China’s drug control body is increasing efforts to restrict nitrous oxide — commonly known as laughing gas — after a number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. became addicted to the party drug, with some even winding up in wheelchairs.

On Sunday, Beijing Narcotics Control Commission announced it had listed laughing gas as a “third-generation drug,” a term commonly applied to designer drugs that aren’t illegal but are subject to more oversight, Beijing News reported. Laughing gas, which is used as an anesthetic in medicine and in whipped cream canisters, and “little twig,” a synthetic cannabinoid shaped like a cinnamon stick, are abused in the capital and will now face stricter controls nationwide, the commission’s deputy director Tao Jing said. (Image:IC)