Can you snort hydromorphone 8mg

According to the U. Drug Enforcement Administration DEA , this prescription medication is a schedule II opioid analgesic which is classified as having a high risk for abuse and causing addiction. Dilaudid is a potent drug commonly prescribed for pain relief for individuals who may have chemical tolerance to other opioid medications.

This prescription drug and other depressants like it work on the central nervous system to produce slowed heart, breathing, and other rates. It is also prescribed for postoperative, severe pain, and chronic pain because of its fast-acting effects and shorter half-life.

Other schedule II prescription opioids that carry similar risks of abuse and addiction include fentanyl, morphine, Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin. Dilaudid comes in extended-relief tablets, oral liquid solutions, and as an immediate or extended-release liquid for intravenous injections.

Dilaudid is a highly addictive opioid that can lead to a rapid high when snorted insufflated. Dilaudid insufflation is a common method of drug abuse among individuals with an opioid use disorder. This method leads to dangerous and harmful effects on the brain and body. Snorting dilaudid causes the medication to be rapidly absorbed into the mucous membranes in the nostrils, throat, and upper respiratory system. Individuals who abuse Dilaudid will crush the tablets into a fine powder to snort, in order to bypass the time-release or extended-release properties of the drug.

Dilaudid drug use in this way leads to a high in less than 20 minutes. Dilaudid and other opioid pain relievers may cause severe and permanent damage to the body when habitually abused. Dilaudid abuse damages dopamine receptors in the brain, leading to chronic depression and a reduced ability to feel pleasure. Dilaudid is an effective pain-relieving drug. It is also highly addictive. When abused, this prescription medication may quickly lead to an opiate substance use disorder.

The risks of addiction and abuse are minimized when taken under the supervision of a qualified healthcare provider and when taken exactly as prescribed. For individuals who take Dilaudid habitually, chemical tolerance to the drug may develop in less than two weeks. Chemical tolerance will require the individual to take higher doses of the drug to gain the same effects.

People who struggle with Dilaudid addiction and physical dependence may drink the medication in its oral solution form, ingest tablets, or snort the medication. Dilaudid is a single-ingredient opioid agonist drug. Unlike Exalgo, which is an extended-release hydromorphone product, Dilaudid is an immediate-release prescription opioid.

Its effects will be felt even faster when snorted. These factors cause Dilaudid to be an appealing target for drug abusers. Dilaudid tablets must be crushed into powder to snort. Tablets do not need to be separated into its different ingredients because they only contain hydromorphone.

Crushing tablets can be done with household products. The powder is then lined up and snorted through a straw.

It is relatively easy to snort Dilaudid, which leads to its high abuse potential. The drug is taken directly into the bloodstream and binds to opioid receptors quickly, leading to faster pain relief, sedation, and euphoria. Side effects of Dilaudid may also increase. These side effects include:.

Dilaudid is not designed to be snorted. Repeated snorting may damage the nose and respiratory system, and may cause other health effects.

Snorting opioid drugs may lead to holes in the septum, or the wall that divides the nostrils. This is known as nasal septum perforation. It can also lead to lung inflammation and heart problems. Hydromorphone may cause physical dependence, where the body becomes used to functioning with the drug in its system.

Once this happens, a person will likely experience withdrawal symptoms when attempting to come off the drug. Combining Dilaudid with other substances can result in drug interactions.

These interactions can be dangerous to your health. Benzodiazepines and other depressants, such as alcohol, can be particularly dangerous. All of these substances affect the central nervous system. Combining them with opioids increases their potency, but also increases the risk of overdose. Snorting usually involves high doses being inhaled at once, which puts the user at risk of overdose.

Opioid overdose requires immediate medical attention, which may include the use of naloxone. Get help right away if you see these signs. If the nose has become damaged through snorting, nasal sprays or salt water solutions can repair it. If the damage is serious, surgery may be required.

Special theme weeks or months had already made it possible in the past to call the attention of drug users to certain information and subjects. How-to-smoke training courses, collective pipe and tube building even if many users have previous experience with inhalative use, collective tube building courses or safer smoking training courses could help arouse their interest.

In view of the fact that many drug users avoid transporting drug use equipment, particularly drug consumption rooms and other low threshold services for drug users, are encouraged to support the users by offering them personalised storage space for drug use equipment.

In Germany, in about , boxes with different intravenous drug use kits are sold via vending machines [ 7 ]. In order to initiate a discussion about the harm-reducing effects of inhalative use, facilities could develop their own individual special programmes, such as a breakfast involving a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of inhalative use. Based on experience from on-site work, it becomes apparent that such measures can only be successful if they are very practical and their utilisation does not involve much effort for the users.

Additionally, such programmes always require the commitment and motivation of the workers. Future studies that can best add to our current understanding need to take more deeply into account cross-sectional dimensions like gender, age and ethnic and socio-economic background of the users. It should be discussed whether a long-term sustainable change of consumption patterns can be achieved and how these patterns can be stabilised over time and what kind of additional education is needed?

On the other hand, Smoke-It! Major research funders might appropriately encourage such work in this field, if issues of cost-effectiveness are more deeply focused.

However, the costs compared to injecting are as follows in Germany:. So the total costs are 0. Contrary to household foils, they are thicker and easier to smoothen again.

Safer injection drug use: the costs of a complete safer use equipment with one syringe, one needle, one water ampoule, one stericup spoon for single use , one sterifilt filter for single use , one bag of vitamin C are about 50 Eurocents.

These costs are at least five times more expensive as the equipment for inhalative use. It should be noted that only a single use is recommended. Google Scholar.

Drogenbeauftragte der Bundesregierung: Drogen- und Suchtbericht. Med Wsch. Article Google Scholar. Kools JP: From fix to foil : the Dutch experience in promoting transition away from injecting drug use, — Harm Reduct J.

National Needle Exchange Forum. Dokumentationszeitraum Download references. We are also grateful to the drug users who participated and the staff in the six drug consumption rooms. Institute for Addiction Research, Frankfurt, , Germany. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. The survey and the evaluation was funded by Deutsche Aids-Hilfe e. DS conceived the survey. HS had full responsibility for its operational management and data collection.

DS and HS collaborated equally with drafting the paper. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. Reprints and Permissions. Promoting a change of opiate consumption pattern - from injecting to inhaling. Harm Reduct J 11, 18 Download citation.

Received : 06 March Accepted : 09 June Published : 27 June Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Skip to main content. Search all BMC articles Search. Download PDF. Abstract Background Intravenous drug use has been predominantly practised since illegal heroin use became known in Germany in the early s.

Conclusions Targeted media and personal intervention in association with the dispensation of attractive drug use equipment can motivate opiate users to change their method of drug use. Background Intravenous drug use has been predominantly practised since illegal heroin use became known in Germany in the early s [ 1 — 3 ].

Moreover, the risk of HIV and Hepatitis B or C infection is considerably reduced when smoking heroin Despite these harm-reducing effects of inhalative use, there is only very limited scientific survey on this subject. Method The data was collected using a written questionnaire, which had been designed in cooperation with the staff of the participating drug consumption rooms. The survey was started as scheduled on 1 April The questionnaire was to be completed by the interviewed heroin users at three different stages.

Results SMOKE IT - highly accepted by drug users in drug consumption rooms By the end of the quantitative survey 15 August , a total of questionnaires had been received.

Table 1 Characteristics of respondents by stage of interview Full size table. Table 2 Method of heroin administration during the last 30 days before the interview stage T1 Full size table. Table 4 Reasons for smoking heroin Full size table. References 1. Article Google Scholar 6. View author publications. Additional information Competing interests The survey and the evaluation was funded by Deutsche Aids-Hilfe e.

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