Nitrous oxide is more dangerous than laughing gas. Apparently

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Laughing gas is safer than nitrous oxide - and most people have no idea what hippy crack is.

That's the somewhat puzzling findings of a new poll which found that nearly twice as many people think nitrous oxide isn't as harmful as laughing gas - despite them being the same thing.

Respondents were asked how safe or dangerous they thought it was to use a list of substances ranging from tobacco to ketamine.

Half of them were then asked how safe they thought it was to use laughing gas, while the second half were asked the same question for nitrous oxide.

Nearly twice as many (22%) said that it was safe to use laughing gas, while only 12% felt that it was safe to use nitrous oxide.

Respondents were also asked what they thought the term ‘hippy crack’ (a name commonly used by the media to refer to laughing gas) referred to. Only about a fifth of people (18%) correctly answered that it referred to laughing gas.

In the YouGov poll, 46% said they didn’t know, and the rest thought that ‘hippy crack’ referred to illegal drugs ranging from crack cocaine to cannabis.

The vast majority of respondents said that they had never inhaled laughing gas from a balloon (81%).

Laughing gas has been getting a lot of press recently. Liverpool footballer Raheem Sterling was given a talking-to after photos of him appearing to inhale the popular legal high at home emerged two weeks ago.

And just to confirm, it isn't illegal to possess and inhale laughing gas. Or nitrous oxide. Or hippy crack.