Possible to Sanitize Tablets for Oral Consumption with Alcohol?

[bow-viper1]

This is a question I never would have imagined that I'd have but, one my guys that I get alprazolam from had a terrible illness. I don't know if it was viral, or if it was bacterial, but he was ill with some serious stomach issues for a week.

He didn't wash his hands before bagging my tablets, and subsequently, I came down with the same, AWFUL stomach bug. It had me bed-ridden for four days, and I wasn't completely well again for six days.

I really don't want to risk coming down with it again by taking my remaining supply, so I started wondering if it was possible to sanitize the tablets by very quickly wiping the exterior with alcohol wipes and letting the alcohol evaporate for an extended period of time to make sure there is none remaining.

Is there any danger in the alcohol altering the alprazolam or binders? Or is there a better way to sanitize these tablets of germs without having break them down and use a micron filter? Again, I'm simply looking to sanitize these for ORAL use, not IV.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crashing]

You can't catch the same thing twice, that's conventional wisdom. Don't put alcohol on your xannies, it wouldn't sanitize them thoroughly either way.

 

[bow-viper1]

You can't catch the same thing twice, that's conventional wisdom. Don't put alcohol on your xannies, it wouldn't sanitize them thoroughly either way.

Crashing, I appreciate the reply, but that didn't address my question. I'm HOPING you were joking about not being able to catch the same cold twice, because you most certainly can. In addition, there are others that will take these - people that haven't yet suffered the terrible illness transmitted by the handler of the pills, and I'd like to protect them as well.

Once again, my only question is whether very gently and quickly going over the exterior of an alprazolam tablet with an ethyl alcohol (62%) wipe could in any way be harmful to a user that waited for all of the ethyl alcohol to evaporate before using it orally.

Due to my lack of chemistry knowledge, I've wondered and worried that the ethyl alcohol could somehow alter one of the binders in the tablet, or even the alprazolam itself.

 

[tentram]

You can't catch the same thing twice, that's conventional wisdom. Don't put alcohol on your xannies, it wouldn't sanitize them thoroughly either way.

can you elaborate on that? my granfather caught golden staph infection TWICE within weeks when he was in hospital for open heart surgery; a triple bypass - he thankfully survived both bouts but later died at home in his favourite chair in his own time as his time was up.

OP - i would give the pills back to your friend and ask for fresh replacement when available. otherwise dispose of them. i don't see them being safe.

"once bitten, twice shy"

 

[Crashing]

Just because your grandfather caught staph twice does NOT mean it was the same virus twice as would be the case of a sealed, bagged virus on a single batch of xanax pills, described as such by bow-viper!

How do you think a flu vaccine works? (They give you a small dose of the flu virus, therefore you become immune and cannot catch it!) Unless you have no immune system, you CANNOT catch the same virus twice! That is how immunity works....

To answer your question, you will just dissolve the exterior of the pills. The alprazolam pills dissolve instantly and are very porous, therefore the bacteria is most likely throughout.

 

[tentram]

people still catch the flu after a flu vaccination. and as bow viper then went onto say you certainly can catch the same flu twice; i've caught a flu and recovered and then fallen sick again with the same flu which further went onto progress to bronchitis.

to be fair the OP said

I don't know if it was viral, or if it was bacterial, but he was ill with some serious stomach issues for a week.

Just because your grandfather caught staph twice does NOT mean it was the same virus twice

lolwut? golden staph strain (MRSA) is golden staph strain, how could it not be the same and another? this does not make sense.

do you have some literature/sources to back up your claims? i'd be interested in reading them. things like chicken pox, yeah, but even in rare instances people have caught it a second time.

 

[Crashing]

Read anything on the subject.

http://www.google.com/search?client...0911e75caa7989b&bpcl=35466521&biw=995&bih=837

Catching the same thing twice is rare, and often a product of a compromised immune system. If you commonly could catch the same thing twice, then vaccines would have no purpose.

Here is a study concerning smallpox vaccine and it's success rates:

A total of 340 volunteers were vaccinated (vaccine dose: undiluted, n = 113; 1:5 dilution, n = 114; and 1:10 dilution, n = 113). Following vaccination, 99.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 97.9%-99.9%) of all volunteers had successful vaccinations.

Concerning bacterial vs. viral:

What diseases are caused by viruses? The stomach virus, cold, flu, measles, Hepatitis, pneumonia(also bacterial), etc...

The OP seems to be suggesting a stomach virus.

A simple google search will validate my claims.

I was wrong about staph, because i didn't immediately recognize it as MRSA which is a bacterial infection. Also, catching the flu after receiving the vaccine is extremely rare and I'm sorry to hear that you are undeniably part of the minority concerning that matter.

 

[tentram]

it's cool, sorry i came off like a brunt prick. i can be rather straight forward sometimes.

thanks for the linkage.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Whether you can catch something more than once really depends on what kind of illness it is, whether or not you have a low immune system, etc. Plus viruses and bacteria are constantly mutating. We don't even know what kind of bacteria/viruses/etc were on that guy's hands and besides, the OP said that other people will be taking these pills as well.

So, the first thing I would do is consider how likely it is that whatever was on this guy's hands will die on it's own within a few days.

Most common microbes don't live very long on a non-living surface. Because viruses must invade the cells of a living host to reproduce, their life spans outside are generally shorter than that of bacteria, which reproduce on their own. Although viruses can survive for a period of time outside a host, their ability to duplicate themselves is compromised, shortening the virus's life span.

Humidity also makes a difference; no bacteria or virus can live on dry surfaces with a humidity of less than 10 percent. So I would make sure the pills are kept as dry as possible.

At room temperature and normal humidity, E. coli, a bacteria that causes food poisoning, can live for a few hours to a day. The calicivirus, one of the common causes of the "stomach flu", can lives for day, or weeks in some cases. Staphylococcus aureus can survive for weeks, using sloughed skin cells for food.

Using a disinfectant containing alcohol on hands or household surfaces can greatly reduce your risks of catching a virus/bacteria, so I don't see why wiping the pills with alcohol wouldn't be a good idea. I would wipe them with alcohol, put them somewhere clean, dry and cold, for a few days if possible, and then wipe them with alcohol again. That should at least greatly reduce your risks.

Also, catching the flu after receiving the vaccine is extremely rare and I'm sorry to hear that you are undeniably part of the minority concerning that matter.

I don't think it's that rare, and the vaccine only protects you from a few strains of the flu so it could easily have been a different strain.

 

[Crashing]

I totally looked passed the point where it was said that others will be taking the pills. Swimmingdancer is right, it wouldn't hurt to sanitize the outside of the pills. I might try it with a couple first before doing the whole batch, but i don't know. Strange situation. I do know that alprazolam is soluble in ethanol but who knows how much you'd be wiping off, probably not much at all.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Yeah, I think if you're just wiping them with alcohol it shouldn't take off much, if any, of the alprazolam, the pills probably have a lot of binders and wouldn't disintegrate just from a wipe, I'm guessing. I wouldn't soak them in a cup of alcohol or anything though, unless you were perhaps going to make a liquid solution (with drinkable alcohol) that you would then take as is (but that might have some drawbacks, since they are pills and not pure alprazolam so the binders/fillers could possibly make the pills not dissolve properly and therefore perhaps not have an even concentration of alprazolam in the solution? depends what's in them).

 

[Foreigner]

If you had a acute case of puking then the most common cause is an entero-virus like a norovirus (so-called "stomach flu"). It's the viral reason for food poisoning. Immunity to noroviruses lasts for about 2-3 weeks after infection, and then disappears. So it's not permanent. It's also highly contagious. If you touch a surface that has it and then touch your mouth, it's a done deal.

Most viruses that are transmitted via saliva or mucous (from sneezing) cannot live on non-organic surfaces for more than a few days. The only exception I can think of right now is Hep A which can last for 4 days... but the common cold, noroviruses and all of those short-lived illnesses die without a host pretty quickly.

 

[Byblos]

You could just dissolve the pill in the liquid and drink the liquid. Or wait for it to evaporate.

More than likely though, you just got it from airborne exposure.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

More than likely though, you just got it from airborne exposure.

I don't think that's likely actually. Norovirus, which as Foreigner mentioned is the primary cause of gastroenteritis or "stomach flu" (no relation to the flu), as well as the other common causes such as rotavirus (more common in children) and the bacteria Escherichia coli and Campylobacter, are all transmitted primarily through the fecal-oral route by person-to-person contact, environmental surfaces, and contaminated food and water. These are not considered airborne illnesses aside from aerosolization if you use the bathroom right after an infected person. The norovirus is not spread by sneezing or coughing, and I don't think any of the others are either.

Because the norovirus can still be present in the feces for days to weeks after a person feels better, a recovered person must still be especially careful about hand-washing.

I'm starting to think that if this was a norovirus that bow-viper1 caught, and there is fear that the pills may be contaminated, it's probably wisest to not use the pills at all. I had norovirus before and I thought I was going to die it was so bad. Apparently it can only live for up to 3 days on inorganic surfaces such as smooth metal, but who knows how long it can live on pills. Alcohol kills bacteria, but it is not effective at killing norovirus (it's still better than nothing though).

bow-viper1 - What did you end up deciding to do?

 

[bow-viper1]

bow-viper1 - What did you end up deciding to do?

Thank you for stepping in an generating some good discussion.

I transferred them to two new bags, removed as much air as possible, and zipped it up. I left them sealed and in my drawer for a little over a week. I kept one bag and have been taking them and have been just fine.

With the other bag, I wiped those off with alcohol wipes. I found that a dabbing kept from removing any material and making the pills look damaged. These pills went to a few close friends who were FULLY aware of what had happened to me and that I suspected it was from the pills. They felt comfortable accepting them after hearing how long they'd been sitting and that I'd wiped them.

They are almost all gone now, and everyone is feeling just fine.

Thank you everyone for the feedback.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Great, glad to hear no one got sick

 

[T. Calderone]

Handwashing is the most effective way to prevent transmission of viruses. But that doesn't always happen. I'm glad you were able to clean the pills. I got sick so many times last year when I worked at the shelter. It seemed like it would go away and then everyone in my family got sick. I would sometimes forget to use the hand sanitizer. The cycle would start all over again with the norovirus. I would spray Lysol on the doorknobs and everything. Sick for days, went away and caught it again and again. I get the flu shot every year but then new strains come about rendering the shot useless.