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Benzos Timing

Pirrracetamol

Pirrracetamol

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 14, 2025
Messages
197
Wattup bluelighters!
How are we all?
I made this thread because I'd like to know the timing of when to take Tagamet before dosing with benzodiazepines.

Different people say different things like 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 45minutes to an hour.
I've even read you can take them at the same time.

I know this topic has probably been done to death but I'm in urgent need of advice
 
It potentiates almost every benzo. Significantly prolongs effect times in my experience pharma alprazolam effects me for about 4.5ish hours without tagament. With tagament I get 6 hours pretty much on the nose. However, it does not really increase the effects. These times are all on an empty stomach ie minimum of 3 hours after any bit of food.

As far as wait time minimum is 30min but can wait as long as an hour of you decide to redose.
 
Xyborg said:
It potentiates almost every benzo. Significantly prolongs effect times in my experience pharma alprazolam effects me for about 4.5ish hours without tagament. With tagament I get 6 hours pretty much on the nose. However, it does not really increase the effects. These times are all on an empty stomach ie minimum of 3 hours after any bit of food.

As far as wait time minimum is 30min but can wait as long as an hour of you decide to redose.
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Can it be less than 30 min say 20 or 25 min? Does drinking grapefruit juice help as well?
 
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Pirrracetamol said:
Can it be less than 30 min say 20 or 25 min? Does drinking grapefruit juice help as well?
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From my personal experiences I would say 30 is bare minimum. You've got to give the tagament time to work. I never really tried combining it with grapefruit juice. I would say be careful but it shouldn't be dangerous.
 
Xyborg said:
From my personal experiences I would say 30 is bare minimum. You've got to give the tagament time to work. I never really tried combining it with grapefruit juice. I would say be careful but it shouldn't be dangerous.
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What about mexazolam? And does it matter if it's the Tagamet brand or equate brand?
 
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Xyborg said:
Does not matter what benzo you're trying to potentiate. And no brand does not matter as long as the active ingredient is cimetidine.
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Have you, or anybody else willing to chime in, tried this with clonazepam?
 
RxVeritas said:
Have you, or anybody else willing to chime in, tried this with clonazepam?
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Man you gotta choose one of the few benzos that I cannot find any concrete info on. Some people say due to the way Clonazepam is processed by the body cimetidine will not have an effect due to the enzyme that is being affected by the cimetidine not being involved in the process. However, I have come across a couple posts where people claim it works based on their own experiences. Wish I could test it, Clonazepam is my favorite benzo.
 
Xyborg said:
Man you gotta choose one of the few benzos that I cannot find any concrete info on. Some people say due to the way Clonazepam is processed by the body cimetidine will not have an effect due to the enzyme that is being affected by the cimetidine not being involved in the process. However, I have come across a couple posts where people claim it works based on their own experiences. Wish I could test it, Clonazepam is my favorite benzo.
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Huh, interesting. I'm prescribed daily clonazepam 6mg (I don't take it as prescribed three times a day, I take it when I need to take it (work, and at which job are the main factors in play there. If I were to have to give a daily average I'd say 3-4mg, but some days I take 8mg and other days (if I don't have to do anything) I take 1.5-2mg which I would consider a "maintenance dose".

I may have to pick up some cimetidine for the sake of science in the near future. I'm most curious about the potential increase in duration of effects. I get 8 hours out of clonazepam; if there is a way for me to get more then I am very much open to exploring that.
 
RxVeritas said:
Huh, interesting. I'm prescribed daily clonazepam 6mg (I don't take it as prescribed three times a day, I take it when I need to take it (work, and at which job are the main factors in play there. If I were to have to give a daily average I'd say 3-4mg, but some days I take 8mg and other days (if I don't have to do anything) I take 1.5-2mg which I would consider a "maintenance dose".

I may have to pick up some cimetidine for the sake of science in the near future. I'm most curious about the potential increase in duration of effects. I get 8 hours out of clonazepam; if there is a way for me to get more then I am very much open to exploring that.
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Please report back! I actually get about the same amount of time for the effects of Clonazepam. For me though, the biggest draw is how long it takes for the effects to occur. This can be gotten around by taking them sublingually. But that can be a pain as dose climbs. However, I would not say no to getting a few more hours outta them.
 
Xyborg said:
Please report back! I actually get about the same amount of time for the effects of Clonazepam. For me though, the biggest draw is how long it takes for the effects to occur. This can be gotten around by taking them sublingually. But that can be a pain as dose climbs. However, I would not say no to getting a few more hours outta them.
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A lot of the time I'll take them sublingual, or give them a quick chew and mix them around in my mouth before swallowing.

I find it interesting that the onset is that delayed for you that you consider it a drawback. If i just take them orally I feel like they still kick in within 20 minutes or so.

What is the onset of oral clonazepam for you like?

Also, if and when I do try cimetidine as a potentiator I will absolutely update this.
 
RxVeritas said:
A lot of the time I'll take them sublingual, or give them a quick chew and mix them around in my mouth before swallowing.

I find it interesting that the onset is that delayed for you that you consider it a drawback. If i just take them orally I feel like they still kick in within 20 minutes or so.

What is the onset of oral clonazepam for you like?

Also, if and when I do try cimetidine as a potentiator I will absolutely update this.
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For me, when I take them orally it takes about 45ish minutes for me to get the effects. I can feel them starting to work sooner than that, around 25-30 minutes. But there is a long drawn out come up. Compared to alprazolam where within about 10 minutes I'm feeling them and then 5-7 minutes later I'm at full effects. Again these are completely empty stomach times. I learned a long time ago that literally any bit of food will drastically reduce the effects of oral medications for me especially benzos.

Now when I sublingual them it is a totally different ballgame. 10 minutes tops and the effects are there in full.

Again, I only call it a downside if I'm really nitpicking. In my opinion, it is among the best in the benzo class.


Edit:
Oh I should mention, I did notice a difference in comeup times for the alprazolam when taken with cimetidine. For me, it added about 10-15 minutes at each "step."
 
Xyborg said:
For me, when I take them orally it takes about 45ish minutes for me to get the effects. I can feel them starting to work sooner than that, around 25-30 minutes. But there is a long drawn out come up. Compared to alprazolam where within about 10 minutes I'm feeling them and then 5-7 minutes later I'm at full effects. Again these are completely empty stomach times. I learned a long time ago that literally any bit of food will drastically reduce the effects of oral medications for me especially benzos.

Now when I sublingual them it is a totally different ballgame. 10 minutes tops and the effects are there in full.

Again, I only call it a downside if I'm really nitpicking. In my opinion, it is among the best in the benzo class.


Edit:
Oh I should mention, I did notice a difference in comeup times for the alprazolam when taken with cimetidine. For me, it added about 10-15 minutes at each "step."
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My pills are almost always taken on an empty stomach which is easy to achieve since I'm generally on an 18-6 or 20-4 intermittent fast. Of course there are occasional exceptions.

I'm completely with you on food reducing the effect and onset of most pills, although for me benzos aren't hugely affected in this way, although opiates definitely are. Hydrocodone doesn't do much for me to begin with; if I were to take it after a meal it probably take an hour to kick in and also be something like one third weaker in strength.
 
A quick look at wikipedia says cimetidine is fully absorbed in around 45 min but can take up to 2hr.
For the enzyme inhibition to have full effect you would want your cimetidine to be well absorbed so waiting a bit longer than 20min would be optimal.

However as long as you give the cimetidine a headstart it would continue to inhibit the enzymes, I just think if you wait for it to be more fully absorbed you would get abetter inhibition.
I was recently prescribed fluconazole which is also a strong inhibitor of the same enzymes and I thought I would experiment with my diazepam.

I took the fluconazole about 30min before taking 20mg of diazepam and after about an hour I was nodding pretty hard which 20mg of diazepam would normally not do for me.
I am also on methadone though which also is affected by inhibition of those same enzymes so probably it was a double wammy.
 
Pirrracetamol said:
Is it safe to take 2 doses apart
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Definitely be careful as the inhibition of the liver enzymes means that the drug is being cleared much more slowly than normal....so each dose will be additive...kind of one plus one equals three.

Just be aware and be careful.
I think when using enzyme inhibition to get more out of a particular drug best practice would be to try at a given dose....allow that dose to run it's course, get an idea of just how much extra the inhibition gave you, then if you wanted, repeat the experiment with a little higher dose.

Redosing when your inhibiting liver enzymes is potentially dangerous in my opinion.
 
about an hour I was nodding pretty hard which 20mg of diazepam would normally not do for

Benzodiazapines don't make me nod unless a high as dose and I'm lying down lol takes A LOT!
 
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