Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

Dick Chambers <richard.chambers7@ntlworld.com> had it:

Inhaling, yes, I should have included that.

As to your other questions, I fear that I have reached the end of my
knowledge, which is purely academic.  I've never even held a
cigarette, so innocent has been my life in this respect.  I once
walked near some people at an open-air concert who were scraping
cannabis resin into fags, but that's as close as I've ever come to
illegal drugs.

Wife was on a teachers' drug awareness course on Monday.  The
instructor asked the class (of Salford teachers) to think back to a
time in their lives ("we've all done it") when they had folded to
peer pressure and taken something they knew they shouldn't.  She had
to make up a story about drinking under age.

The effect they had on me was to make me break into uncontrollable
laughter. That, and make my ears feel red-hot. I don't think I'd even
have *noticed* an orgasm.

It's amyl nitrite, not nitrate, by the way; a distinction which can be
made the excuse for some truly awful puns by those who are that way
inclined.

"Poppers" are so called because the original dosage form of this group of
drugs was small, cotton mesh covered, crushable vials (similar vials are
sometimes used for smelling salts).  This was the "ethical" drug amyl
nitrite (but often called "amyl nitrate"), used for attacks of angina
pectoris.  Amyl nitrite is a powerful vasodilator and produces an intense
flushing sensation. As this drug became more popular with recreational
users, controls on amyl nitrite were tightened and other nitrite compounds
such as butyl nitrite were sold over the counter in very small bottles as
"room odorizers," --- a particularly transparent cover story as the stuff
smelled something like soiled sweat socks, and although in the small bottle,
the substance was not "popped" (in the way the previous forms were crushed),
the name "poppers" stuck.

"Poppers" seemed to be especially popular in discos and were used on the
dance floor, and so forth.  The intense flushing sensation is somewhat
similar to the flush produced by intense orgasm, so some people seemed to
find these drugs aphrodisiacal.  The bottled form was particularly
inconvenient to use during sex (and, in my personal opinion, rather
redundant), but some people did so use them. Males reported having the
sensation of being multi-orgasmic while females sometimes reported the drug
induced orgasms.  (In particular, the pharmaceutical effects of these drugs
would tend to work against producing or maintaining an erection, because
the general vasodilation would divert blood and lower blood pressure,
but in young men this would not be particularly problematic and the erotic
associations of the drugs and the settings in which they were used generally
resulted in the psychological trumping the pharmacological --- a theme
which is often repeated in the literature of recreation drug use.)

All poppers ever did for me was give me a headache, and this was a fairly
common report among people who did not care for them.  Naturally, the drugs
could be dangerous for anyone with a vascular disorder, and the butyl and
related imitations of amyl were not produced with pharmaceutical quality
control and not tested (when "room odorizers" were not per se illegal by
local ordinance, they were sometimes seized for mislabeling, as apparently
manufacturers and distributors often were not entirely sure what was in the
product and formulations changed oftener than labels as particular compounds
were banned and related compounds were substituted).  The flushing (for
which the drugs were used) could lead to a precipitous drop in blood
pressure, producing faintness which could pose a hazard.  All of the
compounds were highly volatile, leading to a number of misadventures of
inflammability (and to economic disadvantages as it was nearly impossible to
reseal once-opened bottles tightly enough to prevent the escape of the
active ingredient).  Finally, there were some reports of people using the
drug while their heads were covered with plastic bags, apparently with the
intention of conserving or concentrating the vapor, who suffered the
predicable effect of lack of oxygen, but whether any of these stories was
true, I do not know.

You are correct about inhalation.  I believe side effects include loss
of brain cells.  I can't answer your other two questions.

--Jeff

You mean gripper-snappers?

Amongst our many names...