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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Xanax and alcohol

obleo

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
76
I am very experienced with Xanax and unfortunately too experienced with beer. But my question is this, I have a psychology professor who had a large lecture on drugs, he was unbiased about the lecture, but he claims that Xanax has a doubling affect on alcohol. So he's saying you drink a beer then take a Xanax that beer becomes equal to the effects your body will feel with two beers. Two beers become four. He claims all alcohol has this affect with Xanax. Two shots = four. I was curious if Anybody has seen a study proving this? I don't think he was trying to "scare" us, but I'm curious where this figure came from. And if it's true what amount of Xanax is needed for this too be accurate. Why would this only occur with Xanax and not other benzos?
 
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I can't think of any studies proving this, but my doctor told me pretty much the same thing. I wouldn't say its linear (meaning if you drank 10 beers I don't think it would be like 20 beers, it would be like you don't remember how many beers you drank...)

Would be interesting to see if there were any papers out there regarding this "doubling" effect. I'll try and dig something up at some point...
 
He doesn't mean that it literally doubles your BA but benzodiazepines and alcohol produce intoxication, anxiolysis, myorelaxation and amnesia in very similar ways so it will have an additive effect combining them. Your professor is assuming the person combining the two doesn't have a tolerance to one or both. If someone takes 1mg of alprazolam EVERY single day and has for some time, then it's going to have substantially less impact on the sedation and intoxication produced by drinking a few beers versus someone who has never taken a xanax before. The take-away point is that they are synergistic - you won't get JUST the benzo effects + the alcohol effects, the combination will most likely be stronger than that

This is especially problematic with these 2 drugs because the profound disinihibition and amnestic effects produce the potential to do very stupid shit such as... take lots more pills, try to drive, try to sex up lawn furniture, take my goddamn dorm roommate's blanket and sit in the middle of the MLK commons at NIU with a Ginsberg book at 7am right as the first students are heading to class, etc.
 
I understand what your saying. He didn't adress the tolerance issue, or that benzos and alcohol can produce a cross tolerance. All though Ive taken Xanax many times and have never needed more than a bar to feel relatively the same. While with alcohol my tolerance seems to rise very fast, just by drinking on the weekends, and I only drink beer, in the last couple months six beers make me feel the same as 3 beers two months prior. Can I be more succeptible to an increase In alchohol tolerance than benzos even though they affect many of the same areas.
 
I think Cane put it better than I could have.

obleo, you're probably experiencing a tolerance to both alcohol and benzos (and they are cross-tolerant)
 
Your probably right in that I never have wanted to taken more than a bar at a time since i like to only buy for at a time and taking a quarter every now and then. so I'm probably feeling that bar has always the same level of affect. And I probably end up drinking an extra beer to feel a little more buzzed so the cross tolerance seems a little more hidden, or I'm in denial haha I usually mix the two, but have learned my limit after emptying my bank account a few times buying stupid stuff, I dont remember buying.
 
^ yup. The same night a friend of mine had too much lorazepam, beer and pot and took my roommate's blanket and sat in the middle of my university (he didn't go there) reading Ginsberg on the ground, he also ordered a trumpet online. He doesn't even play trumpet.
 
I am very experienced with Xanax and unfortunately too experienced with beer. But my question is this, I have a psychology professor who had a large lecture on drugs, he was unbiased about the lecture, but he claims that Xanax has a doubling affect on alcohol. So he's saying you drink a beer then take a Xanax that beer becomes equal to the effects your body will feel with two beers. Two beers become four. He claims all alcohol has this affect with Xanax. Two shots = four. I was curious if Anybody has seen a study proving this? I don't think he was trying to "scare" us, but I'm curious where this figure came from. And if it's true what amount of Xanax is needed for this too be accurate. Why would this only occur with Xanax and not other benzos?

(I haven't read any of the replies yet, so forgive me if this has been said)

This claim sounds invalid from the start, due to a few inconsistencies. The strength of the Xanax was never specified, and when you're dealing with Xanax, that definitely makes a hell of a lot of a difference. Secondly, was the beer drank prior to, or at the same time as he took the Xanax? Maybe he dissolved the Xanax in the beer when he created that theory, but either way, it's a very ballpark claim, if you get what I'm saying. Now, if the Xanax increased the B.A.L. by exactly 2x, then we'd be on the right track, but being 'twice as drunk' is a very hard thing to gage.

In my experience, you'll be well and truly tripling the effects of just alcohol if you take your similarly recreational dose of Xanax. But you probably wont even realize until someone tells you the next day...
 
This is prolly and easy google search but I'm on my phone and google isn't working fast at all, but does ones tolerance have any affect on the amount of alcohol absorbed into someone blood. I've often thought about due living in san Diego and know at least 15 people who've received DUIs including my dad. I guess you would be safer adding a small amount of benzos to one beer or two to lesson the bac when pulled over yet allowing the person to feel more intoxicated. You would have to be able to stay composed when pulled over.

And your right the professor was extremely vauge. He made it seem no matter the time of alcohol consumption or Xanax consumption or the times between consumption this so called double affect would occur.
 
^ BAC is the percent of the blood that is alcohol. This has nothing to do with tolerance. Most states used to have .1 legal limits because older studies showed this was the average where performance started to drop off but then they realized that alcoholics were skewing the results and in non-alcoholics, driving ability actually drops off around .08 so now alcoholics are fucked because they might be able to drive perfectly fine on twice the legal limit (which is the AVERAGE DUI readout in my state) but they can still get DUI's.

Most people also don't realize that the .08 legal limit for most states is an automatic DUI but it's not the minimum. You can still get a DUI if the officer believes you're impaired and you're at a .03 or .05 depending on the state. This is typically only used for women who never drink and then get too tipsy to drive of A SINGLE glass of wine but legally it could still apply in your scenario where someone was using benzos to stay below the legal limit. If the officer suspects something, they could also test your blood, find the benzodiazepine and then you're pretty much definitely fucked because there isn't a legal xanax limit you could be below and if you're prescribed them, you still can't be drinking on that script so regardless, if you're tested and have benzos and booze in you, you'll get a DUI.
 
Yeah the DUI rules in California leave little room for excuse. Actually had a friend pulled over last night, she knew she wasn't impaired and refused a breathalyzer. Needless to say the locked her up towed her car and took her in too forcfully take a blood test. Plus she had to stay in and make bail. In California no matter the results of your blood test if you refuse a breathyler, the DMV automatically takes her licsense. She's prolly Lucky she didn't have pills in her system this time.

That scares me because I'm prescribed lorazepam, and enjoy going out to the pub every now and then.
 
He's probably being conservative in his estimate (IME/IMO)

Xanax + Alcohol = Recipe for disaster (99% of the time)
 
He's probably being conservative in his estimate (IME/IMO)

Xanax + Alcohol = Recipe for disaster (99% of the time)

You're wrong: 99.9% of the time to be exact ;). I will NEVER go back to the local pub after my last stint. I agree that double is probably an understatement, and feel that you get put into an alternative reality where you're tricked into thinking that you're just a little bit more drunk, while an evil stunt-double ruins your reputation.
 
You're wrong: 99.9% of the time to be exact ;). I will NEVER go back to the local pub after my last stint. I agree that double is probably an understatement, and feel that you get put into an alternative reality where you're tricked into thinking that you're just a little bit more drunk, while an evil stunt-double ruins your reputation.


so eloquently put
 
From personnal experience, taking any benzo (xanax, valium, klonopin...) will exponentially increase the effects of alcohol
 
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