I was just reading an interesting thread where someone mentioned adverse effects from vaping dmt 6 times a day, every day.

Well its no wonder you'd think to yourself.

Before i read that i was thinking, just how potentially harmful it could be, from what I've read i gather snorting freebase wouldn't be too dissimilar to snorting a flame, so it must be quite damaging.

So what effect would even perfectly vaped cool vapour have on the lungs? Surely it must have a very similar effect, I'm guessing the reason we don't feel any discomfort is because we don't have a concentrated dose hitting the back of our throats all at once.

Would the effect be cumulative? Do the lungs recover from from the minor damage?

Surely vaped dmt would be less damaging than tobacco, but then the effects reported by the 6 times a day bloke would suggest its far more damaging than tobacco, since a lot of people smoke a lot more than 6 cigarettes a day without having such effects short term.

As people have mentioned they never believed it was perfectly safe in the first place, but are we underestimating how damaging it can truly be, i don't think anyone has been smoking/vaping dmt long enough for us to have any idea if 20-30 years down the line our lungs could be knackered.

The only other freebase product people smoke i can think of would be crack, but since that would very rarely be pure we cant be sure if the damage caused by the drug, or the additives, although its likely both.

I'm going to be going down the IM route eventually which if done properly is probably safer, but unfortunately it can't replace vaped DMT for convenience and intensity. IM will remain like oral DMT, a special treat for when we have the spare time for it.

Will be interesting to hear what you all have to add.

Mullein is medicinal for the lungs . It's a documented thing . It's totally natural and
Very available almost anywhere . Don't leave home without it
Always included with vaped spice . Curious to see the long term .

It's hard to say anything simply because one person was using it daily six times with adverse effects. There are many factors, such as solvent traces, temperature, DMT purity, etc.

Personally my body feels if something is bad for me, for example if I compare between nice and smooth DMT vapor and cannabis or tobacco smoke.

But I am quite sure it's bad for you if you vaporize it at too high temperature(which is easy to do with many vaporization methods), it's easy to tell from the taste and harshness.

My lungs love it when it's properly vaped

If it would be as bad as tobacco smoke(which I highly doubt), it would be well worth it, especially when it's not used so often.

I'm not worried in the least bit.

Well I suppose one wouldn't/shouldn't use any sort of drugs if he/she had issues with its healthy concerns. If you want to feel well, simply devoid from any use of drugs.

I prefer DMT above all other drugs because of its minor side effects since I live a physically (and mentally ofc ) very active lifestyle.

With cannabis I felt the exact same thing though, until I got bronchitis as a result of a heavy and daily use of smoking it.

This made it clear to me that my habit had gone from greater appetite and better&longer sleep to just wreck my lungs completely which did NOT comply with my choice of lifestyle, so I abruplty stopped using and now, only on rare occasions just as with alcohol do I use cannabis.

DMT CAN however be really bad to your lungs if you're administering it poorly ie burning it, bad apparatus, poor product quality etc, with the latter it may even be extremely dangerous to ingest, regardless of method.

With a clean product however, and a good technique & apparatus I notice no (physical) adverse-effects at all. Sure if I'd go on a high dose 3 day binge I'd perhaps end up with some temporarily weak or permanently damaged lungs but I'd also deserve it for abusing this magical spice

Whenever I manage to perfectly vaporize the spice I barely feel anything entering my lungs, it's quite similar to thin air or Nitrous oxide.

As with everything else, moderation should be exercised.

simple...eat DMT instead of inhaling it.

I'm not going to let anything put me off, but i can't help but wonder.

Once i finalise my next smoking device and get one hit experiences i don't see myself needing to do it more than twice a week so that should minimise any risk.

Since i'm running an inspirator without the ceramic i've overheated it a couple of times, but in most cases i don't even feel the vapour.

I suppose its quite likely someone used to the harsh smoke of tobacco and herb could still overheat the DMT and consider it relatively smooth in comparison, explaining the unpleasant effects reported in the mentioned thread.

Although i don't doubt it having some sort of negative effect on the lungs regardless of how its vapourised.

i dont know about the dmt freebase ,but at least smoking crack cocaine (which is admittedly something else)
seems to have a pretty negative inpact on the respratory health http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/37/3/324.full

Thanks for that, this was the kind of thing i was hoping to find. It is indeed a different substance but i would imagine freebase cocaine and dmt vapours to have a similar effect on the lung tissue.


There's no way to know if the lower doses and less frequency of DMT use minimises the risk, or just delays the onset of symptoms.

it seems (to me at least) dmt vapour is likely a lot harder on us than our bodies let on.

Not everybody wants to be under the infuluence for several hours.

Comparing DMTs respiratory effects to crack cocaine seems absurd without any factual base for it.

I dont think its absurd, although there's a space in my scientific knowledge making it hard to explain why exactly.

I would assume the damaging effects of crack are due the direct action of the vapour on the tissue, DMT is known to have an apparent caustic effect when snorting, i'm guessing its the same deal with crack, they're both free base alkaloids, to me it just seems very likely the damaging effect would be similar due to the chemical properties that are not concerned with the action on the brain/nervous system.

I'd be quite happy to be 100% wrong, but that's my attempt of explaining my concern.

We can speculate all we want, but we need some facts

we do indeed, unfortunately we wont be getting them any time soon

SWIM thoughts / ideas are.... (but he's not a biochemist)

It seems human lungs contain trace amounts of DMT transferase, producing small
amounts of DMT as a regular part of our physiology - thus the cells would be
quite used to exposure to DMT, albeit in far lower concentrations.

SWIM is guessing that this is unlike the situation with crack cocaine or most commercial tobacco alkaloids - in that they are not endogenous to humans, and therefore tend to
cause more biochemical chaos for lung tissue.

That said, it seems likely that smoked freebase could act as a strong free-radical
- damaging aveoli in the lung and leading to nasty diseases like COPD / emphysema.
Megadoses of anti-oxidants like C and E might be a wise precaution?

SWIM thinks most of the lung damage from smoking DMT would come from the
carrier herbs, and personally finds the carbon yuck from plant material
as the likely suspect for much of the discomfort when smoking.

SWIM has found that pure spice - the lungs seem to like it,
apart from the temporary bronchconstriction from spice stimulating the
brochi smooth muscle tissue - it makes SWIM a bit wheezy for a while.

SWIM has also found that spice seems to stimulate the flaggellum (?) in the throat
/ main brochi - such that smoke particules / gunk on the lungs are cleared
more quickly than normal. This effect occurs in the nose too, and spice
seems to promote booger production - particularly if your nasal passage is
full of dirty smoke particles...

SWIM suggests this might promote lung health long term - by stimulating natural
lung defences and clearing / eliminating the build up of smog / phlem.

Finally - while in the spice world - SWIM has asked this question - about damage
to lungs from smoking, and felt / recieved the idea that it's not the spice that
does the damage, but and the secret is to find a better method of administration,

SWIM's crazy idea - which he lacks the tech to build (yet...) is
a rather small glass chamber, thin walled, a centimeter or so long,
inside a larger air flow tube - not unlike an asthma spacer device.
The heat should come via electrical coil / element to maximise
temperature control and other flame oxidative nasties....

SWIM's dream goes on - lovely spice boils off the chamber, and out a
tiny hole in the top - like a venturi flow device,
such that the spice is instantly cooled / powderised by the air flow.
The result is a maximum dose of cold spice dust gets to the neurons without being
oxidised first...

Nice dream, SWIM will post if he wakes up to find it is real...

I tend to believe our bodies would tell us if we were doing serious damage. I've had a long time to think and be concerned about my lungs, since I've been a daily stoner for over 15 years. I gradually adjusted my habit so I went from massive bong hits every day, to various vaporizers, to eventually just eating it and only vaping occasionally. I knew I wasn't going to quit, so I tried to just practice as much harm reduction as I could.

I haven't smoked enough DMT to really compare, but the quantity of smoke seems to be much less. I mean, you can smoke weed all day, but not DMT.

If you're worried about it, I recommend a brand of tea called "Yogi Tea". They make one called "Breathe Deep" which has mullein, licorice, and a bunch of other things which are good for your lungs. When you drink it, you can kind of feel your lungs start to get slightly mucous-y and expel stuff.

Also, I agree with wingchun that if DMT is present in our lungs, it's reasonable to assume that our bodies can deal with it.

Obviously the most important factor for the smoke/vapor quality is the vaporization temperature and purity of spice(solvent traces, plant oils etc.). I can imagine that with too much heat applied I wouldn't even use DMT at all as I really do care about my lungs.