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Benzos How long after cigarette before taking xanax?

J

Jktm

Bluelighter
Joined
May 19, 2012
Messages
1,920
I received a small prescription of xanax to take before having an MRI, and don't want to waste it by smoking a cigarette to close to my dose. How long should I wait after smoking a cigarette to take my xanax, I only have 2mg for the MRI.
 
have you never taken xanax before?

Are you worried about the fag reducing the effects of the xanax or what?

To be honest there will be very little interaction, especially if you are a habitual smoker.

Just out of interest, why do you have to take a xanax before the MRI?
 
I smoke all the time taking xanax with no troubles.

I've heard about that too but I think it's an exaggeration.
 
I'm worried about increased clearance...I've taken xanax many times before and have a super high tolerance (like a lot higher than the 2mg I have to take for the MRI). I need the alprazolam for the claustrophobia and phonophobia I suffer.
 
When I smoked before I never had a problem with Cigarettes and Xanax being combined. I'm guessing they interact with eachother because Cigs are a stimulant and Xanax is a CNS Depressant. I don't think you will have a problem it wont effect the Xanax. But Caffeine definitely will. So i wouldn't take any caffeine prior to the MRI.
 
Smoking cigarettes gears up one of the enzymes in your CYP450 pathway that metabolizes alprazolam so that clearance of the drug can be increased greatly. I definitely notice a difference when I smoke vs when I don't on xanax. My smoking habit was so big that I ended up switching benzos b/c I noticed how much of a decrease there was xanax's duration
everyone's different though
 
It's my understanding that this interaction is the result of by products of combustion, not nicotine. Curious if that's the case, as I sometimes use benzos, and always use an e cig. If that's true, you could pick up a disposable e cig and have no worries at all.
 
Smoking cigarettes causes the hydrocarbons being combusted and inhaled to induce your CYP3A4 enzyme to break things down quicker. Xanax is metabolized by this enzyme, hence why it doesn't last as long. This is why I am asking how long I should wait, but it's now 9AM and my MRIs are 9:45, so I won't be smoking a cigarette until I'm out of that little tube of hell...Goddamn I need to start forking out the extra for open MRI's lol. Well...wish me luck! Drank me 20oz of wgfj to make it last longer, and about to take my dose now. Things don't need to get any worse for my back, but I wouldn't mind having new injuries, as I might sue the shit out of the person that totaled my car a month ago.
 
then inhibit your CPY450s...

Jktm said:
Smoking cigarettes causes the hydrocarbons being combusted and inhaled to induce your CYP3A4 enzyme to break things down quicker. Xanax is metabolized by this enzyme, hence why it doesn't last as long. This is why I am asking how long I should wait, but it's now 9AM and my MRIs are 9:45, so I won't be smoking a cigarette until I'm out of that little tube of hell...Goddamn I need to start forking out the extra for open MRI's lol. Well...wish me luck! Drank me 20oz of wgfj to make it last longer, and about to take my dose now. Things don't need to get any worse for my back, but I wouldn't mind having new injuries, as I might sue the shit out of the person that totaled my car a month ago.
Click to expand...

The solution is to inhibit those CPY450 enzymes if you ask me... Drink some grapefruit juice, take some Tagament, have a meal heavy on black pepper and curry, drink some tonic water with quinine, and then relax!
 
pubmed said:
Cigarette Smoking - Alprazolam concentrations may be reduced by up to 50% in smokers compared to non-smokers.
Click to expand...

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=13171

I would try not to have ANY cigarettes on the day of your MRI (until after its done) and SL the alprazolam.

Then consider quitting cancer.

edit: from experience, one hit off a cigarette and I swear I sober up almost instantly.
 
I think OP already went for the MRI. But as a side note, I ALWAYS take some sort of inhibitor when I take Xanax. Any drug I take tends to compel me to start chain smoking, and with Xanax that does cause a very noticable decrease in effect for me. As far as easily obtainable things I find FRESH white grapefruit (not bottled) and some parachuted black pepper work best. Cimetidine doesn't do too much for me, and you'd have to drink A LOT of tonic water (gross) to get a decent amount of quinine. Sometimes there's some fluconazole pills in the cabinet and I'll take one or two of those. (azole antifungals are usually strong inhibitors, don't use them unless you know what you're doing)
 
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I thought these two sources were interesting and kinda contrasted the others, but they weren't specific to alprazolam.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8981384

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1386172/

Especially the second one. Here's the abstract:
The influence of cigarette smoking on the pharmacokinetics of a single dose of the triazolobenzodiazepine hypnotic triazolam was evaluated in 12 healthy nonsmoking male volunteers and in 12 male subjects, matched for age, height and weight, who smoked an average of 24 cigarettes a day (range: 15-30). Triazolam kinetics were determined from multiple serum concentrations measured during 15 h after a single 0.5 mg dose. There were no significant differences between nonsmoking controls and cigarette smokers in the peak serum triazolam concentration (4.64 vs 4.73 ng ml-1), the time of peak concentration (0.98 vs 1.0 h after dosage), elimination half-life (2.8 vs 2.5 h), or oral clearance of triazolam (506 vs 627 ml min-1). Likewise there were no significant differences between groups in the extent of triazolam binding to serum protein (18.8 vs 18.5% unbound). Altered pharmacodynamics of triazolam in cigarette smokers are not likely to be explained by altered pharmacokinetics.
Click to expand...
 
^ That is interesting. I doubt the effect is psychosomatic though. I noticed it long before I ever knew anything about P450 enzymes.

Edit: maybe it's just the stimulatory effects of nicotine conteracting the sedative effects of alprazolam (which are mild to begin with imo)?

Either way, boosting the Xanax with a 3a4 inhibitor seems to work, for me at least.
 
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Ive done so many benzos and I never notice any kind of decrease in effect, I think people make a much bigger deal of this than it needs to be.

Jeez, when I was blacked out back in the day from too many bars, if only I would have chain smoked, would have gotten right outta that blackout and back to normal!!8)=D
 
For me it only happens with alprazolam, and at lower doses (under 2mg) specifically. If I eat 3 sticks of course I'm gonna feel it regardless.
 
i think some people *cough doug, cough doug* blow this out of proportion just a little. sure, there's studies that show smoking can inhibit/clear out effects of benzos but how often do we really hear about people truthfully complaining about this - a great deal of people enjoy smoking on benzos like those on opiates do as well. i wouldn't attribute the huge tolerance to that guy who just happens to smoke and have 100mg diazepam habit at the same time. if he were to quite his tolerance ain't gonna drop to 50mg in a matter of weeks with exponential recreational effects.

i just think the overall effect is very minimal to where we don't even consciously notice these effects, never even having the thought cross our minds if it does indeed happen.

and douh you know better than to ask this sorta crap in OD dagnamit! we can't give you an answer to that apart from "don't smoke, you're killing yourself knowingly!!!!111!!!". i'm sure you know some about the topic, you're not a dumbass without a clue. i think there might be a thread dedicated to this topic in here or it's spoken about in the benzo mega thread or another; the topic isn't new by any means and there's a bit explained and discussed in here.
 
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i have this medical app called Epocrates on my android...i use it in clinic all the times. Even it says that caution is advised in smokers who take alprazolam as blood concentration levels will be lower than expected
 
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