You do NOT need ID to buy whipped cream in New York.
Amid recent pandemonium over a law that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law late last year — which convenience and grocery stores interpreted as requiring them to ID people buying whipped cream much as they would alcohol and tobacco — a sponsor of the bill on Wednesday sought to clear the air.
“I used to love whipped cream — but now I’m having second thoughts,” state Sen. Joe Addabbo (D-Queens) quipped of the unexpected blowback to the bill he sponsored targeting teens use of so-called “whip-its.”
The law bans people under age 21 from buying “whipped cream chargers” — devices that can be used to fill balloons with nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas, which is then inhaled for a high.
While the devices are visually distinct from the refrigerator case cans of Ready Whip and other brands meant for tasty treats on the go — rumors nonetheless spread of a ban on the creamy dispensers ubiquitous in stores statewide.
“It was initially unclear if this ban extended to whipped cream canisters. In order to be safe, many stores started requiring ID for whipped cream,” reads an Aug. 31 email from the New York Association of Convenience Stores to thousands of members across the state.
“You do NOT need to ID a customer in order to sell them a can of whipped cream,” the letters clarifies.
Some stores evidently did not get the legislative memo attached to the bill signed into law by Hochul last October, which details how the bill aims to restrict sales of metal cylinders used to abuse nitrous.
“Nitrous oxide is known to cause hearing loss, liver and kidney damage, limb spasms, central nervous system or brain damage, bone marrow damage, heart failure or suffocation,” the legislative memo notes.
The bill passed by the state Senate and Assembly by large, bipartisan margins last year, with Republicans making up most of the few no votes.
“Nobody read the bill. It’s four paragraphs long,” Addabbo said of the misplaced uproar surrounding the bill he introduced with Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Queens), who did not respond to a request for comment.
While the law took effect with little fanfare last year, backlash has grown in recent weeks following media reports claiming progressive pols were cracking down on whipped cream in a state where Big Dairy has power to milk.
The eventual backlash to the law, which authorizes $250 fines for first-time violators, inspired hundreds of people to reach out to Addabbo, who proposed the legislation after hearing about nitrous-sucking teens getting high in his district.
“Between the phone calls emails and texts this issues has certainly monopolized my last 72 hours,” he told The Post Wednesday.
But the confusion has hardly left Addabbo feeling sour about the fruits of his legislative labors despite the confusion.
“It did allow me once again to highlight the dangers of minors using or inhaling nitrous oxide,” he added.