Snorting Suboxone: Is it Dangerous?

Snorting Suboxone is dangerous. Ingredients inside Suboxone tablets aren’t made to connect with nasal tissues. Sniffing them can lead to burning, stinging, and tingling sensations, microvascular tears, nasal bleeding, infection, tissue damage, etc.

In addition, snorting Suboxone can also lead to uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms if you’re also using drugs like heroin and Vicodin.

If you’re tempted to misuse your Suboxone, talk to your treatment team. Your overall treatment plan may need some adjustment to ensure you stay on track. 

What Is Suboxone?

Suboxone is the brand name for a combination of a partial opioid agonist, buprenorphine, and an opioid receptor blocker, naloxone.[1]

Modern opioid use disorder treatment has been revolutionized with buprenorphine, which can bind to opioid receptors in the brain and prevent withdrawal and cravings without triggering strong feelings of being “high.”[2]

Buprenorphine also has a relatively low risk of overdose by respiratory depression. This helps people who are dealing with problematic use of opioids like heroin or fentanyl by easing cravings and other physical and mental sensations associated with withdrawal. Ultimately, it aids the recovery process.

Adding naloxone to buprenorphine reduces the risk that people will misuse Suboxone by taking it in ways that are not prescribed, such as by snorting it. When the medication is not taken sublingually — for example, when it is snorted —naloxone prevents the partial opioid agonist from binding to brain receptors and protects against an overdose. [3]

What Happens When You Snort Suboxone?

Crushing Suboxone tablets and then snorting them can lead to burning, stinging, and tingling sensations, microvascular tears, nasal bleeding, infection, tissue damage, etc. This can be quite dangerous.

Does Snorting Suboxone Get You High?

Snorting Suboxone won’t usually get you high. If snorted, the Naloxone component of buprenorphine will kick in and block the analgesic/euphoric effects of buprenorphine. This is designed this way intentionally to prevent people from attempting to misuse Suboxone by snorting or injecting it. 

Other Side Effects of Snorting Suboxone

While snorting Suboxone won’t get you high, it can make you sick. Several serious short-term risks are associated with putting Suboxone’s ingredients in contact with delicate nasal and throat tissues.

Short-term side effects of Suboxone snorting include the following:[2]

• Burning sensations in your nose
• Tingling in or around your nose
• Stinging sinuses 
• Dry mouth 

Some people develop infections from snorting Suboxone, especially if they use unclean tools to crush or inhale their drugs. 

If you snort too much Suboxone, the naloxone inside each dose could prompt uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, including these:[3]

• High blood pressure
• Stomach pain and cramping
• Nausea and vomiting
• Muscle aches
• Diarrhea
• Dehydration 

While Suboxone contains anti-overdose ingredients, snorting too much can overwhelm your body. Anyone who snorts the drug has a very high risk of overdose and death. Overdose symptoms include the following:[1]

• Pinpoint pupils
• Slow breathing 
• Unconsciousness

What Are the Long-Term Dangers of Snorting Suboxone?

Of all the long-term risks associated with snorting Suboxone, recurring opioid use disorder (OUD) is the most severe.

You’re using Suboxone to address an OUD that has harmed your health, your family and your future. Misusing that medication means your OUD is still present. You could move from snorting Suboxone to snorting or injecting painkillers (like OxyContin) in time. 

The longer your misuse continues, the higher your overdose risks. Your body becomes accustomed to strong drugs, so you’ll need more for the same effect. Take too much, and you could overwhelm your system and slip into a coma. 

Continued snorting of any drug, including Suboxone, can lead to severe tissue damage within your nose, sinuses and throat. If the damage is extensive, you could need surgery to get better.

About Suboxone Misuse

Suboxone is formulated so that its misuse potential is low. Though it is still technically possible to misuse this substance, euphoric effects are minimal, especially in people who are using other opioids at high doses and are tolerant.

Other medications used to treat opioid use disorder have more misuse potential than Suboxone, including methadone.  Methadone, a full opioid agonist, has a much higher misuse potential than Suboxone. Because of the Naloxone component of Suboxone, it is less likely to be misused than buprenorphine alone. [6]

The Benefits of Suboxone Treatment

Suboxone is extremely important for the millions of people in the United States seeking to overcome substance use. In 2018, more people died from opioid overdoses than from the peaks of HIV, gun violence, or car accidents. [7]

Suboxone has been a game-changer in preventing relapse to opioid use. Peer-reviewed studies consistently show that medications for opioid use disorder, specifically Suboxone, reduce relapse rates and improve long-term recovery rates.[8,9]

Suboxone treatment is increasingly available as a prescription outpatient option through telemedicine services like Bicycle Health.

Treatment for Suboxone Misuse 

If you’re misusing your addiction treatment medications, talk to your team. You may need additional therapy to keep your substance use disorder under control, or you might benefit from a different type of medication.

If you don’t have a prescription for Suboxone and you’re misusing it, talk to your doctor about treatment. Buying Suboxone from dealers isn’t safe. A comprehensive treatment program that combines medications and therapy could be what you need to get your life back on track.