After the “Orange Is the New Black” coffee snorting stunt became famous, people have started snorting coffee. The scene shows two of the inmates are put on watch duty during the night and resort to snorting coffee grounds because they want to stay awake all night. This led to people, particularly teenagers and young adults, being curious about what happens if you snort coffee and what the effects of snorting coffee might be. 

When done correctly, snorting, also known as insufflation, allows users more accessible access to highs since it opens the nasal airway directly to the brain. Snorting drugs is popular among drug users because it provides the fastest high, as the drug enters the bloodstream quickly and begins to take effect.

This is effective for drugs such as pure cocaine and ketamine because the chemicals will pass via the nostrils, past the mucus membranes, and into the circulation; after that, they will begin to act on the brain receptors and cause the brain to experience a psychoactive effect.

Is it the same thing when insufflating caffeine powder? Do you get high?

Due to the fact that caffeine is technically a drug, it will cross your blood-brain barrier and link to brain receptors in the same way cocaine would. It’s a dangerous drug to have in your possession. Yes, it might give you a boost of energy, but sometimes that comes at a price.

However, whether or not you experience euphoria is dependent on how you define it. If you’re hoping for euphoric feelings, inhaling coffee grinds isn’t going to give you what you want. In addition, you will not be intoxicated.

Instead, the caffeine in the coffee grounds will give you a boost of energy. On the other hand, caffeine is most effective when it is leached through the water rather than snorted. Currently, snorting is paired with the pungent aroma of the coffee, and the caffeine content of coffee is credited with providing a lift in many cases.

Despite this, very little research has been done on the health benefits of coffee aroma. Because coffee grounds aren’t pure, inhaling them can have serious consequences. We prepare coffee using water rather than eat or snort it because water best extracts the caffeine from coffee.

Advantages of Snorting Coffee Grounds

Caffeine can leak out of insufflated ground coffee and enter the bloodstream if it lingers in the nasal cavity long enough. Some might try to blow the particles out right away because the particles hurt so much but won’t disintegrate.

While this does work, it isn’t the most efficient method of getting your coffee dose. A caffeine-filled cup of coffee might take hours to filter even when no heat is used. This is the case with the cold-brew method of making coffee. This is because the conventional way of extracting caffeine from coffee necessitates high temperatures and time.

Ingesting pure caffeine can indeed give you a boost of energy, but doing so is extremely risky. As a highly psychoactive substance, caffeine has the ability to cause death in humans at doses as low as 5-10 grams, making it an amount far more convenient to inhale than swallow.

Disadvantages of Snorting Coffee Grounds

In addition to the fact that inhaling coffee grounds does not provide the same level of energy as drinking coffee would, there are numerous additional compelling arguments against snorting coffee. Let’s take a look

1. Incredibly Painful:

This may be one of those situations where the pain outweighs the benefit. Coffee grounds cannot cross the blood-brain barrier if they do not pass via your nasal route. This means that the caffeine will have no impact on you. After that, all you’ll have is a nose blockage for the remainder of the week.

2. Stomach Issues:

Consider yourself misled if you assumed your discomfort and anguish were confined to the area around your nose. If you inhale coffee grounds, your stomach will be enraged. For starters, there will be all of the regular trips to the bathroom to defecate. Next comes the vomiting.

3. Blocked Nasal Passageways:

The particles might become lodged in your nasal airways and obstruct your breathing. This occurs due to the size of the coffee grounds being so enormous in most cases. That is, if you compare it to other compounds, you could insufflate.

A micron is a millionth of a meter; thus, 400 microns is a reasonable estimate. Cocaine has a diameter of 1 micron, which is 400 times larger than coffee grinds.

It doesn’t matter how finely ground your coffee is if it still gets stuck in your nasal passages. This may be a factor in the stinging and burning you’re experiencing.

The preceding symptoms and an increase in body temperature, wheezing, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, muscle aches, and headaches can be caused by this condition.

Conclusion

Snorting coffee grinds will give you a fast high with some serious repercussions, but other than that, there aren’t any advantages. In our opinion, you’re better off drinking coffee instead of snorting it unless you want to wind up vomiting repeatedly.

Rather than inhaling coffee grounds, try caffeinated toothpaste, chewing gum, or a caffeinated beverage for some added oomph. Drinking coffee is still the best way to obtain your daily dose of caffeine. But make sure you know how much caffeine you’re ingesting each day, as too much can damage your kidneys or cause heart failure.