Swim has been nasally inhaling Rx pills for years. Not often, 5 to 10 times a year at the very most.
Most commonly dexedrine time release, oxycontin instant release, morphine time release. Also the odd random pill.
Swim from time to time may also be using cocaine and ketamine in small spaced out amounts. Only god knows what these fine specimens are cut with.
Swim is more concerned about the Rx pills as swim has heard some ramblings that some of the inhaled fine powdered pills can can cause lung damage....how serious is this? What are the long term implications? Swim can't find any good articles, reports, or studies on this subject. Just a few snippets here and there.
What are the consequences and how much use is going to cause long term troubles? Any links and personal experiences would be appreciated.
The frequency of swiy's insufflation doesn't really put him in much danger. Insufflation of anything is never a good idea, as it is inevitable that some portion of the powder will enter the lungs. One is doing damage to the lungs whenever anything is snorted really, however insignificant. The more powder is snorted, the more powder there is which might end up in the lungs. My dog can't say much about long term insufflation, but he imagines that damage is dose and frequency dependent. 5 or 10 times a year, depending on how much is being snorted, is not really something to worry about. The nasal cavity is really what is being deteriorated during insufflation, my dog would worry more about that than the lungs, however again, 5 to 10 times a year is really not bad. Think about people who do lines every weekend... most of them live otherwise healthy lives and it doesn't seem to be a huge concern.
Long term implications would be damage to the nasal cavity and perhaps some damage to the lining of the lungs or buildup of fine powder. However a lot of people live in places where breathing the air outside will do more damage than whatever powder makes it to the lungs during insufflation. My dog can't say if that is really true but it sounds good enough. Dexedrine and oxy ir are pretty small amounts of powder. The more binders a pill has, the more damage it can do because more powder needs to be snorted.
Someone attached two articles which might be of interest:
science.pdf concerns the pulmonary (lung related) pathology (cause of disease) of drug abuse, the other is an article about a lung disease caused by abuse of cocaine. Keep in mind, again, that swiy's use is nowhere near that of cocaine users.
Thanks this was very informative...something that should be brought more in these circles. Swim has only heard hints of this mentioned in a few forums and articles.
Any cats out there have personal experiences with long term use and damage?
I read those articles. The first one says that snorting a lot fo pills, all day everyday, might be bad for. The other, on page one, attempts to cleverly insinuate that smoking weed causes HIV.
I posted this in the other thread that linked to this one after reading the above posted articles.
Also, powder has to be ground up super-fine to actually make it to the lungs. Powders for inhalation, like salmeterol and other asthma medications, are incredibly fine particles--you couldn't make your own asthma meds with a mortar and pestle. Also, those drugs aren't inhaled up your nose, but breathed in through your mouth.
Your respiratory system has all kinds of stuff lining it specifically to prevent solids from making it to your alveoli. Particles you inhale have to be not only tiny, but also inhaled with enough force to carry them past all the cilia and mucus. Your nose stops a lot of crap. What your nose doesn't catch (or when you breathe through your mouth) your trachea and bronchi will. And when you cough, you bring the crap caught in the mucus and cilia to the back of your throat and then swallow it. (Apologies to anyone eating while reading this....)
Tobacco smoke, btw, paralyzes your cilia, making it harder for them to toss out the crap. So someone who smokes regularly would have a harder time dealing with crap in their lungs than non-smokers.
So long story short, swiy isn't likely to have significant lung damage from snorting anything, especially if not done frequently and if he doesn't have any respiratory problems to begin with.
