From Wikipedia, which isn't infallible:
Legality
Around 1990, many Western governments banned the sale, importation or usage of alkyl nitrites (poppers) for use as an inhalant. In France, the sale of products containing butyl nitrites, pentyl nitrites, or isomers thereof, has been prohibited since 1990 on grounds of dangerousness to consumers.[46] In 2007, the government extended this prohibition to all alkyl nitrites that were not authorized for sales as drugs[47]. After litigation by sex shop owners, this extension was quashed by the Council of State on grounds that the government had failed to justify such a blanket prohibition: according to the court, the risks cited, concerning rare accidents often following abnormal usage, rather justified compulsory warnings on the packaging.[48]
Poppers remain available over the Internet, under names such as "video head-cleaning fluid," "room aromas," or "polish remover," as they remain legal in countries such as Poland, the United Kingdom and China.[49]
In the United Kingdom, Poppers are widely available, and frequently (legally[50]) sold in gay clubs/bars, sex shops, drug paraphernalia head shops, over the internet and on markets.[51] It is illegal to sell them advertised for human consumption under The Medicines Act, so to bypass this, they are usually sold as deodorizers.[52]
[In the United States,] originally marketed as a prescription drug in 1937, amyl nitrite remained so until 1960, when the Food and Drug Administration removed the prescription requirement due to its safety record. This requirement was reinstated in 1969, after observation of an increase in recreational use.
Other alkyl nitrites were outlawed in the USA by Congress through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. The law includes an exception for commercial purposes. The term commercial purpose is defined to mean any use other than for the production of consumer products containing volatile alkyl nitrites meant for inhaling or otherwise introducing volatile alkyl nitrites into the human body for euphoric or physical effects.[19] The law came into effect in 1990. Visits to retail outlets selling these products reveal that some manufacturers have since reformulated their products to abide by the regulations, through the use of the legal cyclohexyl nitrite as the primary ingredient in their products, which are sold as video head cleaner, polish remover, or room odorants.
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