The government's Psychoactive Substances Act, which bans the sale and distribution of legal highs, came into force yesterday.
Within hours, Crawley Police proudly tweeted they had made their first seizure, using the hashtag PoppersIncluded.
Social users were quick to point out their mistake.
But Crawley Police insisted they had done nothing wrong.
The exemption of poppers from the ban has been widely publicised.
In January, when they were to be included, MP Crispin Torbin stood up in the House of Commons and called the ban "fantastically stupid".
He said: "I out myself as a poppers user. I was astonished to find that it's proposed they be banned and, frankly, so were very many gay men."
As a result, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs looked at their inclusion again, and recommend they were excluded from the list of banned substances.
Eventually, the police force decided to double check.
Crawley Police went on to apologise and delete their earlier tweets – but they had already been retweeted by social media users, and reported upon by Pink News.
A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Material was seized from three Crawley town centre shops. However they were 'popper' items, which are not covered by the new legislation.
"The officers realised the mistake, which was made in good faith, on the same day and the items will be returned to the shops with our apologies.
"The shops were not specialist 'head shops' of which there are none in Crawley. We are not naming them."
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