In this article, I will discuss the different aspects of taking phentermine and smoking (simultaneously). For instance, the safety and efficacy of this combination and whether it has any benefit in helping you quit the habit.
Have your doctor just prescribed you phentermine for weight loss, and now you are exploring its drug interaction profile?
The incompatibility of stimulants like alcohol or caffeine with phentermine is an agreed affair among the doctors. But its relationship with smoking is debatable, so let this article help you out in your search.
They say that an excess of everything is bad, which goes the same for stimulation. You may better understand what I am referring to if you notice how smoking nicotine or weed turns you on.
And if you have already started your phentermine prescription, you will be well aware of the energy rush that comes with it. The reason is that both these drugs act on your nervous system in the same way. So, lighting a cigarette with phentermine is not a good idea.
With this article, I plan to address the most common queries like if you can smoke with phentermine?
Or if you could just roll it up and light it as an alternate method of drug delivery. Or if you could use this prescription to snap out of your addiction habit?
So, let’s get started without any further ado.
Can you smoke cigarettes while on phentermine?
No, it is better to avoid smoking cigarettes while on phentermine.
According to a healthcare expert Lindie at justanswer.com, smoking with phentermine may increase your risk of heart problems, so you should try to give up on it for the time being if possible.
The incompatibility of these two drugs is explainable as scientific evidence suggests that phentermine is attached to a risk of causing pulmonary hypertension and stroke.
At the same time, nicotine in cigarettes is also known to increase blood pressure and heart rate.
Thus, consuming them both together may make their adverse effect on the heart and blood pressure more pronounced.
Furthermore, according to a 2011 study, nicotine works like phentermine, and it increases the level of dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in the central nervous system.
Thus, combining both of them may lead to excess stimulation, as is also mentioned in this weight loss forum.
Moreover, nicotine increases insulin resistance in smokers, which leads to a higher ratio of visceral mass in them; this effect of smoking impedes the fat loss benefit of taking phentermine.
Moreover, the Tetrahydrocannabinol is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, and it has been linked to causing a spike in appetite, which is more commonly known as THC-induced munchies.
Thus, smoking weed stimulates appetite, which may counteract the appetite-suppressing effect of phentermine.
I skimmed over Reddit to check the user experience of smoking weed with phentermine, and the conversation in this thread had all the answers.
A user started the thread with a question of whether it is safe to take phentermine in AM and smoke weed in the PM and whether it will hinder the effects of phentermine.
Two users, ‘bgkiya’ and ‘Juju-bizzle1221’, wrote that in their experience, taking phentermine and weed together had great results.
Moreover, ‘bgkiya’ also added in his comment that contrary to popular opinion, smoking weed with phentermine didn’t give him the munchies.
The person who asked the question gave it a try and wrote that the combination made him a bit paranoid, but overall, it went well.
Does phentermine help you quit smoking?
There is a lack of evidence that can support either a yes or a no as an answer to this question, so scroll ahead to find a detailed discussion on this matter.
This proposed research is designed to check the efficacy of the combination of phentermine and fenfluramine to reduce the craving experienced by smokers who are trying to quit and reduce the weight gain which comes with the cessation of smoking.
The research is based on evidence from case reports that found that this drug combination reduces the craving for alcohol and cocaine in users.
Results of this study may help us better understand whether phentermine will help you quit smoking or not.
But for now, you may use your phentermine prescription as a motivation to try to make an effort to strive for a smoke-free life because taking phentermine while being habitual of smoking can possibly cause havoc to your health.
Can I smoke phentermine?
Yes, you can smoke phentermine, but this is not necessarily the standard and safest way to consume this prescription drug.
Phentermine is mostly available in 30 mg tablets or 37.5 mg capsules that are most often prescribed to be consumed after breakfast but can also be taken on an empty stomach.
It has a half-life of 20 hours, which is reduced to 7 or 8 hours in acidic urine.
And because constipation is one of the most commonly reported side effects of phentermine so, the best way to go around with phentermine is to consume 8 glasses of water throughout the day when you are on prescription.
But since you are curious about how you can smoke phentermine rather than swallow it, you may do it by crushing its tablets and lacing it with tobacco or marijuana. (You may expect some part of the drug to be lost during burning.)
Moreover, when you consume phentermine via the mouth, it is absorbed via the gastrointestinal system, metabolized in the liver, concentrated in the brain, lungs, cerebrospinal fluid, and kidney, and then is excreted via the urine.
Contrary to that, the route for smoking phentermine is not well studied, so we can’t know what path would it take and how it would react in the body.
A hypothesized route could be that since the drug will directly enter your lungs so, it may get absorbed by the tissues there, enter the bloodstream and then concentrate inside the brain to stimulate your central nervous system.
And as I mentioned in one of the sections above, phentermine carries the risk of causing Primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), which is a rare lung disease that affects the arteries in the lung and right side of the heart. So, one may expect grave consequences of smoking phentermine.
Nonetheless, according to a Wiki User, smoking phentermine tastes horrible, and it is not that effective as well.
So you may consider this side of it as well before undertaking the risk.
Conclusion on Phentermine & Smoke
To conclude, there is no way that you can go about smoking and phentermine safely.
Clinical trials to assess the safety of smoking with phentermine are still underway, and for now, the two are hypothesized to be a catastrophic combination.
They say that it is hard to quit smoking, and it is unrealistic to expect someone to give up on it abruptly, so you should discuss other drug options with your doctor or look for their recommendation in this regard.
Nonetheless, it would be best if you could work on your addiction during prescription or before starting it.
I’ll end the read with my thoughts that, just like phentermine and alcohol, beware of phentermine and smoking as well.