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Is it safe to snort xanax pills?
Q: Is it safe to snort xanax pills? Is it any less safe than snorting, say, vicodin pills?

A: Snorting pills is generally a bad idea. First of all, fillers can be bad for your nasal passages, and can do serious damage to the lungs when inhaled. Many pills contain cellulose and chalk, which pass through your intestines harmlessly when taken orally, but can be very destructive if they get into the lungs...since they are not water soluble.



On top of the potential physical damage, it's unclear that snorting crushed up pills is any more effective than taking them orally. It's possible that fillers and binders in a pill could act as a buffer, stopping the material from coming into contact with the mucous membranes until such time as it is blown out when the nose is blown. This seems more likely the smaller the dosage of material in a pill (1/2 a mg of material is pretty small). In this scenario, less of the drug might be absorbed if snorted than if it were simply swallowed.



Either way, the primary differences we know of between Vicodin and Xanax pills is that there is a lot more binder and filler in the Xanax. Vicodin contain over 500 mg of active material (including acetaminophen) while a Xanax tablet may contain only .25 or .5 mg of alprazolam, the rest being fillers/binders. So, assuming there IS a problem with snorting binders and fillers (more than there is with snorting acetaminophen), snorting a Xanax tablet could be worse.



Sorry we can't be more clear, but this isn't a well studied area.


Asked By : MrYuk
Answered By : fire/murple
Published Date : 3 / 25 / 2001
Last Edited Date : 3 / 25 / 2001
Question ID : 2698

Categories: [ Benzodiazepines ] [ Pharmaceuticals ]



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