Recreational use of nicotine patches?

June 2, 2006 4:44 PM

Do "the kids these days actually "do" the nicotine patch to get high?

While purchasing nicotine patches last night, I was asked for my ID by the pharmacist (which is funny in and of itself because I'm in my mid-30's).

When I asked why she was carding me, she told me that "you have to be 18."

I suggested that was unfortunate for kids who were trying to quit smoking, and she retorted that "the kids these days just do the patch to, you know, get high."

Really? Is this true? Does anyone ACTUALLY "do" the patch to get high? Anyone have any evidence (anedotal or otherwise) that this is an actual practice? 'Cause I gotta say that this woman didn't particularly strike me as someone who has her finger on the pulse of today's youth, if you know what I mean.

And i think you do.

posted by dersins to Society & Culture (24 answers total)

hm, smells like crap to me, especially coming from some hag. Patches are slower and more expensive than smokes. I can't imagine that being a turn-on to high-hungry kids.
posted by puke & cry at 4:56 PM on June 2, 2006

I'm going to call in Occam's razor on this one. There's evidence that 'the kids' have drifted towards smokeless tobacco: cheaper, cherry-flavoured, bigger instant buzz, and easier to conceal. Expensive patches that you have to get from behind the counter? Nah.
posted by holgate at 5:03 PM on June 2, 2006

I never copped a buzz when I was on the patch. I second puke & cry's assesment.
posted by lekvar at 5:03 PM on June 2, 2006

Patches are slower

Yeah, way slower. Maybe if you covered your whole body inch for inch. But that would be its own kind of addictive behavior.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:03 PM on June 2, 2006

The clerk is almost certainly co(r)nfused. There's significant documentation on the abuse of Fentanyl patches, and she's probably confusing the two.

Fentanyl == high-powered opiod analgesic.
Nicotine == not.
posted by scrump at 5:25 PM on June 2, 2006

Nicotine patches probably wouldn't be worth it, they cost plenty and you have to wait around for an hour to basically...not feel like smoking...maybe.
posted by iamabot at 5:34 PM on June 2, 2006

Yeah, I agree with everyone here. There are cheaper and much more effective ways to get high. Not a chance are kids doing this. It's probably just a side effect of a legislative-happy state.
posted by crypticgeek at 5:42 PM on June 2, 2006

I remember catching a negligible buzz off a plastic nicotine inhaler back in the day at the urging of one of my school chums, so I guess it's possible. There is a slight rush to be had with any nicotinic vehicle but the patch seems like a particularly bad match for the job.

Cough syrup, on the other hand...

RIP DJ Screw.
posted by moift at 5:51 PM on June 2, 2006

I've never heard of young people "using" nicotine patches. I have, however, seen a young person who thought he was really cool to "smoke" his nicotine inhaler in class. gross.

There was also that scene in...was it Bounce? Gwynnith Paltrow is addicted to the patch and is smoking to try to get off it. That's fiction, though, and she's not a kid.

But it still makes sense that minors shouldn't be able to buy patches over the counter if they can't buy ciggies. I guess.
posted by lampoil at 6:05 PM on June 2, 2006

Man, when I was a teenager in the midwest, we would do ANYTHING to get high.... But we never did that.

It seems like everybody had an older sibling, friend, or sympathetic parent to buy smokes for them. Of course, tobacco has become more taboo now, so who knows?
posted by Afroblanco at 6:47 PM on June 2, 2006

I bet is has to do with nicotine being a controlled substance.
posted by sideshow at 6:54 PM on June 2, 2006

No. There's no way this is correct.

I've used the patch before. It doesn't get you "high" or "buzzed."
posted by bshort at 7:00 PM on June 2, 2006

The closest I came to any sort of "high" while on the patch was that I had really, really, really freaky dreams. But that's about it.
posted by Lucinda at 7:29 PM on June 2, 2006

Actually, yeah, I had the super vivid, very active dream thing, too.
posted by bshort at 10:19 PM on June 2, 2006

Ditto the dream thing. Wow. I would actually recommend that part of it to anyone.

I woke up laughing, crying, had the only sexual dreams of my whole life. Truly amazing stuff.
posted by Cycloptichorn at 10:33 PM on June 2, 2006

Slight derail, but I've noticed clerks have gotten card-happy over the last two years. Carded for:

Krazy Glue
Compressed Gas Duster
Starbucks Doubleshot

I attribute it to those edgy exposés aired when the 6 o'clock news doesn't have a car chase or a celebrity scandal to kill time with.
posted by evil holiday magic at 2:10 AM on June 3, 2006

I've still never been hassled about occasional 100-up buys of whipped-cream bulbs. I think clerks should be better educated.
posted by flabdablet at 6:21 AM on June 3, 2006

Starbucks Doubleshot

Really?
posted by reverendX at 7:28 AM on June 3, 2006

Yeah I've used the patch and I don't see how it could possibly get anyone high... it basically just staves off the time you feel like killing other people for a smoke by an hour or two.

And yeah, the dreams are super freaky, even when you take the patch off before going to bed.
posted by falconred at 8:13 AM on June 3, 2006

Well, the clerk might have just made up bullshit to get you out the door. The fines when I worked tobacco were a MINIMUM $1,000 to a MAXIMUM $100,000. At $7.75 an hour, that's a minimum 160 hours of "community service", after taxes. I was carding anyone who looked under 35 'cause that crappy job wasn't worth any level of fines.
posted by shepd at 8:22 AM on June 3, 2006

I don't know if people use the patch to get high (and yes- there are MANY cheaper ways!) but I recall reading something a while back about a woman whose boyfriend was using the patch to quit smoking, and he dropped his patch before sticking it on, and it fell on her arm (I have trouble picturing the logistics, but whatever) and she became addicted to the nicotine patch.
posted by elisabeth r at 8:35 AM on June 3, 2006

I suggest that any sociological pronouncement that includes the phrase "the kids these days" is less than 100% reliable. If the pharmacist were not so pressed for time, she would have used the fuller version of this description, i.e., "the kids these days with their loud music and their baggy pants and their MTV."
posted by La Cieca at 9:09 AM on June 3, 2006

In boarding school, about ten years ago, I did try a nicotine patch to help me with an all-nighter. I didn't normally smoke, but one of my friends was addicted enough that the patch was a reasonable alternative in the event that he didn't have the opportunity to smoke in secret, get the smell off of him, etc.

The stimulant property of the tobacco did keep me awake, but didn't help me focus (as would caffeine), and also made me feel queasy in the same way that too many cigarettes would do.

So there's some personal anecdotal evidence that some teens use the patch both as an independent stimulant and as an alternative to smoking.
posted by xueexueg at 1:43 PM on June 3, 2006

Actually you can
smoke the patch and get high:
"http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/21/patches-prison-0604-21.html">
posted by miles1972 at 9:44 PM on June 3, 2006