very left field question about ephedra

J

john10960

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Hey everyone.

So I decided to get rid of the rest of my ephedra for now as I want to stop taking it for awhile.

I get a bit paranoid sometimes so I was against flushing it down the toilet because I didn't want to mess with the city water supply nor did I want to toss it all straight up in a garbage can because somehow a homeless person might get to them or OD.

So what I did is dump a bunch of 25mg pills spread out in 3 different spots over an asphalt parking lot. Each drop was prolly about 10 pills.
I then crushed them up to powder with my feet and spread a ton of water over each spot and kicked it around. All thats really left now is evaporated water spots. There is barely any white tinge if any at all as I kicked the water around pretty good.

Now my paranoid concern is that a dog might randomly lick those places and get ephedra poisoning.

So my question is, would the ephedra essentially be potentless once crushed and water poured all over it and then splashed around left with no visible ephedra (albeit some possible little dried tiny tiny white areas)? By now the water has prolly completely evaporated as well with the hot sun on asphalt glaring down. For those familiar with science and the breakdown of drugs, would this be the case?

My gut tells me Im being extremely paranoid that no dog will get ephedra poisoning as the pills were crushed with water poured all over essentially leaving no trace.

Any feedback appreciated. (just want this anxiety about possibly poisoning a random dog to go away as I feel my worries are a little crazy).

Thanks in advance!
 
I can see what you mean about paranoia...!

Don't worry man - there are toxic and dangerous things everywhere (poisonous plants and other random hazardous things) that a dog (or other animal) could eat.
All responsible dog owners i know are careful to watch that their pets don't eat random shit off the ground. Don't stress about it as there's nothing you could do about it at this point anyway.

Why not just put your unwanted drugs in your garbage?

Whatever - you're entirely overthinking this, and i think it's a good thing you've decided to cut back on using ephedra.
 
Thank you for your reply.

My question is more chemistry related. I understand owners are careful with their dogs but there is literally nothing visible but asphalt at this point. And regarding the trash, I didn't want to put it in the trash as I was paranoid of dumpster divers going through the trash for drugs and finding the ephedra (I know its a little over the top). So I decided to crush and flush with water till not visible.

So my question is, relating to the breakdown of ephedra when being crushed, flushed with plenty of water, and exposed to significant heat, would there be any chance of a dog ingesting a poisonous amount?

Anyone with the science of pharmaceutical breakdown chime in?

Thanks!
 
So my question is, relating to the breakdown of ephedra when being crushed, flushed with plenty of water, and exposed to significant heat, would there be any chance of a dog ingesting a poisonous amount?
Click to expand...

I would be extremely surprised if this posed any threat whatsoever.
I don't know how harmful ephedra could be to dogs, but if it has been diluted to that extent then spread out over the ground, it's difficult to see how a large enough amount to constitute a large, dangerous dose could possibly be ingested by a dog.

So... the pills only contain 25mg of active ingredient, and if a dog does happen to lick the bit of ground, how many milligrams of ephedra are they likely to absorb?
Most tablets are largely inactive filler, binder and bulking agents - whether the pills are 80% inactive or closer to 98% inactives - if they've been crushed and washed all over the ground, they've been diluted and spread out to the point that it would seem almost impossible for them to be capable of dosing anyone or anything that happens upon that patch of asphalt.

You say "each drop" consisted of about 10 x 25mg pills. That is only ~250mg of ephedra, which i assume is not a massive amount.
I have only ever had ephedra "twigs" in unextracted herb form, so i'm not sure what a typical dose is, but suffice to say, 250mg that has been stomped on, washed away with water and left in a parking lot out in the elements is probably going to leave approximately fuck all ephedra there to be recovered by curious canines :)
Even if it was pure ephedra you were dumping (not pills which are presumably mostly made of inactive ingredients (maybe 200+mg of bulking agents and just 25mg of ephedra) it sounds like you've rendered it as inert as you could.

Again, you're thinking way too much about potential risks - to the point that you've fixated on a highly unlikely scenario that - by the sound of it - you've already gone to considerable lengths to prevent.
I think you are worried about something that won't happen - and even if it did, you wouldn't know about it.
What you seem to be worried about seems more than "a little over the top" - it sounds like your mind is searching for reasons to worry about this, and i suspect that will pass as time progresses after you've laid off the stims, such thoughts will cease.
 
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Paranoia is definitely real. Don't worry about it. I gotta ask what is the root of such paranoia just out of curiosity as this is no a typical response most people would have.
 
^ paranoia about causing harm to innocent creatures is a kind of empathetic paranoia i can have a funny kind of respect for :)

I can certainly understand and relate to worrying about doing some harm to wildlife, people (especially kids) and the environment, but ephedra is relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things.

It's not like OP was dumping sacks full of fentanyl or 2CI-NBOMe into a local park or waterway.

Seriously - props for giving a damn! <3
i certainly hope i haven't come across as patronising or anything - but i do not think you should be worried.
I think you've effectively washed that shit away. You diluted it, then exposed it to the elements - especially the wind, which will further dilute the drug into the atmosphere in minute quantities.
Presumably cars will have also driven over these spots? The residual ephedra in those places should be absolutely negligible.

No idea if exposure to sunlight and moisture cause ephedra to degrade, but even if they don't, i think there is any cause for concern.
 
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Lol dude just throw them in the trash and forget about it...it?s ephedra, I don?t think you?d OD if you took all of that and even if someone did, that?s what they get for digging through someone?s trash and taking random pills
 
spacejunk said:
^ paranoia about causing harm to innocent creatures is a kind of empathetic paranoia i can have a funny kind of respect for :)

I can certainly understand and relate to worrying about doing some harm to wildlife, people (especially kids) and the environment, but ephedra is relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things.

It's not like OP was dumping sacks full of fentanyl or 2CI-NBOMe into a local park or waterway.

Seriously - props for giving a damn! <3
i certainly hope i haven't come across as patronising or anything - but i do not think you should be worried.
I think you've effectively washed that shit away. You diluted it, then exposed it to the elements - especially the wind, which will further dilute the drug into the atmosphere in minute quantities.
Presumably cars will have also driven over these spots? The residual ephedra in those places should be absolutely negligible.

No idea if exposure to sunlight and moisture cause ephedra to degrade, but even if they don't, i think there is any cause for concern.
Click to expand...

It just came off a bit excessive. Polluting the water by flushing (when most psych drugs that a large population of developed countries are on pass in the urine mostly unchanged), fear of a little bit of drugs harming wild life after its been crushed to oblivion and significantly diluted. Idk, just strikes me as the type of person who shouldnt use stimulants really as that usually makes things worse. Could also take them to a pharmacy, hospital or police station for disposal as well.
 
Yeah - obviously there is a paranoid thought pattern there. Most of the time people dont recognise this in themselves until way later, when they're in a clearer and healthier headspace, in my experience.

And you make a good point - pharmacies will dispose of drugs for you, i had totally forgotten about that
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Well I have a little update.

I ended up finding more of the ephedra pills I forgot I had. Sigh.. Can I just flush them
Down the damn toilet ? Its like 9 25mg pills. For some reason I was thinking water might be recycled (possibly harmful to humans but where I live it isnt recycled) So the most it would be doing is harming the aquatic environment at micro doses after getting flushed out by the sewage treatement plants.

Should I just flush them? (My only concern is harm to the aquatic life after reading articles on it. I know Im over the top but Im just being honest and straightforward with you guys).
 
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Just flush em. It's fine. The amount of illicit drugs from panicked criminals will far out weigh any ephedrine you flush lmao
 
update: I had enough of my
Obsessing and ended up flushing like 6 of them and stopped after my guilty conscience kicked in. I called my local pharmacy and asked about the disposal thing you guys mentioned. They told me a location with a Dropbox for unused meds. I dropped the remaining 3 there. I don?t know why I didn?t do that before. I guess I was just frustrated with my obsessing and in the moment also kind of thinking it would be a major hassle
To find a drop box and thinking there might not even be one close enough as I had never heard of such a thing and not seen any at any pharmacies. (Or come to think of it, maybe I didn?t read that part of the thread till after I flushed them, can?t really remember, who the f*ck knows.)
Ah well. Now I know. Now just to get over my guilty conscience about hurting the fish :(
 
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Lol its all good man. Most pharmacies know of a place as they deal with people's meds and that's a common thing for them to ask about (pharmacy friend of mine said he got that question a few times a week). I wouldn't be surprised if a pharmacy would dispose for you in a pinch as they have their own disposal box for broken pills and what not that happen on the job such as mishandling during shipping of the stock containers and what not. Or dropping pills on accident. Around here, police stations advertise they take old medications to dispose.
 
Its probably worth noting that ephedra likely doesnt even have a toxic dose considering it doesnt contain ephedrine
 
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