Is there more to the story?

Not that I'm aware of. I'm assuming Tom was referring to its anaesthetic effects, which I don't think have been widely studied.

iirc it's a dissociative.

I remember Hamilton's pharmacopeia doing an episode on it. Apparently it is/was popular in Russia.

Here's a video of Hamilton doing some: https://youtu.be/dj25HO48Gxw

At the worst, you can use it like people use nitrogen. To get a very brief high from lack of oxygen (and then possibly die)

It works by dispersing oxygen from the blood. The lack of oxygen gives you a high. Which is can turn deadly if you don't unhook when passing out.

oh, so it's a "medicine drug"...

Don't listen to the people who say it works by displacing oxygen. It would never be used as a general anesthetic if that was the mechanism of action.

Xenon has been used as a general anesthetic, but it is more expensive than conventional anesthetics.

Xenon is a high-affinity glycine-site NMDA receptor antagonist.[155] However, xenon is different from certain other NMDA receptor antagonists in that it is not neurotoxic and it inhibits the neurotoxicity of ketamine and nitrous oxide (N2O), while actually producing neuroprotective effects.[156][157] Unlike ketamine and nitrous oxide, xenon does not stimulate a dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens.[158]

Xenon has a minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of 72% at age 40, making it 44% more potent than N2O as an anesthetic.[164] Thus, it can be used with oxygen in concentrations that have a lower risk of hypoxia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon

Yeah. If you spray it on a hammer and hit someone's head with it, it knocks them right out.

I'm reading all these comments in his voice.

G'DAY AND WELCOME TO EXPLOSIONS AND FIIIIIRE!!! I love nothing in the world more than ex&f

"Lisan al Gaib!"

Yeah, compared to other noble gases, it's pretty rare, and we don't produce very much. If I recall correctly, the 900 kg loaded on the Psyche spacecraft last year represented about 10% of the world production.