# is it possible to overdose while smoking opium? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111 "2006-02-12T15:03:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/1 "2006-02-12T15:03:27Z")
We all know it’s not possible to overdose on nicotine by smoking cigarettes or THC by smoking marijuana so I was wondering if the same applies to opium? ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/2 "2006-02-12T15:24:19Z")
> [@](#): > > We all know it’s not possible to overdose on nicotine by smoking cigarettes It’s very possible to overdose on nicotine by smoking cigarettes. You’d have to work at it, and repeatedly smoke multiple cigarettes at once, but it can be done. ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/3 "2006-02-12T15:50:06Z")
Considering that it is possible to overdose from Morphine, I would say that is possible to overdose from smoking opium. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/4 "2006-02-12T16:13:52Z")
While rather rare, death from opium smoking has been observed a few times in the literature. I’m sure it was more common back before heroin and IV needles, and probably occurs regularly in cultures where a lot of opium still gets smoked. The mechanism of death is the same as for straightforward ingestion or IV dosing of opiates: Respiratory depression. Take too much opiate in, stop breathing. Things deteriorate from there, frequently. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/5 "2006-02-12T16:34:41Z")
I read an article a few years back (sorry…couldn’t find it on a quick Google) about a guy somewhere in the Far East who, on a bet, smoked like 30 cigarettes at the same time, in a box or something, and died of nicotine poisoning. Rare, but it has happened. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/6 "2006-02-12T20:26:12Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > While rather rare, death from opium smoking has been observed a few times in the literature. I’m sure it was more common back before heroin and IV needles, and probably occurs regularly in cultures where a lot of opium still gets smoked. > > The mechanism of death is the same as for straightforward ingestion or IV dosing of opiates: Respiratory depression. Take too much opiate in, stop breathing. Things deteriorate from there, frequently. **QtM** It would seem that someone would become unconcious or at least too uncoordinated to operate an opium pipe well before they inhaled a lethel amount of opiates. I can’t disagree with your literature but it seems like a terribly unlikely thing to happen without some underlying health problem. Regards Testy ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/7 "2006-02-12T20:41:20Z")
> [@Testy](#): > > **QtM** > It would seem that someone would become unconcious or at least too uncoordinated to operate an opium pipe well before they inhaled a lethel amount of opiates. I can’t disagree with your literature but it seems like a terribly unlikely thing to happen without some underlying health problem. IANAD, but if you ingested the substance in question before it had time to impair you to that extent, you could easily overdose. Like frat boys who die of alcohol poisoning. Sure, if you are drinking beer at a bar, you’d lose the ability to put glass to mouth before you built up a toxic level. But if you are doing 21 shots of Bacardi 151 on your 21st birthday in 21 minutes… ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/8 "2006-02-12T20:53:10Z")
> [@Testy](#): > > **QtM** > It would seem that someone would become unconcious or at least too uncoordinated to operate an opium pipe well before they inhaled a lethel amount of opiates. I can’t disagree with your literature but it seems like a terribly unlikely thing to happen without some underlying health problem. > > Regards > > Testy **Testy** , that’s exactly why it’s rather rare. Which is what I said the frequency of this sort of thing was. Death from shooting up and from ingestion occurs much more readily, as it is all too easy to shoot or swallow the toxic dose. It gets on board before the person loses consciousness, then it makes you pass out, then it suppresses respiration, then you’re dead. Trickier for smoking opium, which has to be taken breath by breath in concentrations usually less than fatal. But if a person is new to the drug and has low body mass, they can occasionally get a fatal dose on board with just a puff or 3. Also, if the person is habituated to the drug, it is on occasion possible to narrow the gap between the dose for loss of consciousness and the dose for loss of respiratory drive. Frankly more people probably die from smoking opium more by passing out and having the house burn down around them than by direct toxicity. But it can and does happen. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/9 "2006-02-12T20:58:52Z")
According to the clientele where I work, it would be very difficult to fatally overdose on smoked opiates alone. The chances of taking a lethal dose before being incapacitated is low. However, your average heroin user, or in this case pipe smoker, will take multiple drugs, depends upon wether the dealer has a basement sale that day,the great danger is that if some of those are in tablet form, the combination may be lethal, however even this is not common. Alchohol also is commonly used, and if the effects of heroin do incapacitate reflex reaction, then choking from the effects of vomiting may occur as there may be no gag reflex to clear the airway. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-overdose-while-smoking-opium/344111/10 "2006-02-12T22:07:16Z")
\*\*QtM]/b] Well, it sounds like an awful way to go regardless of how infrequent it is. Suppressing the breathing or choking reflex just sounds horrible. I’ve seen one guy die from alcohol OD that way. Ugly Thanks and regards Testy