You can't snort Suboxone without a lot of effort. The medication is typically sold as a dissolvable strip, not a powder. To snort it, you'd dissolve the strip in some kind of solution, heat the liquid, and snort up anything left behind.
Do all this work, and you're still unlikely to get high. Suboxone's two active ingredients come with built-in misuse protections.
Even though few people actually snort Suboxone strips, it's worth understanding why some people might try - usually unsuccessfully- and how it could be dangerous.
Years ago, pharmacists sold Suboxone in pill form. People would buy them, crush them, and smoke the powder.[1] Nowadays, most Suboxone is dispensed in a film or strip form, both because it is readily absorbed sublingually in this way but also because it is more difficult to misuse in strip form by snorting or smoking.
Suboxone's two ingredients make misuse difficult:[3]
Suboxone is so safe that it's hard to overdose, even if snorted or injected. [4]
People rarely attempt to snort Suboxone because generally it doesn’t work very well to “get high”. In addition, snorting can have some risky side effects, including:
People who sniff Suboxone often do so while taking other drugs. You could mix your Suboxone with something like crushed benzodiazepines or heroin in powdered form. Many people who overdose on buprenorphine are using other drugs at the same time. When doctors conduct autopsies, they find multiple drugs in their bodies.[5] Therefore the actual overdose is likely from other substances, although snorting the Suboxone can potentiate the effects of other substances and increase the risk of an overdose.
Some people hope to skip the hassle of making powder from Suboxone strips, and they buy powder from dealers who tell them that it is Suboxone [6]. This is incredibly dangerous because, as explained above, Suboxone is hard to obtain in powder form, which means that the powder may not actually be Suboxone, but potentially something more dangerous like oxycodone, heroin or fentanyl.
Drugs made for digestion aren't designed to touch your nasal passages. Snorting drugs can lead to the following:[7]
If you have a prescription for Suboxone online and you're tempted to misuse it, stop and talk with your treatment team. You may need a different form of therapy, or you may need a dose adjustment to keep cravings in check.
These cravings are a sign that something about your treatment plan needs adjustment. Recovery is a long-term process, and with the right support, you can keep your opioid use disorder managed.
If you don't have a prescription for Suboxone but you're tempted to misuse it, stop and talk with your doctor. You could benefit from addiction treatment to attain lasting sobriety.
.webp)
Our science-backed approach boasts 95% of patients reporting no withdrawal symptoms at 7 days. We can help you achieve easier days and a happier future.
Get Startedor book an enrollment call
