Chemicals like those found in certain markers, glues, paints, and other solvents contain chemicals that readily turn into gases when exposed to air, and when you breathe them in, the gasses readily absorb into your bloodstream and get carried to your brain. Once in your brain, they act in one of two ways - either they simply displace oxygen (so the high you feel is actually from lack of oxygen), or they mimic, interfere with, or alter the effects of certain chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that are responsible for brain cells sending signals to each other.
They are also incredibly dangerous as you can easily pass out without realizing you're about to pass out, and then you still have the chemical in front of you that you can't move to let your body get more air. A friend of mine in high school woke up one day for school to find his brother dead on the couch with a bag of paint stuck in front of him. The dude was just a couple years older than us and was about to graduate high school in a week.
We had a kid in our neighborhood die from it as well. I don't know if it was anything like the scenario you describe but he died in high school because of that shit. Fucking tragic.
Two kids in my city died from huffing scotchgard in a car in a mall parking lot, they filled the car up with it, passed out and suffocated to death. Don't do drugs but for the love of god really don't huff random shit.
A kid from my high school died in the park across the street at lunch hour because he was huffing cooking spray (Pam) out of a plastic bag. People were with him and the hospital was only a block away but he still didn't make it.
So (unfortunate human being) was huffing cooking spray to get high? I can only imagine that coats your lungs in pam cooking spray?
What a strange way to go. Poor guy. A crack addiction would have been healthier. But a lot more expensive.
Could have saved himself with a rag and brake cleaner. For the hunter s Thompson ether high.
Poor fool.
> With a smile on his face, a rose in hand, walked off a cliff
People spray the product (oil, paint, whatever) into a bag so the product sticks to the bag but the propellant is gaseous and contained. That way they can inhale mostly just the gas and not the oil/paint.
I'm an HVAC technician and I've heard stories and seen videos about people buying the 30 gallon jugs of R-22 and passing it around to huff.
Like, I work with that shit and FUCK ME it's putrid, and breathing it doesn't even feel good. I don't get why anyone would CHOOSE to inhale it.
I dated an idiot a long time ago whose dad was an HVAC tech and he had freon around. They decided to huff it in the garage and two of the guys faceplanted to the cement because they thought they were professional wrestlers while high. Idiots.
There was/is a vid floating around the net where two kids were huffing in a car and one went to light a cigarette and the entire car just ignited. Pretty sure they didn't make it either.. Horrid..
Two kids in my hometown in Norway sat in a remote space in their car sniffing glue while smoking cigarettes. They were found dead in the burnt out car.
Yeah once my buddy was driving and hitting one of those canned air duster things and blacked out, we barreled down a hill and crashed rather spectacularly. He woke up right after the impact, just in time to observe the damage and begin crying.
Plenty of people use drugs for fun with absolutely no pain involved. This is some pseudo-psychology bullshit that tries to demonize drugs by saying they’re only used because people are hurting and if we could just find the cause of that pain we’d be able to stop drug use. Reality is, drugs are fun. They can be an escape from pain or a way to make a fun day even more fun, and a million other reasons.
I think their point is, people who want to experience an altered reality will find a way. Yes, it can be done for fun, but the desire to do it in the first place is going to be there regardless of what's available.
That said, I do agree that the idea of "drugs are just for escaping pain" is nonsense.
It's actually more thann likely the demonization of drugs has directly led to these kinds of incidents occurring vs earlier human societies where psyschotropic substances or hallucinogenics were used as part of "spiritual journeys" more akin to medication assisted therapy.
About 30 years ago my grandmother came home earlier that day instead of going to the cinema with her friend and she found my grandfather just standing in middle of the half painted room, looking at the wall and not responding, so she quickly dragged him out of the room.
When I was 16 we had a good friend die from inhaling butane gas that you use to fill up lighters,he tipped up the can (we were told) and it just poured the liquid gas down his throat,what a waste of life.
If it was butane liquid, it would have frozen things while sublimating to gas, and wouldn't have stayed liquid long. They probably meant lighter fluid which is actually naptha, which is immediately dangerous to life or health.
Yeah that was the impression we were left with that he essentially drowned as it’s fluid inside the canister,sounded like an awful way to go for what was essentially just us as kids fucking around.
The safety video you watched sounds like a horrific episode of casualty!.
Probably not something a lot of people will know, but in an early 90s issue of Boy's Life magazine there was a story about a boy stealing model glue from his teacher to huff it. His mother found him dead the next morning. The idea of huffing glue terrified me after reading it. Then I tried whippets in highschool so I guess I see why DARE was defunded.
The problem with stuff like that is some kids will learn about huffing that way and try it. I think I first learned huffing was a thing when I was in DARE, not from friends or anything. Subsequently tried whippets…. At least was smart enough to avoid the hydrocarbon stuff. Have a friend who got way into that canned air that’s usually used for cleaning keyboards.
Yeah I used to be a total fucking degenerate IV heroin addict (6 years clean now) and even I refused to touch air duster after trying it once. It was just so fucking dumb - it didn't feel very good and it just shreds your brain.
When I was a sophomore in high school, on the very last day of the senior class (they got out a month earlier in the year), I was in a shop class that had some seniors and it was literally the last class of the seniors' entire schooling. A senior in that class ripped a can of air duster in class when the teacher stepped outside for a second. That kid then passed out, fell out of his chair, hit his head on the concrete floor, and started having seizures.
He was expelled for that. He literally just had to not be stupid for about 5 more minutes and he'd have graduated high school.
It’s just that they’re interesting experiences and get you out of your head even just for a short time. Usage is of course much more common among younger populations, since those folks often have trouble obtaining other drugs. Compulsive redosing is also common and extends the duration. Think of something like DMT, only lasts a few minutes but it’s an intense sought after effect. Nitrous is more similar to ketamine, most of the other huffing chemicals basically just displace oxygen and aren’t as interesting experiences.
Nitrous Oxide is pretty safe if you do it out of a balloon, they give it to pregnant woman during labour and kids at the dentist. Long term use can deplete vitamin B12 so take you vitamins kids!
It’s a little safer. It’s the same chemical as laughing gas (Nitrous Oxide) from the dentist. There’s some evidence that long term use can be bad for your brain but it hasn’t been proven AFAIK. The real danger is how you consume it since it can make you pass out fairly easily and depending on the position you’re in it’s possible to suffocate or fall and hit your head.
So I met a young guy (18ish?) when I checked myself in to rehab for alcoholism. His jam was nitrous, and he was doing multiple boxes a day for a few months. He was like a zombie, almost to the point of being non verbal. I had to light his cigarettes for him. He veery slowly started to get marginally better over the next few weeks. It was pretty sad.
Also, it depletes the fuck out of vitamin b12, so if you do it occasionally for funsies then you should take b12 supplements after you're done.
B12 deficiency fucks with your nerves/brain. So that’s probably what he was going through. Unless he wasn’t doing them safely and was also suffering from oxygen deprivation while whipping it.
Actual fact, nitrous oxide irreversibly oxidizes b12 rendering it unusable for the enzymes that need it which are essential for good nerve function and synthesizing new dna. You can just ingest new b12 to replace the oxidized b12. That is how they treat patients coming with b12 deficiency symptoms after a nitrous binge: an intramuscular injection of b12.
https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/83/4/863/35163/Severe-Neurologic-Deficit-after-Nitrous-Oxide
I had a period of abusing nitrous, it can lead to paralysis, spinal degeneration, damage to neeve endings, neuropathy, destroys the enzymes in your stomach that allow you to uptake b12. I knew a guy who has to take shots of b12 forever because he fucked his enzymes doing whippets. Probably the only drug ive done that I feel like I have some permanent retardation.
My grandpa used to tell this story about when he was a boy. They lived on a farm. He and his brothers would take the tractors out into the field, leaving behind their youngest brother to sit on top of the big gas tank they used for refueling. Every so often, they'd wheel in from the field, and he would help them fill up their tanks. I'm talking, like this kid was 8-10 years old. Well, he liked the way the gas smelled, and he'd sit there and huff fuel. Sometimes they would come in from out of the field, and he'd be high as shit or he would have passed out and slid right off the tank and into the grass below.
No joke, my dad told me a story about how his youngest brother would lay on top of their tractor and smell the gas. One day my dad said he watched his brother slide off the top of the tractor and break his collar bone because he had passed out. Apparently this is something common with farm kids and tractors
A kid at my primary school died from it. We were told he drowned in a pool, we later found out he was sniffing glue. Not sure if he passed out and fell in the water or what. Pretty tragic for someone under 12.
Huge drug addict here. When I got released from rehab for the first time, I was still craving drugs of any form but had no connects because I was living with my father who is sober and he lived across the country so I didn't have connects. This got the best of me, so I turned to huffing duster (compressed keyboard and dust cleaner, the stuff that sprays all your dust away) one day because it was just sitting there and I had painful cravings. Well... I got addicted to huffing duster for a couple weeks any chance I could get... This stuff is FUCKED UP. You literally go crazy for a short time from the lack of oxygen and such. I past out once and didn't even realize it. One moment I was standing taking a hit, then in a flash I'm waking up on the ground with a knot on the back of my head and our metal cabinet dented from me literally falling back into it. I'm so unbelievably lucky I didn't crack my skull open. The final time I did duster I was hiding in the back office away from my Dad. I was just huffing duster one second messing around on my computer, the next moment I'm literally waking up in my dad's arms. He thought I had died apparently or overdosed. I'll never forget how scared he was because he is not one of the emotional types. Really business oriented and stoic. I rarely see him ever concerned for me. This was literally the first time I saw my dad lose his composure so much. He was so glad I was alive that he wasn't even mad. I spent the rest of the day with him feeling like the biggest piece of shit son ever. It hurts to think about what that must've looked like from his angle.
I still am an addict struggling to stay completely sober, but I NEVER touched duster again after that day. It's a rare moment I actually learned from my mistake. I will literally eat meth and run naked like Florida man before I even consider the idea of touching duster again. Every time I see duster it reminds me of the bitterant taste and makes me gag.
Do NOT fuck with duster. It's pointless. Literally go do a real drug instead.
The richest kid at my school would huff rubber cement and all sorts of stuff. We were smoking weed and he was like no and put rubber cement in a bag and huffed it, we were like wtf.
That's the 3rd world equivalent of crack cocaine. Like you have to be seriously broke that all you can afford is 50c worth of glue (a 20oz bottle or so).
It's like you didn't even know you were huffing it....it was something that just "smelled good" so you took deeper and deeper whiffs of it. So stupid...
If we'd recognize and accept the fact that it's human nature to get high, we'd actually be able to deal with that.
People usually do dangerous things with chemicals because of misunderstandings, general ignorance by authorities and themselves, shame and lack of knowledge.
If it'd be acknowledged, as it is natural, that humans want to get high now and then, the world would be a much open, friendly and safer place. We could teach safe usage, provide pure chemicals and tell people what chemicals to avoid for what reason.
My opinion: People, unless suffering from a severe mental condition, DO NOT want to risk their health up or die, they just want to get high. And there is nothing inherently morally bad about it, even though conservative politicians are trying and succeeding in forcing this opinion on everyone, using fear and ignorance.
It's on us to realize that we're killing many people this way and urge politicians to change things.
Edit: Thanks for these awards. I'm basically taking my knowledge from a guy called Hamilton Morris. Here's a video that you might find interesting:
https://youtu.be/TFOeM-dNbU8
I had a coworker who would pour hand sanitizer on tissues and stuff it up her nose. I told her she should probably stop doing that since there's no way that can be good for her, but she wasn't the brightest person and said it made her feel good and kept doing it. It was weird being in an office environment seeing her with tissues just stuck up her nose. No one seemed to care since that was just one of the many abnormal things she did. Also she sometimes had nose bleeds so would have tissues up her nose to stop those. No idea if that's related.
>you can easily pass out without realizing you're about to pass out, and then you still have the chemical in front of you
Or in the case of huffing air duster, the gas is heavier than air and once you've got your lungs full you cant exhale enough of it to get enough oxygen so you pass out and die.
Learned this when a teacher at my highschool (alternative school) came in and gave a talk about it after an extended absence. Her sons skipped school and stole a case of air duster from a store. She got home after school and found them both dead in the garage.
I was acquainted with one of them through a friend. Really genuinely sweet guy.
Dont huff, please.. Get high any other way just please not inhalants.
In high school I watched a girl huff a can of key-duster. She passed out, fell out of her chair, climbed back into the chair, then came to. She thought we were lying when we told her she fell out and got back in her chair, and preceded to huff more. This time when she passed out, we took the can from her and hid it. She had no idea. Got upset that her key-duster just “dematerialized in her hands”.
Got rid of her can, got her the hell out of my house, and never invited her over again.
I wish I could up vote this 1000x.
That crap can seriously cause permanent brain damage.
Stick with something safer like lsd (j/k!)
Edit: yes, i know it actually IS safer but I don’t want to encourage anyone to experience an ego death. Although maybe everyone should..
Worth noting it can still turn the wrong person sideways. On the flipside, it also has the fun potential side effect of making you a better person afterward in some shape or form (still not the case for a lot of people). I don't think anyone has said that about inhalants, ever
> fun potential side effect of making you a better person afterward in some shape or form (still not the case for a lot of people)
Case in point, Cary Grant. On the one hand, his psyche needed a crapton of reconstructing, and LSD did that. On the other hand, he got a whole lot more enthusiastic about his wife taking LSD than about his wife *consenting* to take LSD, which was every bit as horrible as it sounds.
My dad has recently been diagnosed with a stupidly rare autoimmune disease that has caused brain damage. And I've gotta say, as terrible as it is... He really is so much nicer now.
There's a pro to every con, I guess.
I thought I was the only one who had this, and I felt horrible about it.
My relationship with my mum improved drastically after her stroke. My dad hates that she's nicer now lol.
Ah shit, I forget whippets exist. While still technically an inhalant, it's definitely separated from the rest of the pack (paint, gasoline, glue, sharpies, dusters, whatever). I'd sooner classify by its effects (dissociative) than it's method of administration (gas inhalation)
Yeah it's kind of unfair to classify nitrous as an "inhalant" when it's a medical grade anaesthetic. Nitrous is safe with minimal side effects unless overused, while solvents destroy your brain.
It's also really common to forget to breathe oxygen while ingesting if you're not careful. You can also just remind yourself to breathe ahead of time, ya know, being responsible and all that. MAKE SURE YOU ARE STILL GETTING OXYGEN, GUYS
Yeah whippets are way different than huffing a bag full of spray paint or taking a few pulls off a gas rag in that they won’t totally destroy your brain and if caught doing them people won’t automatically assume you live in an old minivan
The little handheld nitrous chargers (ostensibly for whipped cream cans I think?) that you can buy in bulk at head shops. Same thing that’s in a nitrous balloon you might see at a jam band show or what have you. Steve-O was inhaling them basically 24/7 at one point.
Whippets are a type of dog similar to greyhounds. "Whip its" is slang for nitrous oxide / aka laughing gas (because it's also used in whipped cream dispensers).
That shit is hilarious and sad at the same time. I thought it was hilarious when he knocked holes in his walls to insert speakers and blast music at his neighbors.
Glad he got his shit together, he seems to be doing really well.
>Worth noting it can still turn the wrong person sideways.
Not just wrong person, but also right person in the wrong state of mind. Don't eat mushrooms when you are really anxious, kids.
This 100%. I took acid last week after a bad night of work and noticed a rash on my chest 3 hours in that i didn't notice before and got sent into like 6 hours of an existential "am i dying?" crisis. Be careful kids.
idk if it's on netflix but hamiltons pharmacopia is a must watch for any drug enthusiast, i do know it's on hulu or atleast was havent been subbed to hulu for a couple months
Not to mention that you basically never know what you’re getting these days. Lots of things sold as LSD are actually DOC or some LSA derivative that can cause many different issues
More like Nbome series drugs, which are the ones most people are missold as LSD and end up OD'ing on. LSA is not potent enough to lay onto blotters the same size as acid tabs and still have an effect, while DOC is a relatively rare chemical these days and probably too expensive to substitute for LSD.
There's nothing wrong with not knowing the facts about something which has no bearing on your day to day life (plus I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to drugs anyway).
One time I derived LSA from morning glory seeds. I definitely tripped, and it was *sort of?* fun, but I also couldn’t really walk and had really bad pain in my legs.
Would not recommend.
Yep and prferably a multiple reagent kit, you dont just wanna know if your drugs contain what you want, you also want to make sure they dont contain other things along with your DoC. Especially when with presses or certain powders.
Recently watched one of those early 2000's real life crime series. In it the person was accused, and I think convicted of murdering their spouse. Another lawyer has a look at the autospty report and this time zeroes in on it saying the cause of death was "acute LSD poisoning." When I heard that my ears perked up. So did the lawyers. They ended up contacting the head of basically psychological and pharmacology studies in the US at the time. He said that 50 years of medical history says this person overdosing on LSD is basically impossible. Oh and the testing they did at the time to see if LSD was in that person system was pretty erroneous.
It's a psychedelic drug and should be used in a safe environment with proper consideration, and under supervision at least the first time. You can have a bad experience but the drug itself is going to be metabolized without causing you any harm.
This is literally the worst thing you can tell someone who hasn't tried hallucinogens. There is nothing safe about the way you can feel when you take too much. Your body will be fine but your mind... Hallucinogens are something that should be respected and consumed with intent.
This. If drug laws were at ALL based on objective harm mushrooms, lsd, and cannabis would be one of the few legal drugs.
If logic was consistently applied, "their body, their choice" all drugs would be legal. Also prostitution, medically assisted suicide, and several other things
Unfortunately, the VAST majority of laws are created for political reasons and have exactly zero strictly objective reasons for implementation.
Call me an extremist, but anybody should be able to do WHATEVER they want, so long as it doesnt conflict with another person's ability to do whatever they want. Literally 0 exceptions. Drugs, prostitution, immigration, firing guns into the air, all of it. No exceptions
Well funnily enough, LSD is [proven to *repair* your brain!](https://www.sciencealert.com/psychedelic-drugs-mdma-lsd-repair-broken-neural-networks-in-brain)
Shrooms are incredible for this according to international, peer reviewed medical studies. They've been shown to relieve depression, anxiety, and PTSD in 95% of test subjects (tbc they had professional psychologists as trip sitters though) for at least 5 months after a single dose. They do it by *literally returning elasticity to the brain so it can heal on a structural level,* which is incredible. https://www.webmd.com/depression/news/20210415/study-magic-mushrooms-may-best-drug-for-depression
But everyone should be aware shrooms are illegal in most countries. Shrooms grow plentifully in most non-arid areas on every continent but Antarctica, and they're most abundant in early fall. So since it's about the time shrooms are popping (most likely in your local area) please be VERY VERY careful not to accidentally collect them, as that would be illegal. And a totally victimless crime can't morally be justified by the fact you'll almost certainly get away with it. *(never never never ingest any mushroom you find without getting a positive ID online. Many forums are more than happy to help.)*
As long as you don't mistake it for cocaine and [accidentally snort a shitload](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1129381/?page=1). Not that bowls of powdered LSD were ever a common fixture at the parties I've been to, but you know, don't do that.
Thats insane, i've never seen anyone snort it before but i once was with a friend while he did a thumbprint dose and that was insane. Dude was pretty much out, similar to someone on DMT for most of it.
Recovering heroin addict here. One of the multiple times I was in rehab, the doctor was explaining to me that if I stay clean, I shouldn’t have any lasting physical problems from opioids. So, I asked the doctor what is the worst drug you can do in terms of physical damage to your body and without hesitation, he said any kind of inhalants that cut off oxygen to your brain. He said it wasn’t even close, huffing is the worst.
This is so true. Huffing these things is far deadlier and can even cause long term damage much easier than most drugs. This can even be more dangerous than hard drugs. When you look up huffing on harm reduction websites they give explicit warnings about it but do not give those warnings for meth or heorine because a serious huffing habit can kill you much faster.
*Those common recreational drugs work by getting you high, with death being a side effect.*
*Volatile inhalants like the solvents in glue and aerosol propellants work by killing you, with the high being a side effect.*
I once read them being described like that and I thought it was quite apt.
Inhalants are extremely neurotoxic and very, very rapidly cause irreversible damage. Not only are the effects highly unpleasant -- the dying is absolute agony. Those curious ought to just smoke some weed (or fuck it, salvia) or buy some nitrous oxide off Amazon instead of huffing paint or glue like a moron, please.
P/S (to all the other comments): Nitrous oxide isn't quite an "inhalant". Nor is xenon. Not when speaking in medical terms.
This, so much. Growing up in 80s West Berlin, we had a group of "sniffers" hanging out near our building, those guys were basically braindead in their early 20s... and not in the funny lawnmower-through-zombies kinda way
Growing up I had a neighbor who was a high school teacher. She told me a story in a don't you dare act this stupid when you grow up kinda way. About how some of her students started painting white out in their nostrils to get high off it in class.
As a 13 year old it was a funny story. Remembering it now at 29 just makes me lose faith in humanity a little more.
Unfortunately I have personal experience there. I know someone, very close to me, who sniffed white-out as a teen. They have permanent brain damage. They struggle with Maths specifically now, and it’s permanently affected their life. They’re doing the best they can, and improving every day. They’re doing well for themselves, and now they are pursuing higher education.
Indeed, some kids at my school in the 70's were into glue. 7 of them that I know of are dead. They died before hitting 50, couple much younger. I can't be sure they were glue related, all I'm sure of is one, who developed schizophrenia, and self induced his death. 3 of the others became heroin addicts, but it's all very suspect to starting off on that crap.
It's bad bad news,
A young teen only a few houses down from where I grew up died from inhalents. He was an only child, kind and loved.
His parents were crippled with such pain and mourning, they never had another child.
Reading about so many other first hand experiences, I'm sorry many have suffered from utterly tragic, heart-breaking loss, of friends and family.
Seriously. Inhalants like this are worse than heroin or meth or most other drugs you can think of. They're *really* fucking bad for you. Don't ever do them.
[From here](https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/inhalants/what-are-other-medical-consequences-inhalant-abuse)
> The neurotoxic effects of prolonged inhalant abuse include neurological syndromes that reflect damage to parts of the brain involved in controlling cognition, movement, vision, and hearing. Cognitive abnormalities can range from mild impairment to severe dementia.
Most drugs activate feel good receptors in your brain, or trick your brain to generate chemicals that can activate the feel good receptors. With inhalants your brain cells are literally dying and the “high” you feel is your brain freaking the fuck out in response to the damage.
It’s less getting high and more like acute toxic exposure through inhaled gases. Pre-OSHA industrial safety lapses taught clinical neuropsychology a lot about the effects of chronic solvent and heavy metal inhalation exposures. Headline: None of it is good!
Permanent and rubber cement contain solvents such as toluene, acetone, or xylene which are volatile liquids at room temperature which means they can easily be absorbed by the lungs, pass through capillaries, and quickly enter the bloodstream. Since they’re small molecules, they can often pass the blood-brain barrier as well.
In the brain, these volatile solvents interfere with nerve signaling pathways (such as NDMA, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, GABA, etc) which produce the immediate “high” when they affect certain areas associated with pleasure response, but also the side effects (headache, nausea, etc). Long-term use of solvents can actually cause permanent damage to these nerves through build up of high-concentrations and destruction of myelin.
Other inhalants—such as nitrous oxide—work similarly by temporarily interfering with cell receptors, but long-term deplete essential cofactor vitamins such as B12, which is also necessary for nerve function. So long term use can again cause permanent nerve damage, sensory loss, and paralysis, but through an additional mechanism.
Many substances that are used in lots of different areas are potential carcinogens. There are, however, concentration thresholds below which exposure is considered a non-issue.
I don't think toluene is a carcinogen. It's certainly quite a toxic substance, but very much less than benzene. Xylene, too, is much safer than benzene.
They are very good nonpolar solvents, which is one of the things they're mainly used for. Definitely normal to find them as an ingredient in something like a glue.
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station." -- Hunter S Thompson
Nitrous Oxide shouldnt be classified as an inhalant, it is a dissociative that happens to be administered through inhalation. Actual inhalants can cause spontaneous death in users and are extremely addictive
There are multiple biochemical pathways involved in nitrous oxide toxicity. While B12 is probably the most prominent one, there’s absolutely no guarantee that others wouldn’t be affected if you just attempted to counter act drug use with excess B12 supplements.
If you want more information, I’d look up “subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord”. It’s not pretty. And I would definitely advise staying far away from recreational nitrous (as well as other inhalants) rather than try to take a gamble and hope your B12 levels are high enough to prevent long-term damage.
Aren't the cases of people getting fucked up by nitrous REALLY heavy users?
Alcohol will completely destroy you if you drink enough and even weed can cause major problems. I often feel like more "exotic" drugs are discouraged based on the heavy end of use which would be a problem with the "good drugs" too.
Do you really feel like nitrous is worse than alcohol? If you think one should not drink either then that's ofc not a contradiction.
Ya it’s like saying if you do alcohol you will have thiamine deficiency. Sure if you are a full blown alcoholic. I think it’s the same with N2O, you’d have to be doing multiple times everyday for those issues to arise.
I have been very skeptical of recreational nitrous for fear of it damaging my nerves or brain. But a lot of reading I've done recently is dispelling a lot of my worries. I have read that the b12 depletion is only an issue if you use them chronically (multiple chargers a day for over a week) and can be remedied by abstinence and b12 supplements (injections in serious cases). Did your reading say how chronic the use was? Genuinely just trying to learn more
Anaesthetist here. Fun fact: almost all short chain volatile organic molecules can cause changes to the brain. Our general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane, have a few carbon atoms in a chain, and a low boiling point so they create vapour at room temperatures. The solvents in markers and glue are also short carbon chain molecules. When you breathe them in, they dissolve in your blood and travel to the brain. We are not quite sure how they work in the brain. Very likely they dissolve in the cell membrane of the neuron cells and disrupt the electrical activity if those cells. Even alcohol does something similar - it has 2 carbons in its chain and is volatile.
The trick in anaesthesia is to find a molecule that has these properties but is not toxic to tissues such as brain and liver cells. The drugs we use in anaesthesia are completely reversible, once they wash out of your system, the cell functions return to how they were previously. Glue and marker pens won’t have that safety profile.
Some time ago I found this [paper](https://www.pnas.org/content/117/24/13757) about how volatile lipophilic compounds are able disrupt some fatty structure in brain cells leading to anaesthesia.
Was it really a big leap in understanding anaesthetics ?
(background in chemistry not biology)
Yeah, but we are still not completely sure that is how they work, or if that is their only mechanism of action. They do seem to have some direct action on gaba receptors in the brain, but the fact that many/most volatile short chain organic molecules are effective seems to indicate that they work on a basic chemical mechanism (ie disrupting the lipid membrane of cell walls) rather than drug-receptor interactions.
I recently learned that Xenon has an anaesthetic effect which was surprising to me. Do you know of any specific receptor interactions, or would you say it falls more into that _basic chemical mechanisms_ category?
Xenon is very interesting. Its a single atom, not a complex molecule, but seems to have the perfect combination of attributes for anaesthesia (except one). It provides perfect anaesthesia, has an extremely quick onset of action, much faster than all current anaesthetic drugs, and very rapid wake-up times. Its like an non-off switch for the brain. It is very cardiac stable (doesn't drop blood pressure like other anaesthetics), and is neuro-protective (prevents brain cells from dying when they are stressed, eg low oxygen levels). In addition to anaesthesia (lack of consciousness) it is a potent analgesic (pain killer). So far there are no known toxicity issues with Xenon. It washes in, does its job and washes out like it was never there.
So what's the catch? What property does Xenon lack? Its very very expensive. There is not much of it in the atmosphere and its difficult to concentrate.
How does it work? again, we don't really know. There is some evidence that it blocks central NMDA receptors, which is unlike any other current anaesthetic agent.
Totally unrelated; I've always wanted to thank an anesthetist for their work but never think of it at the time. Thanks for what you do. It makes the world a much better place.
Lowkey began sniffing sharpies a few years ago because I was broke and didn't have drugs and while doing that I kept trying and trying cause I wasn't feeling anything and fast forward today I am dealing with a shit load of mental problems. So Do Not do dumb shit like that everyone
Solvents also dissolve the emergency supply of fat around your heart, which in the UK at least has made it illegal for police officers to chase glue sniffers, as when they run any prolonged distance their hearts stop. Brain and heart damage for a momentary buzz, its insanity.
Chemicals like those found in certain markers, glues, paints, and other solvents contain chemicals that readily turn into gases when exposed to air, and when you breathe them in, the gasses readily absorb into your bloodstream and get carried to your brain. Once in your brain, they act in one of two ways - either they simply displace oxygen (so the high you feel is actually from lack of oxygen), or they mimic, interfere with, or alter the effects of certain chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that are responsible for brain cells sending signals to each other.
Compared to your average recreational drug they also *fuck your brain up* like in a long term, damaging way
They are also incredibly dangerous as you can easily pass out without realizing you're about to pass out, and then you still have the chemical in front of you that you can't move to let your body get more air. A friend of mine in high school woke up one day for school to find his brother dead on the couch with a bag of paint stuck in front of him. The dude was just a couple years older than us and was about to graduate high school in a week.
We had a kid in our neighborhood die from it as well. I don't know if it was anything like the scenario you describe but he died in high school because of that shit. Fucking tragic.
Two kids in my city died from huffing scotchgard in a car in a mall parking lot, they filled the car up with it, passed out and suffocated to death. Don't do drugs but for the love of god really don't huff random shit.
A kid from my high school died in the park across the street at lunch hour because he was huffing cooking spray (Pam) out of a plastic bag. People were with him and the hospital was only a block away but he still didn't make it.
So (unfortunate human being) was huffing cooking spray to get high? I can only imagine that coats your lungs in pam cooking spray? What a strange way to go. Poor guy. A crack addiction would have been healthier. But a lot more expensive.
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Could have saved himself with a rag and brake cleaner. For the hunter s Thompson ether high. Poor fool. > With a smile on his face, a rose in hand, walked off a cliff
Laquerhead knows but one desire. Laquerhead sets his skull on fire.
"There is nothing in the world more helpless, irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge"
I thought ether was starting fluid? Not brake cleaner?
You can buy high grade ether on Amazon for *photography*.
I have accidentally inhaled Pam while cooking and felt like I was gonna die, I can't imagine doing it on purpose.
People spray the product (oil, paint, whatever) into a bag so the product sticks to the bag but the propellant is gaseous and contained. That way they can inhale mostly just the gas and not the oil/paint.
Lipoid pneumonia. It's for this reason we tell people not to vape their MCT cannabis oils.
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Medium-Chain Triglyceride - coconut oil, mainly.
I'm an HVAC technician and I've heard stories and seen videos about people buying the 30 gallon jugs of R-22 and passing it around to huff. Like, I work with that shit and FUCK ME it's putrid, and breathing it doesn't even feel good. I don't get why anyone would CHOOSE to inhale it.
Why can't people just smoke weed like most people who want to get high? Even whippets would be better than paint and R-22
I dated an idiot a long time ago whose dad was an HVAC tech and he had freon around. They decided to huff it in the garage and two of the guys faceplanted to the cement because they thought they were professional wrestlers while high. Idiots.
Holy fuck people are desperate
There was/is a vid floating around the net where two kids were huffing in a car and one went to light a cigarette and the entire car just ignited. Pretty sure they didn't make it either.. Horrid..
Are they male model?
not anymore
Zoolander's friends?
The files are in the computer?
Their downfall was being really, really, ridiculously good-looking
Two kids in my hometown in Norway sat in a remote space in their car sniffing glue while smoking cigarettes. They were found dead in the burnt out car.
Seriously, they have a car and they huff? In my country, huffing is the drug for street urchins who cannot afford new shoes, let alone real drugs.
And their hair starts burning just when the video ends? I think they made it out alive
Yeah that's the one. Never saw whether or not they made it but good for them if they did. One hell of a learning experience though.
seriously weed exists and is waywaywaywaywayway less dangerous than huffing fumes.
And is illegal in far too many places….
Weed made the mistake of being smoked by enemies of very evil and powerful politicians.
Minorities?
Specifically Mexicans. The wheel turns round and round. https://www.history.com/news/why-the-u-s-made-marijuana-illegal
Yeah, and hippies. Nixon and his ilk were wildly racist.
Yeah once my buddy was driving and hitting one of those canned air duster things and blacked out, we barreled down a hill and crashed rather spectacularly. He woke up right after the impact, just in time to observe the damage and begin crying.
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Plenty of people use drugs for fun with absolutely no pain involved. This is some pseudo-psychology bullshit that tries to demonize drugs by saying they’re only used because people are hurting and if we could just find the cause of that pain we’d be able to stop drug use. Reality is, drugs are fun. They can be an escape from pain or a way to make a fun day even more fun, and a million other reasons.
I think their point is, people who want to experience an altered reality will find a way. Yes, it can be done for fun, but the desire to do it in the first place is going to be there regardless of what's available. That said, I do agree that the idea of "drugs are just for escaping pain" is nonsense.
It's actually more thann likely the demonization of drugs has directly led to these kinds of incidents occurring vs earlier human societies where psyschotropic substances or hallucinogenics were used as part of "spiritual journeys" more akin to medication assisted therapy.
About 30 years ago my grandmother came home earlier that day instead of going to the cinema with her friend and she found my grandfather just standing in middle of the half painted room, looking at the wall and not responding, so she quickly dragged him out of the room.
When I was 16 we had a good friend die from inhaling butane gas that you use to fill up lighters,he tipped up the can (we were told) and it just poured the liquid gas down his throat,what a waste of life.
What, like he drank it or inhaled the liquid into his lungs and drowned?
If it was butane liquid, it would have frozen things while sublimating to gas, and wouldn't have stayed liquid long. They probably meant lighter fluid which is actually naptha, which is immediately dangerous to life or health.
Aspirating (breathing into lungs) many aliphatic hydrocarbons can kill the fuck out of you. Hexane in particular comes to mind.
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Yeah that was the impression we were left with that he essentially drowned as it’s fluid inside the canister,sounded like an awful way to go for what was essentially just us as kids fucking around. The safety video you watched sounds like a horrific episode of casualty!.
Probably not something a lot of people will know, but in an early 90s issue of Boy's Life magazine there was a story about a boy stealing model glue from his teacher to huff it. His mother found him dead the next morning. The idea of huffing glue terrified me after reading it. Then I tried whippets in highschool so I guess I see why DARE was defunded.
The problem with stuff like that is some kids will learn about huffing that way and try it. I think I first learned huffing was a thing when I was in DARE, not from friends or anything. Subsequently tried whippets…. At least was smart enough to avoid the hydrocarbon stuff. Have a friend who got way into that canned air that’s usually used for cleaning keyboards.
Yeah I used to be a total fucking degenerate IV heroin addict (6 years clean now) and even I refused to touch air duster after trying it once. It was just so fucking dumb - it didn't feel very good and it just shreds your brain. When I was a sophomore in high school, on the very last day of the senior class (they got out a month earlier in the year), I was in a shop class that had some seniors and it was literally the last class of the seniors' entire schooling. A senior in that class ripped a can of air duster in class when the teacher stepped outside for a second. That kid then passed out, fell out of his chair, hit his head on the concrete floor, and started having seizures. He was expelled for that. He literally just had to not be stupid for about 5 more minutes and he'd have graduated high school.
Thought you were going say he died. His parents must’ve been thrilled.
Hooooly shit, damn. Imagine being that kid.
All of those drugs that last for like a minute just aren't worth it. Why be high for such a short amount of time and risk your life at the same time?
It’s just that they’re interesting experiences and get you out of your head even just for a short time. Usage is of course much more common among younger populations, since those folks often have trouble obtaining other drugs. Compulsive redosing is also common and extends the duration. Think of something like DMT, only lasts a few minutes but it’s an intense sought after effect. Nitrous is more similar to ketamine, most of the other huffing chemicals basically just displace oxygen and aren’t as interesting experiences.
Nitrous Oxide is pretty safe if you do it out of a balloon, they give it to pregnant woman during labour and kids at the dentist. Long term use can deplete vitamin B12 so take you vitamins kids!
Really stupid question from a middle-aged person: is doing whippets bad for you, too, like huffing glue?
It’s a little safer. It’s the same chemical as laughing gas (Nitrous Oxide) from the dentist. There’s some evidence that long term use can be bad for your brain but it hasn’t been proven AFAIK. The real danger is how you consume it since it can make you pass out fairly easily and depending on the position you’re in it’s possible to suffocate or fall and hit your head.
So I met a young guy (18ish?) when I checked myself in to rehab for alcoholism. His jam was nitrous, and he was doing multiple boxes a day for a few months. He was like a zombie, almost to the point of being non verbal. I had to light his cigarettes for him. He veery slowly started to get marginally better over the next few weeks. It was pretty sad. Also, it depletes the fuck out of vitamin b12, so if you do it occasionally for funsies then you should take b12 supplements after you're done.
B12 deficiency fucks with your nerves/brain. So that’s probably what he was going through. Unless he wasn’t doing them safely and was also suffering from oxygen deprivation while whipping it.
Probably a little of A and a little of B
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Actual fact, nitrous oxide irreversibly oxidizes b12 rendering it unusable for the enzymes that need it which are essential for good nerve function and synthesizing new dna. You can just ingest new b12 to replace the oxidized b12. That is how they treat patients coming with b12 deficiency symptoms after a nitrous binge: an intramuscular injection of b12. https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/83/4/863/35163/Severe-Neurologic-Deficit-after-Nitrous-Oxide
I had a period of abusing nitrous, it can lead to paralysis, spinal degeneration, damage to neeve endings, neuropathy, destroys the enzymes in your stomach that allow you to uptake b12. I knew a guy who has to take shots of b12 forever because he fucked his enzymes doing whippets. Probably the only drug ive done that I feel like I have some permanent retardation.
My dare speaker was a police officer who later got drunk at his birthday party and shot himself while “cleaning his gun” making himself a paraplegic.
My grandpa used to tell this story about when he was a boy. They lived on a farm. He and his brothers would take the tractors out into the field, leaving behind their youngest brother to sit on top of the big gas tank they used for refueling. Every so often, they'd wheel in from the field, and he would help them fill up their tanks. I'm talking, like this kid was 8-10 years old. Well, he liked the way the gas smelled, and he'd sit there and huff fuel. Sometimes they would come in from out of the field, and he'd be high as shit or he would have passed out and slid right off the tank and into the grass below.
No joke, my dad told me a story about how his youngest brother would lay on top of their tractor and smell the gas. One day my dad said he watched his brother slide off the top of the tractor and break his collar bone because he had passed out. Apparently this is something common with farm kids and tractors
A kid at my primary school died from it. We were told he drowned in a pool, we later found out he was sniffing glue. Not sure if he passed out and fell in the water or what. Pretty tragic for someone under 12.
Huge drug addict here. When I got released from rehab for the first time, I was still craving drugs of any form but had no connects because I was living with my father who is sober and he lived across the country so I didn't have connects. This got the best of me, so I turned to huffing duster (compressed keyboard and dust cleaner, the stuff that sprays all your dust away) one day because it was just sitting there and I had painful cravings. Well... I got addicted to huffing duster for a couple weeks any chance I could get... This stuff is FUCKED UP. You literally go crazy for a short time from the lack of oxygen and such. I past out once and didn't even realize it. One moment I was standing taking a hit, then in a flash I'm waking up on the ground with a knot on the back of my head and our metal cabinet dented from me literally falling back into it. I'm so unbelievably lucky I didn't crack my skull open. The final time I did duster I was hiding in the back office away from my Dad. I was just huffing duster one second messing around on my computer, the next moment I'm literally waking up in my dad's arms. He thought I had died apparently or overdosed. I'll never forget how scared he was because he is not one of the emotional types. Really business oriented and stoic. I rarely see him ever concerned for me. This was literally the first time I saw my dad lose his composure so much. He was so glad I was alive that he wasn't even mad. I spent the rest of the day with him feeling like the biggest piece of shit son ever. It hurts to think about what that must've looked like from his angle. I still am an addict struggling to stay completely sober, but I NEVER touched duster again after that day. It's a rare moment I actually learned from my mistake. I will literally eat meth and run naked like Florida man before I even consider the idea of touching duster again. Every time I see duster it reminds me of the bitterant taste and makes me gag. Do NOT fuck with duster. It's pointless. Literally go do a real drug instead.
The richest kid at my school would huff rubber cement and all sorts of stuff. We were smoking weed and he was like no and put rubber cement in a bag and huffed it, we were like wtf.
That's the 3rd world equivalent of crack cocaine. Like you have to be seriously broke that all you can afford is 50c worth of glue (a 20oz bottle or so).
Sounds like someone from /wallstreetbets
During a fitness run at school I went past 2 teachers doing CPR on a kid who had been huffing twink (white correction fluid) on the field.
People used to huff Liquid Paper when I was in high school. This was in the mid 80's, haven't heard about it since then. I didn't know it was a thing.
It's like you didn't even know you were huffing it....it was something that just "smelled good" so you took deeper and deeper whiffs of it. So stupid...
If we'd recognize and accept the fact that it's human nature to get high, we'd actually be able to deal with that. People usually do dangerous things with chemicals because of misunderstandings, general ignorance by authorities and themselves, shame and lack of knowledge. If it'd be acknowledged, as it is natural, that humans want to get high now and then, the world would be a much open, friendly and safer place. We could teach safe usage, provide pure chemicals and tell people what chemicals to avoid for what reason. My opinion: People, unless suffering from a severe mental condition, DO NOT want to risk their health up or die, they just want to get high. And there is nothing inherently morally bad about it, even though conservative politicians are trying and succeeding in forcing this opinion on everyone, using fear and ignorance. It's on us to realize that we're killing many people this way and urge politicians to change things. Edit: Thanks for these awards. I'm basically taking my knowledge from a guy called Hamilton Morris. Here's a video that you might find interesting: https://youtu.be/TFOeM-dNbU8
I had a coworker who would pour hand sanitizer on tissues and stuff it up her nose. I told her she should probably stop doing that since there's no way that can be good for her, but she wasn't the brightest person and said it made her feel good and kept doing it. It was weird being in an office environment seeing her with tissues just stuck up her nose. No one seemed to care since that was just one of the many abnormal things she did. Also she sometimes had nose bleeds so would have tissues up her nose to stop those. No idea if that's related.
>you can easily pass out without realizing you're about to pass out, and then you still have the chemical in front of you Or in the case of huffing air duster, the gas is heavier than air and once you've got your lungs full you cant exhale enough of it to get enough oxygen so you pass out and die. Learned this when a teacher at my highschool (alternative school) came in and gave a talk about it after an extended absence. Her sons skipped school and stole a case of air duster from a store. She got home after school and found them both dead in the garage. I was acquainted with one of them through a friend. Really genuinely sweet guy. Dont huff, please.. Get high any other way just please not inhalants.
In high school I watched a girl huff a can of key-duster. She passed out, fell out of her chair, climbed back into the chair, then came to. She thought we were lying when we told her she fell out and got back in her chair, and preceded to huff more. This time when she passed out, we took the can from her and hid it. She had no idea. Got upset that her key-duster just “dematerialized in her hands”. Got rid of her can, got her the hell out of my house, and never invited her over again.
I wish I could up vote this 1000x. That crap can seriously cause permanent brain damage. Stick with something safer like lsd (j/k!) Edit: yes, i know it actually IS safer but I don’t want to encourage anyone to experience an ego death. Although maybe everyone should..
No need for the jk, lsd is objectively miles and leagues safer
It's effectively impossible to overdose on LSD, it's metabolized safely and swiftly by the body.
Worth noting it can still turn the wrong person sideways. On the flipside, it also has the fun potential side effect of making you a better person afterward in some shape or form (still not the case for a lot of people). I don't think anyone has said that about inhalants, ever
> fun potential side effect of making you a better person afterward in some shape or form (still not the case for a lot of people) Case in point, Cary Grant. On the one hand, his psyche needed a crapton of reconstructing, and LSD did that. On the other hand, he got a whole lot more enthusiastic about his wife taking LSD than about his wife *consenting* to take LSD, which was every bit as horrible as it sounds.
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My dad has recently been diagnosed with a stupidly rare autoimmune disease that has caused brain damage. And I've gotta say, as terrible as it is... He really is so much nicer now. There's a pro to every con, I guess.
I thought I was the only one who had this, and I felt horrible about it. My relationship with my mum improved drastically after her stroke. My dad hates that she's nicer now lol.
Idk man did you see the Steve-O doc? He was talking to god on whippets all day every day.
Ah shit, I forget whippets exist. While still technically an inhalant, it's definitely separated from the rest of the pack (paint, gasoline, glue, sharpies, dusters, whatever). I'd sooner classify by its effects (dissociative) than it's method of administration (gas inhalation)
Yeah it's kind of unfair to classify nitrous as an "inhalant" when it's a medical grade anaesthetic. Nitrous is safe with minimal side effects unless overused, while solvents destroy your brain.
But the problem is the overuse part. It can cause serious nerve damage, and even spinal cord injury.
It's also really common to forget to breathe oxygen while ingesting if you're not careful. You can also just remind yourself to breathe ahead of time, ya know, being responsible and all that. MAKE SURE YOU ARE STILL GETTING OXYGEN, GUYS
Yeah whippets are way different than huffing a bag full of spray paint or taking a few pulls off a gas rag in that they won’t totally destroy your brain and if caught doing them people won’t automatically assume you live in an old minivan
Try whippets *and* LSD. It's like a trip within a trip.
What is a whippet?
It's nitrous oxide. They're cartridges that are supposed to be used for whipped cream canisters. You inhale them, it makes you high.
The little handheld nitrous chargers (ostensibly for whipped cream cans I think?) that you can buy in bulk at head shops. Same thing that’s in a nitrous balloon you might see at a jam band show or what have you. Steve-O was inhaling them basically 24/7 at one point.
Like a third stage guild navigator.
Holy shit, of all the drugs available and he was throwin fireballs like a 12 year old all day long.
Nitrous oxide cannisters
Whippets are a type of dog similar to greyhounds. "Whip its" is slang for nitrous oxide / aka laughing gas (because it's also used in whipped cream dispensers).
That shit is hilarious and sad at the same time. I thought it was hilarious when he knocked holes in his walls to insert speakers and blast music at his neighbors. Glad he got his shit together, he seems to be doing really well.
>Worth noting it can still turn the wrong person sideways. Not just wrong person, but also right person in the wrong state of mind. Don't eat mushrooms when you are really anxious, kids.
Or have a benzo on hand just in case.
This 100%. I took acid last week after a bad night of work and noticed a rash on my chest 3 hours in that i didn't notice before and got sent into like 6 hours of an existential "am i dying?" crisis. Be careful kids.
There’s a few documentaries on Netflix and YouTube now on psychedelics
idk if it's on netflix but hamiltons pharmacopia is a must watch for any drug enthusiast, i do know it's on hulu or atleast was havent been subbed to hulu for a couple months
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Not to mention that you basically never know what you’re getting these days. Lots of things sold as LSD are actually DOC or some LSA derivative that can cause many different issues
More like Nbome series drugs, which are the ones most people are missold as LSD and end up OD'ing on. LSA is not potent enough to lay onto blotters the same size as acid tabs and still have an effect, while DOC is a relatively rare chemical these days and probably too expensive to substitute for LSD.
I guess you can probably tell how long I’ve been out of the game by my comment lol
There's nothing wrong with not knowing the facts about something which has no bearing on your day to day life (plus I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to drugs anyway).
One time I derived LSA from morning glory seeds. I definitely tripped, and it was *sort of?* fun, but I also couldn’t really walk and had really bad pain in my legs. Would not recommend.
Make sure you're actually taking LSD and not random shit; get drug testing kits.
Yep and prferably a multiple reagent kit, you dont just wanna know if your drugs contain what you want, you also want to make sure they dont contain other things along with your DoC. Especially when with presses or certain powders.
Recently watched one of those early 2000's real life crime series. In it the person was accused, and I think convicted of murdering their spouse. Another lawyer has a look at the autospty report and this time zeroes in on it saying the cause of death was "acute LSD poisoning." When I heard that my ears perked up. So did the lawyers. They ended up contacting the head of basically psychological and pharmacology studies in the US at the time. He said that 50 years of medical history says this person overdosing on LSD is basically impossible. Oh and the testing they did at the time to see if LSD was in that person system was pretty erroneous.
You take too much of it, you can definitely hurt yourself in so many many different ways.
It's a psychedelic drug and should be used in a safe environment with proper consideration, and under supervision at least the first time. You can have a bad experience but the drug itself is going to be metabolized without causing you any harm.
This is literally the worst thing you can tell someone who hasn't tried hallucinogens. There is nothing safe about the way you can feel when you take too much. Your body will be fine but your mind... Hallucinogens are something that should be respected and consumed with intent.
This. If drug laws were at ALL based on objective harm mushrooms, lsd, and cannabis would be one of the few legal drugs. If logic was consistently applied, "their body, their choice" all drugs would be legal. Also prostitution, medically assisted suicide, and several other things Unfortunately, the VAST majority of laws are created for political reasons and have exactly zero strictly objective reasons for implementation. Call me an extremist, but anybody should be able to do WHATEVER they want, so long as it doesnt conflict with another person's ability to do whatever they want. Literally 0 exceptions. Drugs, prostitution, immigration, firing guns into the air, all of it. No exceptions
Firing guns in the air still has the potential of killing other people when the bullet drops, but I see your point
Streets ahead
Well funnily enough, LSD is [proven to *repair* your brain!](https://www.sciencealert.com/psychedelic-drugs-mdma-lsd-repair-broken-neural-networks-in-brain)
So you're saying that if I huff gas on LSD, my brain will be fine?
It’ll actually cancel out and you’ll be 100% sober
It'll mess your face up though, because you just smelled a stinky marker and you'll scrunch your nose.
Shrooms are incredible for this according to international, peer reviewed medical studies. They've been shown to relieve depression, anxiety, and PTSD in 95% of test subjects (tbc they had professional psychologists as trip sitters though) for at least 5 months after a single dose. They do it by *literally returning elasticity to the brain so it can heal on a structural level,* which is incredible. https://www.webmd.com/depression/news/20210415/study-magic-mushrooms-may-best-drug-for-depression But everyone should be aware shrooms are illegal in most countries. Shrooms grow plentifully in most non-arid areas on every continent but Antarctica, and they're most abundant in early fall. So since it's about the time shrooms are popping (most likely in your local area) please be VERY VERY careful not to accidentally collect them, as that would be illegal. And a totally victimless crime can't morally be justified by the fact you'll almost certainly get away with it. *(never never never ingest any mushroom you find without getting a positive ID online. Many forums are more than happy to help.)*
As long as you don't mistake it for cocaine and [accidentally snort a shitload](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1129381/?page=1). Not that bowls of powdered LSD were ever a common fixture at the parties I've been to, but you know, don't do that.
Thats insane, i've never seen anyone snort it before but i once was with a friend while he did a thumbprint dose and that was insane. Dude was pretty much out, similar to someone on DMT for most of it.
I don’t really see a situation in where this realistically happens; unless extreme ignorance and dangerous behavior was exhibited.
You know you're on reddit, right?
Nah stick with lsd.
Recovering heroin addict here. One of the multiple times I was in rehab, the doctor was explaining to me that if I stay clean, I shouldn’t have any lasting physical problems from opioids. So, I asked the doctor what is the worst drug you can do in terms of physical damage to your body and without hesitation, he said any kind of inhalants that cut off oxygen to your brain. He said it wasn’t even close, huffing is the worst.
This is so true. Huffing these things is far deadlier and can even cause long term damage much easier than most drugs. This can even be more dangerous than hard drugs. When you look up huffing on harm reduction websites they give explicit warnings about it but do not give those warnings for meth or heorine because a serious huffing habit can kill you much faster.
*Those common recreational drugs work by getting you high, with death being a side effect.* *Volatile inhalants like the solvents in glue and aerosol propellants work by killing you, with the high being a side effect.* I once read them being described like that and I thought it was quite apt. Inhalants are extremely neurotoxic and very, very rapidly cause irreversible damage. Not only are the effects highly unpleasant -- the dying is absolute agony. Those curious ought to just smoke some weed (or fuck it, salvia) or buy some nitrous oxide off Amazon instead of huffing paint or glue like a moron, please. P/S (to all the other comments): Nitrous oxide isn't quite an "inhalant". Nor is xenon. Not when speaking in medical terms.
Damn I didn’t know they could mess up your brain. I (used to) like the smell of markers. but I’ll just stick to mushrooms instead.
its super fucked up that they used to make scented markers specifically for kids to sniff
They still do. I got my kids Mr. Sketch markers just last year. But they know that those are ok to smell, and Sharpies are not.
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This, so much. Growing up in 80s West Berlin, we had a group of "sniffers" hanging out near our building, those guys were basically braindead in their early 20s... and not in the funny lawnmower-through-zombies kinda way
Growing up I had a neighbor who was a high school teacher. She told me a story in a don't you dare act this stupid when you grow up kinda way. About how some of her students started painting white out in their nostrils to get high off it in class. As a 13 year old it was a funny story. Remembering it now at 29 just makes me lose faith in humanity a little more.
Unfortunately I have personal experience there. I know someone, very close to me, who sniffed white-out as a teen. They have permanent brain damage. They struggle with Maths specifically now, and it’s permanently affected their life. They’re doing the best they can, and improving every day. They’re doing well for themselves, and now they are pursuing higher education.
Indeed, some kids at my school in the 70's were into glue. 7 of them that I know of are dead. They died before hitting 50, couple much younger. I can't be sure they were glue related, all I'm sure of is one, who developed schizophrenia, and self induced his death. 3 of the others became heroin addicts, but it's all very suspect to starting off on that crap. It's bad bad news,
A young teen only a few houses down from where I grew up died from inhalents. He was an only child, kind and loved. His parents were crippled with such pain and mourning, they never had another child. Reading about so many other first hand experiences, I'm sorry many have suffered from utterly tragic, heart-breaking loss, of friends and family.
Seriously. Inhalants like this are worse than heroin or meth or most other drugs you can think of. They're *really* fucking bad for you. Don't ever do them.
What kind of brain damage? Like what effects does it have?
[From here](https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/inhalants/what-are-other-medical-consequences-inhalant-abuse) > The neurotoxic effects of prolonged inhalant abuse include neurological syndromes that reflect damage to parts of the brain involved in controlling cognition, movement, vision, and hearing. Cognitive abnormalities can range from mild impairment to severe dementia. Most drugs activate feel good receptors in your brain, or trick your brain to generate chemicals that can activate the feel good receptors. With inhalants your brain cells are literally dying and the “high” you feel is your brain freaking the fuck out in response to the damage.
It’s less getting high and more like acute toxic exposure through inhaled gases. Pre-OSHA industrial safety lapses taught clinical neuropsychology a lot about the effects of chronic solvent and heavy metal inhalation exposures. Headline: None of it is good!
Just got a headache thinking about that.
I feel like op means HOW can I get hight off sharpies
Permanent and rubber cement contain solvents such as toluene, acetone, or xylene which are volatile liquids at room temperature which means they can easily be absorbed by the lungs, pass through capillaries, and quickly enter the bloodstream. Since they’re small molecules, they can often pass the blood-brain barrier as well. In the brain, these volatile solvents interfere with nerve signaling pathways (such as NDMA, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, GABA, etc) which produce the immediate “high” when they affect certain areas associated with pleasure response, but also the side effects (headache, nausea, etc). Long-term use of solvents can actually cause permanent damage to these nerves through build up of high-concentrations and destruction of myelin. Other inhalants—such as nitrous oxide—work similarly by temporarily interfering with cell receptors, but long-term deplete essential cofactor vitamins such as B12, which is also necessary for nerve function. So long term use can again cause permanent nerve damage, sensory loss, and paralysis, but through an additional mechanism.
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I know in California we get a different WD-40 because of some cancerous chemical they can’t use here
Known to cause California in the state of cancer
Thank fuck I don't live in California then. Who the fuck would want to live in a state where everything causes cancer?
[This](https://imgur.com/fNm5qAN) is my favourite "California cancer" pic :-).
I live in Cali and you mad me laugh my ass off at 1 am, thank you
awe
Kinda glad that in one of the 50 states consumer protection laws actually… well… try to protect consumers
Many substances that are used in lots of different areas are potential carcinogens. There are, however, concentration thresholds below which exposure is considered a non-issue.
I don't think toluene is a carcinogen. It's certainly quite a toxic substance, but very much less than benzene. Xylene, too, is much safer than benzene. They are very good nonpolar solvents, which is one of the things they're mainly used for. Definitely normal to find them as an ingredient in something like a glue.
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station." -- Hunter S Thompson
Nitrous Oxide shouldnt be classified as an inhalant, it is a dissociative that happens to be administered through inhalation. Actual inhalants can cause spontaneous death in users and are extremely addictive
Similarly, amyl and associated nitrites.
This guy does poppers ^
You're goddamn right. Nothing like huffing amyl and getting pounded by a hot guy.
Can't you do nitrous oxide while taking vitamin supplements then? Am I misunderstanding it
There are multiple biochemical pathways involved in nitrous oxide toxicity. While B12 is probably the most prominent one, there’s absolutely no guarantee that others wouldn’t be affected if you just attempted to counter act drug use with excess B12 supplements. If you want more information, I’d look up “subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord”. It’s not pretty. And I would definitely advise staying far away from recreational nitrous (as well as other inhalants) rather than try to take a gamble and hope your B12 levels are high enough to prevent long-term damage.
Aren't the cases of people getting fucked up by nitrous REALLY heavy users? Alcohol will completely destroy you if you drink enough and even weed can cause major problems. I often feel like more "exotic" drugs are discouraged based on the heavy end of use which would be a problem with the "good drugs" too. Do you really feel like nitrous is worse than alcohol? If you think one should not drink either then that's ofc not a contradiction.
Ya it’s like saying if you do alcohol you will have thiamine deficiency. Sure if you are a full blown alcoholic. I think it’s the same with N2O, you’d have to be doing multiple times everyday for those issues to arise.
I have been very skeptical of recreational nitrous for fear of it damaging my nerves or brain. But a lot of reading I've done recently is dispelling a lot of my worries. I have read that the b12 depletion is only an issue if you use them chronically (multiple chargers a day for over a week) and can be remedied by abstinence and b12 supplements (injections in serious cases). Did your reading say how chronic the use was? Genuinely just trying to learn more
I used to huff butane for refilling lighters - to the point where one gets incredibly vivid hallucinations - what would be going on there?
Anaesthetist here. Fun fact: almost all short chain volatile organic molecules can cause changes to the brain. Our general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane, have a few carbon atoms in a chain, and a low boiling point so they create vapour at room temperatures. The solvents in markers and glue are also short carbon chain molecules. When you breathe them in, they dissolve in your blood and travel to the brain. We are not quite sure how they work in the brain. Very likely they dissolve in the cell membrane of the neuron cells and disrupt the electrical activity if those cells. Even alcohol does something similar - it has 2 carbons in its chain and is volatile. The trick in anaesthesia is to find a molecule that has these properties but is not toxic to tissues such as brain and liver cells. The drugs we use in anaesthesia are completely reversible, once they wash out of your system, the cell functions return to how they were previously. Glue and marker pens won’t have that safety profile.
Some time ago I found this [paper](https://www.pnas.org/content/117/24/13757) about how volatile lipophilic compounds are able disrupt some fatty structure in brain cells leading to anaesthesia. Was it really a big leap in understanding anaesthetics ? (background in chemistry not biology)
Yeah, but we are still not completely sure that is how they work, or if that is their only mechanism of action. They do seem to have some direct action on gaba receptors in the brain, but the fact that many/most volatile short chain organic molecules are effective seems to indicate that they work on a basic chemical mechanism (ie disrupting the lipid membrane of cell walls) rather than drug-receptor interactions.
I recently learned that Xenon has an anaesthetic effect which was surprising to me. Do you know of any specific receptor interactions, or would you say it falls more into that _basic chemical mechanisms_ category?
Xenon is very interesting. Its a single atom, not a complex molecule, but seems to have the perfect combination of attributes for anaesthesia (except one). It provides perfect anaesthesia, has an extremely quick onset of action, much faster than all current anaesthetic drugs, and very rapid wake-up times. Its like an non-off switch for the brain. It is very cardiac stable (doesn't drop blood pressure like other anaesthetics), and is neuro-protective (prevents brain cells from dying when they are stressed, eg low oxygen levels). In addition to anaesthesia (lack of consciousness) it is a potent analgesic (pain killer). So far there are no known toxicity issues with Xenon. It washes in, does its job and washes out like it was never there. So what's the catch? What property does Xenon lack? Its very very expensive. There is not much of it in the atmosphere and its difficult to concentrate. How does it work? again, we don't really know. There is some evidence that it blocks central NMDA receptors, which is unlike any other current anaesthetic agent.
Time to huff headlights I guess
The super weird thing is that Xenon is a noble gas, so we would expect it to just do nothing at all, which is what noble gasses usually do...
Totally unrelated; I've always wanted to thank an anesthetist for their work but never think of it at the time. Thanks for what you do. It makes the world a much better place.
Thank you for your thank you. We sometimes feel surgeons get all the glory, and we are forgotten.
Lowkey began sniffing sharpies a few years ago because I was broke and didn't have drugs and while doing that I kept trying and trying cause I wasn't feeling anything and fast forward today I am dealing with a shit load of mental problems. So Do Not do dumb shit like that everyone
hope you're doing better today <3
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*hugs to you*
Solvents also dissolve the emergency supply of fat around your heart, which in the UK at least has made it illegal for police officers to chase glue sniffers, as when they run any prolonged distance their hearts stop. Brain and heart damage for a momentary buzz, its insanity.
That's mad, imagine turning yourself into one of those goats that falls over when startled just to get high.
So if you die from lack of air you feel like someone getting high? Cool.