed they were safe. "She would tell us, I'm buying this legally. I'm not doing anything wrong with this," her sister Kathleen Dial told NBC. Another sister, Leigh Caldwell, said a doctor had warned Meg she could die if she kept using it.
