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Snorted pills and garbage ending up in lungs - dangerous?

BlackOut

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
248
OK, the old threat "ritalin lung" probably won't get much attention, so let me ask the question in a new thread.

Can prescription pill residue enter the lung from snorting? Is it dangerous?

Hfsr promised to get some evidence to prove this, but he never got back to the ritalin lung thread. This subject is important to many BLers, so if you know anything, please post.

Thanks!
 
I think it can though I don't have proof for you...although, it never stopped me from railing oxys and many other pills.
 
Notice that taste you get from snorting pills, coke, or watever? i think thats a perfect indication that it does enter your lungs at one point or another.
 
^ What does tasting something have to do with your lungs?

But yeah, fine particles get inhaled into the lungs whenever you snort anything. But I don't know how bad it is for you, though...
 
Of course particulates getting into your lungs can cause damage. As a recreational drug user though, I wouldn't think you'd have too much to worry about. It'd probably take decades of daily use for it to be fatal.

Take smoking for example. It'll take decades, well at least one, for you to develop any lung issues.

If you're not satisfied with the smoking example, look up "black lung," or whatever that thing is called that the coal miners get. That takes quite a bit of time to develop as well.
 
Im sure that would also depend on how much your snorting . if your doing small to moderate lines the particles entering your lungs would be minor at best but if your snortin lines the size of the brooklyn bridge then of course theres gonna be a better chance that more particles will enter the lungs .
 
IME when snorting if I do my dose in smaller lines sniffed slowly, instead of inhaling sharply, I don't get the sensation of it being sucked past my throat and just sorta coats my nose and sinuses. Then if I feel like it I'll tilt my head forward for a bit to keep things from coming back down my throat or out my nose.

I'm sure it may still get some in your lungs but I don't notice it anymore and doubt it'll kill me.
 
Well, this might not be totally helpful, but it might shed some light on some possibly answers to your question....



From the "Tingling Extremities After Shooting Methylphenidate" thread (paraphrased the title). This is referring to particulate matter from pills building up in the body after injecting them:

fastandbulbous said:
All the symptoms being described are indicative of ischaemic muscle pain that's caused by not enough oxygen, ie blood reaching the muscle tissues. This is not due to vasoconstriction as ischaemia causes release of compounds the produce local vasodilation. It's being caused by partial blockages of veins that are restricting the blood flow and those blockages are going to be due to particulate matter from the pills being used.

As this gets worse, which it will as the particulate matter will build up just like logs causing a blockage of a river, tissue necrosis will start to occur due to prolonged lack of oxygen. This will result in one of two things, either gangrene if a total blockage occurs which unless treated within a few hours will almost inevitably lead to some sort of amputation being required, or if there is some slight blood flow, myoglobin from muscle breakdown will find it's way into the whole body circulation; myoglobin is incredibly toxic to the nephrons in the kidney and will rapidly lead to renal failure, which will be perminant if not treated immediately.

What does your question have to do with injecting pills? A lot apparently. This is from the "Ritalin Lung" thread which you mentioned:

hfrs said:
The only difference between shooting and snorting seems to be the average particle sizes observed in the lungs of the user. This observation has been made by many different groups that study talc induced granulomas and other similar diseases, but is not fully understood.

People seem to have the impression that snorting is safer than shooting, it's not. It's been known since the early 70's that both routes introduce talc into the lungs. Once it's in there, your body (mostly macrophages) will try to engulf it to get rid of it. This leads to several diseases/conditions such as granulomatosis, precocious emphysema, fibrosis, etc.

It's actually fairly easy to see talc in a lung, assuming you have a bronchiolar lavage sample. Talc is birefringent and easily observed under a scope. The longer the particle has been in the lung, the larger it will get as cells try to attack it (usually). The body recognizes it as being foreign easily and knows it shouldn't be in the lung. There have even been cases attributed to inhalation of baby powder (not intentional) as well as occupational inhalation.

Also, it's not only talc microcrystalline cellulose, cornstarch and silicates are just as responsible. There have even been cases where the talc exposure was attributed to cocaine inhalation- it was a known coke user who didn't inject. The case report mentioned that they did look for signs of injection and none were found. The guy did admit to snorting it though.

***Note for the most part, I am talking about crushed pharmaceuticals in the above- with the exception of the cocaine example.


In short: Yes! Snorting pills is dangerous. Will it kill you dead immediately? No, probably not, but continued use is likely to cause what sounds like ^nasty problems^.

By the way, whatever happened to Hfrs? She is one of the best Mods in OD and she hasn't posted in months.
 
As mentioned in the Ritalin lung-thread, people have been unable to find the studies HFSR claimed to have seen, and she never got around to finding them herself (or more probable. she couldn't.)

All this commotion got me off snorting pills completely, though.-..which I guess is a good thing, right?
 
I see...you were looking for exact sources. Heh, I guess I just told you what you already knew then, eh? Oh well.
 
Yes ritalin gets into your lungs

Have i got a story to tell you all ! Ive been doing ritalin off and on for 10 -15 years ill do it for a year or two and stop for 6 months or a year then do it again. There was one point in time i was snorting ritalin everyday for god knows how long. Of cours i would sleep days at a time and wake weeks at a time. But i was always swallowing 2 and snorting 2 about every 1 or 2 hours or so. Of course i was doing alot of other crap too and was not exactly living well. Then me and 3 friends sick, and it was very serious infection 1 guy had aheat attack and one guy lost an arm and i was hospitalized 6 months and had several procedures done. i have diabetes and several other ailments that always made everything worse. I was in hospital a total of 6 months. 1 of the many things i had wrong with me was called empyema and its fliud in the lungs or puss. I had to have 8 chest tubes over a 4 month period to drane it all. They once used a huge syring to pull out almost a liter of black and red sludge out of one of my lungs. I tried to get them to give me more ritalin and eventually some doctor who didnt care did. As soon as i snorted the first few i went psycotic. Then a day later both of my lungs collapsed. I came out of that and started snorting again. I was having it smuggled in by now. I actually ended up using more drugs in hospital than I was on the street. At one point in time i was so messed up that i cruched up 2 ritalin on the table over my bed and in plain sight of 2 nurses and one specialist. I tried to snort them, they stopped me. and of course reported it. and thus began the questioning. how much did u do on a daily basis ? did u only snort ? hundreds of questions. They had obviously made a link between the ritalin snorting and my very serious lung problems. They never stopped giving it to me though and i kept cheecking it and snorting it. No matter how sick or psychotic i got. i asked them several times about the ritalin lung thing and thay always said it was a very good chance that although a combo of different things caused the whole illness but they thought ritalin could very well have been the sole cause the lung problem. Very serious life threatening lung problems. so in the end they operated on my lungs they made a 7 inch and 12 inch incision into either side of my back opened me up and cleaned it all out. So if you want to look for data on it look into the Halifax Dalhousie university hospitals VG QE2 Dalhousie and IWK. The IWK childrens hospital was interested becauce the drug is mostly prescribed to children. there maybe something around about it because i know at the time everyone was talking about it. and someone wrote it up. had to. That was around 02 or 03 in Halifax, Canada. So I am living proof (bearly living) that yes ritalin does enter the lungs but you would have to snort it massive doses over a long period and then possibly have to catch an infection to kick off the nightmare, but who knows what could trigger it . Scary stuff man ! Everything i just wrote is 100% true irregardless if you believe it or not. and i really dont care if you do or not. try lookin for a doctor bergan or bergen in eastern canada he was the guy that was doing the research i think. bye
 
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Ever since I started snorting, more often than not after just a few days of snorting heroin cause a rough, producing (hard little mucus balls) cough.

It has lead on three occasion to bronchitis and once to pneumonia (all in one year).

It also got me the diagnosis of asthma and a cortisteroid and rescue inhalers.

It has done very, very bad things to my lungs. I'm planning on starting to bang soon.
 
tyrram said:
So if you want to look for data on it look into the Halifax Dalhousie university hospitals VG QE2 Dalhousie and IWK. The IWK childrens hospital was interested becauce the drug is mostly prescribed to children. there maybe something around about it because i know at the time everyone was talking about it. and someone wrote it up. had to. That was around 02 or 03 in Halifax, Canada.

They are not going to release info about a patient without you waiving your right to confidentiality. They may have some information about it though, anyone care to ask them?

kelvan said:
in theory, do the pills that are more soluble carry less risk for the lungs if snorted?

for example, i know xanax pills contain a shitload of fillers per active substance, so those have been purported as being "especially bad", does this hold true for the converse?

You mean do pills with more insoluble binders/fillers/ingredients cause more problems? In theory I'd assume so, seeing as their lack of water solubility may make them harder for the body to remove.
 
i think the water solualable powders are more apt to get into air and so into lungs. im fed up with snorting ritalin i want a workin for sure extraction to get the metylphenidate all the lactose and talc is what plugs the sinus. Ive recently dicoverd that if you just lie on ur back and tilt ur head up and open ur mouth wide and exclusively breath through the mouth this dries out the membranes and starts them producing moisture which lubricates that dry clump inthe back of ur neck and then gravity does the rest takes about 20 minutes and you can feel that clump desolving and sliding down. It may not be appearent right away but trust me it works. Its tha back of the sinus where it collects we snort so hard sometimes that its like a sand blaster hitting the back even with out doing it hard the powder would clump up and get stuck. then sinse ritalin is water soluable it dehydrates us and dries up all the mucus membranes. drink tons and tons of water when doing alot of ritalin. i mean like 20ounces every 2 hours and breath through your mouth as much as possible. i know its hard because u wanna clench ur jaw. but thats not producing moisture. Ive tried lots of crazy things to get my sinus back there clear and nothing really works not even flush because it wont get in back where it is all colected. so lay down flat on ur back tilt ur head back a bit and breath through your mouth and take a day dream for half an hour. It would do u the world of good to calm a bit anyway. i dont think fat soluable drugs would getto far into the lungs. ive been snorting valium and opiates for years no real issues.
 
They are not going to release info about a patient without you waiving your right to confidentiality. They may have some information about it though, anyone care to ask them?

Wouldn't they only need him to sign it if they were going to include his name as well?
 
Unless they wrote up some report on the results of snorting ritalin as he indicated, the information would be patient records and I don't think they are going to release those or give details even if his name is censored without a release.
 
dont forget this is canadian law in a socialised health care system. Its a very liberal system. and a small place where everyone knows everyone. There is no real confidentaility in canadian health care as far as im concerned
 
tyrram said:
dont forget this is canadian law in a socialised health care system. Its a very liberal system. and a small place where everyone knows everyone. There is no real confidentaility in canadian health care as far as im concerned

Canada has around 15 million more people then Oz (where I live) does and we take doctor-patient confidentiality very seriously here.

I'm not gonna endorse anyone attempting to violate that rule. If you want, you can access your own health care documents and anything that was potentially written up about it and post it here.
 
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