From an informative article I found online (a site called JustSayN2O) by googling “purchase nitrous oxide”:
“Nitrous is obtained in one of four ways. You can purchase it in various quantities and purities: small whippits, two inch long tapered cylinders used for dispensing whipped cream (food grade), medical-grade nitrous bulk, or auto-grade nitrous bulk. It is also possible (but REALLY DANGEROUS) to homebrew nitrous through proper chemical reactions. The first is the most common form…”
Whippets, we learn, “look identical to the canisters for CO2 powered pellet guns.”
In the 1970s, when drug paraphernalia was an out-in-the-open growth industry, there was a product called “Buzz Bomb,” a marijuana pipe with built-in nitrous oxide, that delivered a mixture of smoke and gas. (Sorry no testimonials – I only saw the ads, lol.)
There’s an urban legend about a car full of people joy-riding with an open tank of nitrous oxide—until they all asphyxiate from oxygen deficiency. The article also warns that trash bags filled with gas from tanks are dangerous, and that automotive nitrous oxide (N2O is a better oxidizer than oxygen) is often mixed with H2S—hydrogen sulfide gas (smells like rotten eggs), which is poisonous.