A BUSINESSMAN has defended selling laughing gas for door to door delivery, saying he is simply capitalising on a market opportunity.

Flyers for ‘Just Say N2O’ have been posted through doors in Durham city centre, advertising nitrous oxide for delivery 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sale of the legal high will be banned under Government proposals announced in this week’s Queen’s Speech.

But a Just Say N2O boss, who did not wish to be named, said he was doing nothing wrong.

“It’s a business. This happens across the country,” he said.

“It’s a perfectly legal product. Whether they use it to whip cream or anything else is up to them.

“I’m capitalising on a market opportunity, just the same as any other business does.”

His flyers promote boxes with 24 chargers for £10, while a “mega box” with 50 costs £20.

Under the strapline “Lighten Up”, the leaflets also offer free rental of dispensers and eight premium latex balloons free with every order.

Nitrous oxide can make users feel euphoric and relaxed when inhaled and has been taken recreationally for centuries.

But use has spiked recently, with Home Office figures suggesting 470,000 people aged 16 to 59 inhaled the drug during 2013-14 – up 100,000 on the previous year.

Eight per cent of young people claimed to have used the substance, making it the second most popular recreational drug after cannabis.

It hit the headlines recently when Liverpool and England star Raheem Sterling was apparently pictured inhaling the drug.

A 2012 report linked the drug to 52 deaths over 30 years and the trade has alarmed some Durham residents, with fears students are being targeted in a city that has suffered a string of tragic alcohol-related river deaths in recent times.

But the Just Say N2O boss said: “I’m not forcing it on anyone. It’s entirely their decision. It’s a service.”

Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech included plans for a Psychoactive Substances Bill, to ban the trade of “any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”, with a maximum seven-year prison sentence for anyone breaking the new law.

The move was welcomed by, among others, Durham Police, Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird and Darlington MP Jenny Chapman.

The Just Say N2O boss said: "That's the Government's choice. It's not something I'm going to get personally involved with. It would be the end of the business."