Dangers Of Smoking Or Snorting Fentanyl: What You Need To Know
A fentanyl overdose is a medical emergency. Call 911 immediately for anyone showing overdose symptoms, and call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 for guidance. For a mental health or suicidal crisis, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org, where Spanish-language and ASL services are available.
Smoking and snorting fentanyl both carry a high overdose risk, because either route delivers the drug to the brain within minutes, and both damage the airway they pass through: the nasal passages when snorted, the lungs when smoked.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, and its potency is what makes every route of use dangerous.
What Is Fentanyl Used For?
Clinicians use fentanyl to control severe pain after surgery and breakthrough pain in cancer care, and for people who get insufficient relief from oxycodone, hydromorphone, oxycontin or morphine.
Fentanyl matters in the medical setting as much as it does on the street. Hospitals stock it as one of the strongest pain medications available, and trained medical professionals administer it under supervision for that reason.
Fentanyl binds to receptors in the central nervous system to blunt pain, the same mechanism other opioid and prescription drugs use. Fentanyl is more than 100 times more potent than morphine, which makes it both an effective painkiller and a dangerous one: a small quantity produces an overdose, and a fentanyl overdose kills.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded more than 70,000 fentanyl overdose deaths in 2020. The CDC recorded more than 80,000 in 2021. Both figures mark fentanyl as the driver of the current overdose crisis.
What Are the Dangers of Snorting Fentanyl?
Snorting fentanyl raises overdose risk above other routes, because the nasal blood vessels and mucosal membranes deliver it to the brain quickly, and repeated snorting injures the nasal passages themselves.
Fentanyl comes as a powder, which leads people to assume that snorting it is easy and that, with no needle involved, it is safer. Neither assumption holds. Fentanyl is not meant to be snorted, and using any medication outside its intended route is dangerous.
Faster Absorption and Higher Overdose Risk
Snorting fentanyl absorbs it directly through the blood vessels and mucosal membranes in the nose. The nose sits close enough to the brain that the drug arrives there faster than it does by other routes.
That speed produces a faster high and a much higher chance of overdose, because a large amount of fentanyl reaches the brain at once. Snorting is dangerous for exactly that reason.
Nasal and Sinus Damage
Snorting fentanyl damages the nasal passages. Nosebleeds become more frequent, and frequent nosebleeds raise the risk of infection.
Over time, snorting causes significant irritation and inflammation in the nasal passages, and the nasal turbinates swell. Swollen turbinates make breathing difficult and leave a person catching colds more often. Nothing belongs in the nose, fentanyl included.
Why Are Fentanyl Overdoses Becoming More Common?
Fentanyl overdoses are becoming more common because dealers lace other drugs with it, so a person takes fentanyl without knowing, and the amount that produces an overdose is small enough to hide in a mixture.
Fentanyl reached the street because of the same potency that makes it useful in a hospital. Dealers lace other drugs with fentanyl, and a person who buys those drugs takes fentanyl without knowing it.
Fentanyl Is Mixed Into Other Drugs
Heroin, counterfeit prescription pills and stimulants all turn up laced with fentanyl. Because the overdose threshold is low, a person overdoses on a drug they did not know contained fentanyl at all.
That is the practical danger for anyone using street drugs of any kind. The route of use matters less than the unknown dose, and no visual check of a powder or a pill identifies fentanyl.
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What Are The Dangers Of Smoking Fentanyl?
Smoking fentanyl is not safer than snorting it: the high lasts longer, the overdose risk remains, and inhaled fentanyl irritates the lungs and airways, producing breathing difficulty and more frequent lung infections.
Smoking fentanyl reads as the less dangerous route, and it still produces significant side effects. Snorting fentanyl delivers it into the system faster, and smoking fentanyl produces a longer-lasting high. Neither route removes the overdose risk.
Lung and Airway Problems
Inhaled fentanyl irritates the lung passages. That irritation makes breathing difficult over time and leaves a person developing lung infections more frequently.
Prolonged inhalation carries a risk of chronic bronchitis and COPD.
Other Dangerous Side Effects
Smoking fentanyl raises the risk of depression, anxiety, insomnia and hormonal imbalance. Smoking fentanyl also produces 5 physical symptoms:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Drowsiness
- Respiratory depression
- Extreme itching on the arms and legs
Every one of those symptoms is a reason to reach out to a professional who treats fentanyl use disorder.
How Do You Get Treatment for Fentanyl Use Disorder?
Call 911 first for a suspected overdose, give naloxone nasal spray where it is available, and roll the person onto their side; then contact a treatment program that manages fentanyl withdrawal, detox and cravings.
Call 911 right away for anyone you believe has overdosed on fentanyl. Administer naloxone nasal spray in the event of an opioid overdose, roll the person onto their side, and keep them breathing until first responders arrive. Fentanyl often requires more than one dose of naloxone, so give another dose after two to three minutes where the person does not respond.
Riverside Recovery treats fentanyl use disorder, and our team supports families alongside the person in treatment. We address withdrawal symptoms, the long-term effects of fentanyl, cravings, the detox process and the other parts of addiction treatment.
Contact us today to learn more about treatment options for fentanyl use disorder.
- CDC, National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Overdose Deaths In 2021 Increased Half as Much as in 2020 but Are Still Up 15%
