It’s not unusual to spot tiny colourful bottles with unknown contents being passed around a group of friends in nightclubs across the country.
While they may look like micro energy drinks, they are in fact "poppers", a popular drug choice among the LGBT+ community and others for decades. When inhaled they cause a short-term head rush, enhanced sexual feeling and are often associated with sexual activity. However, poppers weren't designed for people in clubs.
The liquid, otherwise known as alkyl nitrate, was originally developed as a medicine to treat angina, a condition which causes chest pain as a result of a reduced blood flow to your heart. Recreational use of poppers emerged in the 1970s among clubbers.
