Vicks Inhaler Meth Recipe

Following administration of 3 ascending dose inhalations, a fourth session was conducted to contrast the effects of a prototypic alpha agonist phenylephrine, (Gensia Sicor Pharmaceuticals, Irvine, CA) with those produced by inhaled methamphetamine and to administer a parenteral dose of l-methamphetamine that would allow determination of absolute bioavailability. A similar phenylephrine challenge procedure has been safely used to measure hemodynamic response in hypertensive patients maintained off all antihypertensive medication for 2 weeks [8]. The phenylephrine response test was performed by giving an intravenous phenylephrine bolus dose of 100 Îg. If the initial dose did not produce a 15 mm rise in systolic blood pressure within 15 minutes, a second 200 Îg dose was given at 30 minutes. Two hours after the last phenylephrine dose, a slow (over 15 minutes) intravenous infusion of 5 mg of l-methamphetamine was administered to establish absolute bioavailability. The l-methamphetamine was prepared from the free base obtained from Sigma (St. Louis, MO) under FDA IND 58,189. We had planned to quantify relative bioavailability by extracting and quantifying the residual l-methamphetamine content from the inhalers. However, the amount of l-methamphetamine in new inhalers was highly variable (between 50 and 75 mg) and, given the small delivered doses, we were not able to obtain sufficiently accurate inhaler weights before and after dosing to allow estimation of delivered doses.

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The small changes seen on most cardiovascular measures appear to be of little clinical significance. Peak increases in systolic blood pressure of approximately 12 mmHg did occur in some cases in the 16 and 32 inhaler condition. In the 64-inhalation condition systolic blood pressure fell, suggesting a biphasic cardiovascular response to l-methamphetamine. Morgan's report (1979) that the cardiovascular system is more affected by l-amphetamine than d-amphetamine may lead one to expect a similar or greater cardiovascular response from the l-methamphetamine contained in the VicksÂ inhaler [13]. However, a 20% fall in mean arterial pressure was seen after 1 mg/kg l-methamphetamine in Sprague-Dawley rats [14]. This was accompanied by a 35% increase in cerebral vascular resistance and a 40% decrease in cerebral blood flow. d-Methamphetamine is usually a potent sympathomimetic alpha agonist and vasoconstrictor where systolic and diastolic blood pressure increase significantly with slight decreases in heart rate consistent with a baroreceptor response [6,15-17]. In contrast, our studies showed that these effects did not occur in response to inhaled or intravenous l-methamphetamine [16].

Recently, we reported on isomeric differences between d- and l methamphetamine in humans [16]. d-Methamphetamine produces larger and more sustained cardiovascular and subjective effects than identical doses (0.5 mg/kg and 0.25 kg/kg i.v. over 1 minute) of l-methamphetamine, suggesting that the enantiomers act through different pharmacologic mechanisms. In this study, intranasal l-methamphetamine generally did not produce clinically significant cardiovascular effects. Small increases in visual analog ratings of "Any Drug Effect" indicate that subjects perceived effects and small increases in "Bad Drug Effect" and "Dizziness" suggest non-drug users do not find inhaling l-methamphetamine pleasurable. The 64-inhalation condition produced a small (change score of 6) increase in "Good Drug Effect" suggesting a low potential for abuse even though occurrences of inhaler abuse is reported in the literature [1,18,19]. Larger doses of intravenous l-methamphetamine are psychoactive and may have some abuse potential in methamphetamine users [16].

Levomethamphetamine[note 1] is the levorotatory (L-enantiomer) form of methamphetamine. Levomethamphetamine is a sympathomimetic vasoconstrictor that is the active ingredient in some over-the-counter (OTC) nasal decongestant inhalers in the United States.[note 2]

And in the past, use of the nasal decongestant Vick's Inhaler led to false positives for amphetamines, according to a 2008 review study. Vick's inhaler contains levomethamphetamine, which is a chemical "mirror image" of methamphetamine, the authors of that review wrote. However, newer drug tests can distinguish between methamphetamine and the chemical in Vick's inhaler, so the cold medication no longer triggers a false positive, the review said.

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