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Tasting the IV

Sturnam

Sturnam

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
738
So, I just read this in a basic pharmacology book.

Some intravenously administered drugs are
excreted into saliva and cause the patient to taste the drug.
Click to expand...

Would this be the cause of the taste that IV users say comes with a good shot? But if my understanding of this is right, excreted means that the taste would come after the drug is metabolized, right? But all of the "taste" reports I have read say that the taste comes right with the rush. How is this possible? Is some of the drug metabolized and excreted into saliva before the effects of the drug are felt? Or is there another explanation for this?
 
^ Yep, the fact that you taste it so quickly implies it's not via something like the saliva theory. When I IM ketamine, I get the taste before any effects start to come on.

With some drugs,they cause the saliva to becomes smaller volume & more viscous (eg amphetamine), which contributes towards the dry mouth feeling from excess stims, so if it was via that mechanism it would take a while to taste injected meth/amphetamine, but that doesn't seem to be the case ie the taste is pretty much there right after an IV/IM injection
 
Please do not forget that "tasting" happens mainly in the nose (except for the basic tastes bitter, sweet, acidic, salty and umami). So if there is indeed some "flavour", one must consider a mechanism how this gets into your nose...Normally it happens via the gas-phase from the mouth; or in different terms: While chewing the flavour gets vaporized somehow. Now is this possible with drugs, too, after i.v. administration?

Additional questions for the experienced ones: Is the taste after injecting a drug the same as if you would just put a tiny amount on your tongue?

Murphy
 
I think it is much more sensible to think in terms of the drug going through the blood vessels in the nose? :).

In my case, no its not the same - it is actually more akin to smell, probably for the reason you mention. When I used to IV ketamine, I never tasted the salty, acrid flavour. I always tasted that "electric" smell that it well-known for,
 
funny thing about "dissociative smells" even if I swallow DXM or smoked PCP I notice that everything has a certain "smell" to it. It's a very pleasing and relaxing smell. One weird thing about the IV smell is that when I'm givin saline it has a very strong magic marker smell that happens within a few seconds after injection. But I cant imagine salt+water would have this quality. I can only guess it's from the manufacture of the saline needle? But I've not noticed this really with other IVs however my experience with IVs is very limited.
 
From IV ketamine, I used to get a taste which reminded me of the smell of wet tarnished metal. This might sound strange, but (for me) the whole ketamine experience evoked the sounds of muted brass instruments, the color of tarnished brass, and again, the smell of wet metal (brass?).

Additional questions for the experienced ones: Is the taste after injecting a drug the same as if you would just put a tiny amount on your tongue
Click to expand...

In some cases yes. When IV'ed, heroin (especially tar heroin) has a very distinct acetic anhydride smell/taste. This is also sometime true with cocaine...
 
For me, the rush followed the taste...they didn't happen simultaneously.

If I tasted a shot 3 seconds after I did it, then I knew that 1 - 2 seconds later I'd be in euphoria-land.

So yeah, I'd agree that most people are referring to what happens as it passes through the blood vessels in your body (tongue included) on the way to the brain, not post-metabolism.
 
MurphyClox said:
Please do not forget that "tasting" happens mainly in the nose (except for the basic tastes bitter, sweet, acidic, salty and umami). So if there is indeed some "flavour", one must consider a mechanism how this gets into your nose...Normally it happens via the gas-phase from the mouth; or in different terms: While chewing the flavour gets vaporized somehow. Now is this possible with drugs, too, after i.v. administration?

Additional questions for the experienced ones: Is the taste after injecting a drug the same as if you would just put a tiny amount on your tongue?

Murphy
Click to expand...
Gustation transduction happens in taste cells that are located in the taste 'buds' (collections of taste cells) on the tongue (epithelium). Olfactory responses (as a result of the binding of complex chemicals entering the nasal passage before and after the food is put into mouth) modulate the gustatory representations and the subsequent 'taste experience.'

Thats my understanding at least.

Back to the OP, I taste DPT and MET when those are IVed. They signal that the onset is happening actually (acrid taste in mouth for the tryptamines). While I believe what we might call the onset of a chemical's action has fuzzy boundaries (indeterminate), I also think that the onset of the chemical's action precedes (necessarily) the veridical experience of the chemical.
 
Well, any idea what they are talking about then? Do any of you IV users taste the drug anytime after the initial rush of the drug? Because it seems like they are saying that you could taste the drug after it has been metabolized.

But then again, it was from a very basic book, so errors are not out of the question. Maybe just a mix up of terms, and they are talking about the taste during the come-up?

Finally, have any of you IV'ed any drugs that lack any taste?
 
I think either the book is mixed up or you interpreted it incorrectly. The taste comes from the drug circulating through your bloodstream and passing through the tongue (secreting into the taste cells). Its unavoidable really by nature of the process.
 
I always got the same taste of the chemical flavours present in valium, lexotan, minias and the others liquid benzos I IV'ed.

I'm still disgusted of that bleahhh
 
Sturnam: there are certain drugs that will result in a constant taste in the mouth due to metabolites being secreted through saliva. It doesn't really matter if they are IVed or not, since that is the product of metabolism.

I'm trying to think of an example... there is an antipsychotic that is known to leave a metallic taste in the mouth while someone is on it. I forgot which though, but I believe it had a Z in its name.

And yes, most drugs do lack a taste when IVed.
 
Zopiclone is the one your thinking of I think Jamshyd, it never left a taste in my mouth, but a lot of people complain of it doing so.

Not an antipsychotic though, you could be thinking of ziprasidone though.
 
Jamshyd said:
Sturnam: there are certain drugs that will result in a constant taste in the mouth due to metabolites being secreted through saliva. It doesn't really matter if they are IVed or not, since that is the product of metabolism.

I'm trying to think of an example... there is an antipsychotic that is known to leave a metallic taste in the mouth while someone is on it. I forgot which though, but I believe it had a Z in its name.

And yes, most drugs do lack a taste when IVed.
Click to expand...

Ya, I was thinking the taste was just from the normal course of excretion of select drugs. I just thought it was weird that they specified that it would only be excreted by saliva when IV'd. But reading through that book more I'm realizing that it's not nearly as reliable as I thought. They briefly had some passage about LSD lasting for 2 hours.... 8)

The taste comes from the drug circulating through your bloodstream and passing through the tongue (secreting into the taste cells). Its unavoidable really by nature of the process.
Click to expand...

Thought I had an answer to this, but now there are conflicting reports. Is the taste unavoidable due to drug molecules circulating in the blood by the tongue, or do some drugs really lack the taste?
 
All drugs will make it to your tongue, but some simply don't have a strong taste, and even with those that do, some people are simply not sensitive to that taste.
 
Some drugs tongue tastes are addictive too ))))
For me it's alpha-PPP and methcathinone
 
Interesting. I remember reading somewhere(probably on BL) that the "taste" was due to the drug traveling through your lungs. Somehow some of it gets "airborne" and you taste it.


Anyway, whatever the reason, why doesn't the "taste" taste like the drug solution you're injecting?
 
My guess is that, since the majority of your tastebuds are on the outside of your tongue (same with smell and nose), the dissolved drug in your blood does not hit as large a variety of sensory endings as does an oral solution, and therefore it tastes different.
 
Sometimes speed IV:d gives a really strong taste of acetone. Heroin gives a definite taste, it tastes the same it smells like when you cook it. Suboxone tastes like oranges.
 
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