“It’s the kind of drug that’s really fun at first, but it punishes you really quickly,” she said, referring to the throbbing headache that often follows. Yates said she and her friends inhale poppers mostly for a quick buzz on the dance floor, or to liven up a boring party - if only for a moment (the effect usually lasts for a couple of minutes). Yates, who became a fan of poppers during her first year at Parsons School of Design. So how did poppers make the jump to the pages of The Drunken Canal and rich-kid fashion parties? Ads for brands like Rush and Locker Room were prominently featured in gay pornographic magazines. Poppers are also known as “liquid incense” or “tape cleaner,” and their pungent chemical smell has been a familiar scent in gay nightclubs and bedrooms for decades.