• Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Benzos The Benzodiazepine MEGA THREAD - Direct Benzo Questions Here

9volt

Bluelighter
Joined
May 30, 2004
Messages
300
I am taking my new XR xanax BY THE BOOK, so if anyone has 1st hand experience with crushing (and taking) an XR pill, please let me know how this worked out. Preferably, I would like advice from someone who knows their reaction to xanax very well and doesn't have a huge tolerance (or knows how to account for it).

The bottle of XR says do not crush or chew. My doc said something like "the release mechanism of xanax XR is not like that of OC, so you can't abuse them." Is it possible that crushing the pill only slightly destroys the time release mechanism instead of almost entirely destroying it like that in oxy? A friend of mine took crushed a 2mg pill and reported poor results compared to a regular 2mg xanax bar. Unfortunately this kid doesn't understand all the factors involved in the effectiveness of xanax, so he could have eaten a full meal just before he took the crushed pill for all I know.

I think my doc was completely feeding me a line about the XR xanax not being worthy of abuse by crushing (he even mentioned not snorting it, but duh...). Obviously, my xanax dosing habits were in question before I got the script today. I just want to know if I can crush a 2mg XR pill and get nearly the same immediate up and down effects of IR xanax (dosage = ?)Thanks for your help. I really want and need to take my meds by the book, so I can't run an empirical test. Any pharmacists out there? Thanks a lot.
 
If you crush up your pill, or just put it in your mouth and chew it, AND you have no tolerence a 2mg pill should have you feeling it good, and have you relaxed as fuck and your mind will be all sleepy and confused a little bit. .5mg can help relax you, 1mg will help relax your body and you will also be 'sleepy', 1mg+ it will make you more and more sleepy and you will probably have a good night's sleep. It's not a bad idea tough taking like .5mg with a bowl of weed at night or at some stresfull time of day or whatever for taking your stress of and still keeping you up. I've fooled around with about 90 pills of 0.5mg Xanax pills for about 2-3 weeks almost daily, and had no adverse effects like withdrawl.
 
I got the XR one time because I thought That i could crush them up and get the same effects as I do off of the Instant release, just I was hoping they would be a bit better because they come in 3mg tabs, so anyways I got em crushed em up and tried to put the powder in my mouth, no luck the powder just gelled up in my mouth and basically still worked as extended release, crushed up a pill put it in some soda trying to mix it up and dissolve the stuff a little better, still no luck.
These things are Crazy hard to bypass the gelling up of these things and I really couldn't get much out of them so I switched back to the instant release and was much happier. Good luck trying to get the same effects you would out off these as you would an instant release. you might have some luck with getting partial effects though.......
 
hmmm...

I had no problems with the 3mg tabs, I would just crush actually I would use a pill cutter to shave it down (those fuckers are rock hard). Than once it was powdered chase it down with a sip of juice.

It would hit quicker than if I took the tabs without crushing and I would still get longer lasting effects even when crushed. Its nice to be able to have a xanax feeling last longer than it normally does, but as with most benzos tolerence only takes a few days before increases are needed
 
Well I broke down and ran an empirical test by chewing a 2mg XR and the waxy/sticky globs got caught all between my teeth and in my molars. After I picked all the pieces out and washed them down with grapefruit juice, I got knocked on my ass about 45 minutes later. It was not like taking a 2mg bar at all, though. It was more sedating and groggy. I would compare it to taking 3 or 4 mg xanax IR after taking a 5mg vike or perc (or one beer). As far as I can tell, the time release mechanism was not totally destroyed - only partially. The gel in my mouth was much gooier and stickier than an oxy 20, so the release mechanism must stay in tact to some extent. I am really sleepy for some reason (heavy eyelids). So, from my experience, crushing a 2mg XR is completely different from taking 2 or 3mg of xanax IR. 5mg of IR xanax gets me pretty pumped up and ready to take on the world. The crushed 2mg XR pill just made me really sleepy after an hour, and I even ate right after I took it. These crushed XR pills are weird compared to the IR. -more research needed...
 
The Benzo Mega Thread

Since half of the posts in this forum are dedicated to various benzodiazepines I think it could benefit the forum to remove clutter and throw it all into one thread.

Here I will make a chart with links to more common information on Benzos and then you can reply with any other questions.

Without further ado ...

BENZODIAZEPINE BASICS

What is a Benzo?

From Wikipedia, sums it up pretty nicely:

The benzodiazepines, often abbreviated to "benzos", are a class of sedative hypnotic psychoactive drugs with varying hypnotic, sedative, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant and amnesic properties, which are mediated by slowing down the central nervous system.[1] Benzodiazepines are useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, and muscle spasms, as well as alcohol withdrawal. They can also be used before certain medical procedures such as endoscopies or dental work where tension and anxiety are present, and prior to some unpleasant medical procedures in order to induce sedation and amnesia[2] for the procedure. Another use is to counteract anxiety-related symptoms upon initial use of SSRIs and other antidepressants, or as an adjunctive treatment. Recreational stimulant users often use benzodiazepines as a means of "coming down" (see: Drug abuse). Benzodiazepines are also used to treat the panic that can be caused by hallucinogen intoxication.[3]

The long-term use of benzodiazapines can cause physical dependence. The use of benzodiazepines should therefore commence only after medical consultation and benzodiazepines should be prescribed the smallest dosage possible to provide an acceptable level of symptom relief. Dependence varies with the benzodiazepine used and with the user.

What happens if I take them?

Benzos will typically relax your body, as well as your mind. This means it will be harder to keep your balance and use your mind to full capacity. Most users tend to forget things and a lot of the time people can black out for hours or a whole night. They do lower your inhibitions and have been used as tools to take advantage of girls, and very occassionally rape them. This is not as common as the DEA would want you to believe, but it happens. They also tend to make you think very irrationally and do things you wouldn't even think to do if you were sober.

DO NOT DRIVE IF YOU GET HIGH ON THESE! IT'S WORSE THAN ON ALCOHOL!

The way it affects your driving is terrible. You're reaction time is shot. It seems every week I read of an accident related to benzos and I live in a small city. The reason you are such a bad driver when high on this stuff is becaue you don''t realize you are really that high. But you ARE! Give you keys to a friend if you have your car and are using benzos, it will save your life. Thats no joke and this sure ain't no anti-drug commercial either.
THIS IS SERIOUS!


From reading through various experiences and seeing and experiencing them, they make you more physically inebriated than you think you are to a passerby or friend, and they tend to take away inhibitions and cause people to do things they normally wouldn't such as shoplift (link provided), known by police and hospitals to be a VERY common when occurance when people are under the influence of the various benzodiazepines.

Are they Safe?

Many people assume thay because it is a pharmaceutical that it is safe. This is just not true for any medicine.

First of all, they are addictive. Many experts claim they the withdrawals are more severe than heroin. It is easy to get addicted to this class of drugs because they take away our stress, and they have the tendency to make you want more after you have taken some.

The LD50 (or lethal dose) for diazepam is 720 mg/kg in mice and 1240 mg/kg in rats. What this means is it is very very hard to kill yourself on these pills. This does not mean it is safe to consume extremely large amounts due to resperitory depression and coma.

Also, this is important and I will get into detail a little more in the Combination section. Benzos alone are fine. Add any other depressant to it and you may run into a problem. Beer is a common one. You could be having a good time on benzos and drink 2 or 3 beers, suddenly you could black out and do some really stupid stuff. What alcohol seems to do to peoples minds when mixed with alcohol is, for the lack of better wording, make them sloppy stupid lunatics. The combo is not a good party combo, you will be known as that guy or girl who broke the $3000 Plasma. If you want advice with this ask, but it is better avoided at all costs.

There are other downers and other drugs you should take care with in taking with benzos, and for that please refer to the section entitled "What drugs react dangerously with Benzodiazepines?."

[How much should I take?

If your benzos are prescribed by a doctor, the best way to take it is as prescribed. You may need to work with your doctor to find a dose that makes you feel the way you should on them - free from stress. If you want to get a buzz from them, double your regular dose. There is no reason to go above this because that is when you don't feel any higher but only act higher (this is more an opinion, if anyone wants me to refute that feel free).

If you are not acquiring these benzos from a doctor, use a pill identifier first. There is one here, and a very good one here. This allows you to know what the dosage is of what you are taking (don't trust anyone on what they say, some people will sell you 500mg vicodin). Then you want to take one of those pills and cut it in half. Then take that half and cut it in half, so you have a quarter. Swallow that quarter of a pill and wait 40 minutes. If you don't feel anything, take the other quarter and wait 40 minutes and repeat. When you find yourself start to get high, stop and figure out how much you took. This is your sweet spot. It is ideal to take the minimum to get you high in order to keep your tolerance down. If you want to try to get higher, use the same method. If you are stupid take a bunch of them and go out in public. TREAT THIS DRUG WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT!

Good threshhold amounts for first time recreational users who have friends around, aren't driving or operating machinery:

[Xanax - 0.5 mg
Klonopin - 1 mg
Ativan - 1mg
Valium - 5 mg


Injection of Benzos

Do NOT attempt to break down a pill and inject it. It has no better effects and is only dangerous. Most benzos are not water solubale including all the common ones listed below. The only way a benzo is safe for injection is if it is in an ampule that is meant for injection.

THIS IS SERIOUS! It is common knowledge around here but if you have to ask, ask here.

Here is a guide to safer injection, if you must: http://harm.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=212

What are different kinds of Benzos?

Most generic pharmaceutical names that end in -lam, -pam. This list is not totally inclusive but a good one can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_benzodiazepines

These are the more commonly prescribed ones. Should you come across a different one you should do some research before using any.

I switched benzos - how much should I take of the new one?

This is a hard one to answer because everybody reacts differently to benzos. Some get nothing from Valium from any dose, some will fall asleep on the lowest dose possible. The same chart I reference in the next question can be used for this purpose.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/bzequiv.htm

This compares the equivalent dosages to different benzos using Valium as the control chemical. It's off here and there and not everyone agrees with it, but it is the best around that I have seen and should help you well in this case.

How long Will a Benzo stay in my system and keep me high?

This is a great half-life chart found in the Other Drugs Directory (where I will be getting much more information to follow).

Half Life/Bioavailability Chart

* This link is now dead.
<Edit- It is recommended to use the Ashton Manual half-life/equivalence chart. Half-life does not equate to the length of intoxication, but the length of biological activity. It is a good indicator of what to expect as far as how long the drug will linger, though. -Pega>


Questions should be asked in this thread.


What drugs react dangerously with Benzodiazepines?

There is one drug in which it is common knowledge in the OD community that combination can easily lead to death by respiratory depression (stop breathing) and that is Heroin and other Opiates. Many people use this combo because they like how it makes them feel. This is extremely dangerous and has lead to many, many deaths. If you do decide to try this combo please don't kill yourself and titrate your dosage, i.e. start small with your doses, take less of each than you normally would, and don't go crazy with them. They kill too many people and to see another BL'er pass because of this combo would not be a good day.

There are other drugs in which you should not combine benzos with. A drug interaction checker is available at drugs.com

http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.php

USE THIS TOOL BEFORE YOU TRY ANY COMBOS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ASK BEFORE YOU TRY IT! It could save your life.

ADDICTION TO BENZODIAZEPINES

As mentioned earlier, it has been said by many experts that benzo withdrawals are worse than heroin withdrawals. They are right. Your body has dangerous grand mal seizures and goes through a very rough time. If you are on a high regular dose of a benzo do not ever just stop taking them - you need to taper down.

You should DEFINITELY go to your doctor to make this happen. If this is not possible, then this is a good source for tapering: Guide to tapering by Professor Ashton You can read her credentials on this link but she has been dealing with this since they came out on the market in '85.

What typically happens with benzos is that over time they lose the "high" that you may have gotten and just take them to maintain and stay away from what is called "rebound anxiety" from not having them in your system. This is when you know you are addicted and when you should make a decision on seeking help to taper off.

SPECIFIC BENZODIAZEPINES

Borrowed from GenericMind's Directory Thread (thanks GM)

Alprazolam (Xanax)

Alprazolam has a half life of 4-8 hours and the effects usually last 4 hours in most users. It typically starts to work orally in 15-30 minutes. Orally it has a bioavailability of 90%+.It is a common benzo in the U.S. prescribed for short term anxiety or for break-thru anxiety along with other benzos.

Dosing with Xanax

Snorting Xanax
Xanax Blackouts (this is common!)
Xanax XR discussion
Xanax Overdosing
Xanax and Drug Testing

Clonazepam (Klonopin)

Clonazepam has a half-life of 8-12 hours and the effects typically last 6-8 hours for most. It works orally in about 30 minutes and has an oral bioavailability of 90%+. It is prescribed commmonly in the US and other countries for long term anxiety control and is sometimes supplemented with a short term benzo such as xanax or ativan for break-thru anxiety.

Dosing with Clonazepam
Snorting Clonazepam
Clonazepam Tolerance
Drug Testing with Clonazepam


Diazepam (Valium)

Once the most commonly prescribed benzo (possibly still is), it's overuse in active prescribing in the 80's and 90's led to the realization benzos aren't as safe as most thought. It tends to last the longest out of all the benzos, 6-8 hours or more with a half life up to over 200 hours. It has a bioavaiability of 90%+ like most benzodiazepines (I Know I am getting a bit redundant here). It is typically prescribed by doctors for use in long term anxiety support and is also used to taper people from other benzos.

Dosing on Valium
Snorting Valium
Valium Drug Testing
Injecting liquid valium

Lorazepam (Ativan)
Ativan is the benzo of choice in hospitals as it is able to be made into an injectible solution and used IM/IV (don't try this with the pills). It has a half life of 4-6 hours and typically lasts for 4 hours. It's bioavailability is also above 90% orally and can cause unpleasant hallucinations in certain individuals (see link). Usually it is prescribed for PRN or as-needed use.

Dosing with Ativan
Snorting Ativan
Ativan and Hallucinations
Ativan and Drug Testing

These are the main benzos prescribed in the US and UK for anxiety. However, there are many that are not that are available and around.

UNCOMMON BENZOS

bromazepam
chlordiazepoxide (Librium)
flurazepam (Dalmane)
nitrazepam (Mogadon)
oxazepam (Serax)
temazepam (Restoril)
flunitrazepam (Rohypnol)
midazolam (Dormicum)
triazolam (Halcion)

This list is just the more common uncommons, if you have a specific question about an even rarer benzodiazpine bring it up in this thread so I can add to it.

-------------------------------------------------------------

That is all for now, more to be added as needed. Basically, let's keep all benzo questions and comments here guys. I wish I had a sign but I don't, but

Moderators take notice
Post loitering and Off
Topic conversation​
 

Attachments

  • memory impairment.JPG
    memory impairment.JPG
    20.1 KB · Views: 822
Last edited by a moderator:
Nickatina said:
Thanks.

Maybe we can get this added to the sticky that has all the mega-threads?

I will do so. From now on, I will help you take care of this thread, if you need mod help in any way. Of course, this is still your thread.

From now on though, we all know the thread is awesome, so if you want to send praise to Nickatina, PM him - other than that lets just fill this thread up with as much info as possible.

ALSO- Nickatina, on the safety of benzos section, you said they are safe on their own, which is true, you but should add a part how combos are very dangerous. IE you could take 10 xanax and life, but 10 xanax and 2-3 beers and you might not be so lucky.
I'm sure this is a work in progress, so if you could change that, it would be helpful.

ALSO - other members - if you have any factual information to add, please do so and post it in this thread, and if its fits in, Nickatina will probably add it to the original post.

MY FRIENDS - if we can fill this bad boy up with information, we can eliminate a lot of unnecessary and simple benzo threads. All they will have to do it come here and their questions will be answered.


edit: As I said guys, facts/trends are preferred to 1 person's experience. This will help to make this thread comprehensive and not just full of contradictory opinions.
 
Last edited:
This should go into Drug FAQs.

I have a lot of information about the non-benzodiazepine BZD-receptor agonists like zolpidem and zopiclone.
 
johanneschimpo said:
I will do so. From now on, I will help you take care of this thread, if you need mod help in any way. Of course, this is still your thread.

Appreciate that.

ALSO- Nickatina, on the safety of benzos section, you said they are safe on their own, which is true, you but should add a part how combos are very dangerous. IE you could take 10 xanax and life, but 10 xanax and 2-3 beers and you might not be so lucky.
I'm sure this is a work in progress, so if you could change that, it would be helpful.

Great idea, will do.

ALSO - other members - if you have any factual information to add, please do so and post it in this thread, and if its fits in, Nickatina will probably add it to the original post.

MY FRIENDS - if we can fill this bad boy up with information, we can eliminate a lot of unnecessary and simple benzo threads. All they will have to do it come here and their questions will be answered.


edit: As I said guys, facts/trends are preferred to 1 person's experience. This will help to make this thread comprehensive and not just full of contradictory opinions.

QFT
 
What is the best way to take the xanax xr i have like 70 of the 0.5 green ones i just wana know how i can get my worth out of them
 
B]H2 antagonists may increase plasma concentrations of benzos

is this worth a try? I am using Clonazepam as rx'd just waiting for copay $$ for rx tomorrow, hence reason to potentiate. Thanks. I found this info online. This is not my experience. Any truth to this, or is it too complicated?

B]H2 antagonists such as cimetidine may increase plasma concentrations of some benzodiazepines and enhance sedation

Cimetidine slows down the elimination rate of nitrazepam leading to more prolonged effects of nitrazepam and increased risk of accumulation

H2 antagonists such as cimetidine may increase plasma concentrations of some benzodiazepines and enhance sedation. The mechanism may be related to inhibition of liver cytochrome P450 enzymes responsible for metabolism of certain benzodiazepines

Drug Interactions: Cimetidine increases the effect of the benzodiazepine
Clozapine Increased risk of toxicity

Just thought everyone should know that an antacid drug called Tagamet (Cimetidine) just about doubles the potency of the drug. I would say the potentiation effect is 1mg:1.75mg

From what I have researched, most benzo's are potentiated by Cimetidine. A notable exception is Ativan.

Grapefruit juice also potentiates some benzo's, but not Klonopin.

The reason I researched this is because my doc had to push my appointment back and I will run out of pills and potentially go into withdrawal if I continue to take my usual amount.

What I did was take 400mg of Cimetidine about 30min before taking 1mg Klonopin and it feels as if I had taken almost 2mg of Klonopin which is my usual dose.

Apparently, the drug inhibits the production of some enzyme that breaks down certain benzo's. This means that it stays in your system even longer and it seems to also be somehow potentiated as well.
 
You're quite right.
There are lots of threads on this here actually :)
Search for the "Mega Benzo Potentiation Thread" which will list a number of ways to make the most of your dose.
 
this is fine in here, ill merge it into the benzo mega thread. nickatina has done a wonderful job at creating a mega thread and FAQ but it has been neglected. time to start putting it to use.
 
^ I agree ;) Might even be worth stickying, but then again, threads seem turn translucent when that happens lol
 
Top