Smoking oxycodone

Smoking extracts less than 12% of oxycodone, with a foul taste and slight euphoric high. So smoking oxycodone is one of the least effective methods of administration for this opioid. But what does smoking oxycodone do to your body? Potential side effects include vomiting, itchy skin or headache. More here on risks and warnings of smoking oxycodone to get high.

3
minute read

Are you thinking about smoking oxycodone?

Ever wonder how does smoking or how does snorting oxycodone work? Read on to know what happens in your body when you smoke oxycodone and what you risk. Here, we review the relative ineffective delivery of oxycodone when you inhale its vapors, as well as the side effects and dangers of smoking oxycodone. Your questions about smoking oxycodone are welcomed at the end.

Does smoking oxycodone work or get you high?

Smoking is a well-known form of drug administration, and an intentional way to self-administer drugs for a non-medical purpose, such as altering your state of consciousness. But inhalation of vapors is infrequently practiced with oxycodone. Why? Because few people who have actually tried to smoke oxycodone recommend smoking oxycodone as a means of getting “high”. Frequently, abusers report highly unpleasant tastes that just don’t pay off in terms of euphoric effect.

What does smoking oxycodone do to you?

Inhalation from smoking oxycodone vapors results in a fast onset of action due to rapid absorption from the nasal mucosa and capillaries within the lungs. But as you inhale oxycodone vapors, you also inhale the noxious vapors of whatever ingredients are in the formula. So smoking oxycodone both delivers oxycodone to the brain and body, but it can also irritate or harm your respiratory tract and/or eyes.  Can you overdose on oxycodone when you smoke it?  Yes, especially if you’re combining oxycodone with other drugs or alcohol and you depress the central nervous system so much that you stop breathing.

Smoking oxycodone side effects

Smoking oxycodone is an intentional way of taking oxycodone to try to get high. But the most risky side effect that you may experience with oxycodone is dependency. In addition to physical dependency to prevent withdrawal, you may also develop psychological dependency on oxycodone, which is the main characteristic of addiction.

Plus, the risks of smoking the vapors or gases of oxycodone include toxicity to the respiratory tractor the eyes. But smoking oxycodone also increases your risk of adverse reactions to the drug. How does oxycodone affect the body? These adverse side effects of taking oxycodone include:

  • abnormal physical weakness or lack of energy (asthenia)
  • constipation
  • dizziness
  • headache
  • insomnia
  • nausea
  • severe itchy skin (pruritus)
  • sleepiness (somnolence)
  • vomiting

Smoking oxycodone on tin foil

Rapid liberation of oxycodone vapor upon heating is the main way that people inhale or “smoke” oxycodone. People who have tried to smoke oxycodone tend to inhale vapors produced by heating the crushed drug on foil. But inhalation of oxycodone requires thermodynamic conditions that promote volatilization of the drug into an inhalable vapor state and require persistence and timing. In fact, some forms of oxycodone require 3-5-or 10 minutes of constant heating. But there isn’t really any pay off.  Volatilization of oxycodone (heating it to a vapor for smoking) only extracts 12% or even less of the total dose . So, “chasing the dragon” is not only dangerous, it is also relatively ineffective.

Is smoking oxycodone bad for you?

Yes, smoking oxycodone is bad for you. Smoking any drug is a way to get high drug concentrations quickly to the brain. This is a particularly dangerous way to take oxycodone, as quick action increases risk of addiction, overdose or death.

Can you smoke oxycodone?

Yes, you can smoke oxycodone. While it is possible to smoke oxycodone, it is neither safe nor effective. In fact, smoking oxycodone puts you at a very high risk of becoming both physically and mentally dependent on the opioid drug. Plus, risk of overdose and death increase when you smoke oxycodone.

Smoking oxycodone questions

Still have questions about smoking oxycodone? Please leave your questions here. We do our best to respond to your questions with a personal and prompt reply ASAP

Reference sources: FDA: Advisory Committee Briefing Document on reformulated OxyContin tablets
FDA: Advisory Committee Briefing Document on REMOXY XRT
Daily Med: Oxycodone hydrochloride
About the author
Lee Weber is a published author, medical writer, and woman in long-term recovery from addiction. Her latest book, The Definitive Guide to Addiction Interventions is set to reach university bookstores in early 2019.
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