As you breathe in, you’re sucked into the depths of your unconscious mind — a place where nothing and nobody exists, yet you’re enveloped in pure ecstasy.
As you breathe out, you re-emerge right back where you started.
This is the magic of xenon gas.
My wife used to work in Diagnostic Imaging in a hospital. For people who couldn't tolerate the contrast used in CAT scans, they used an isotope of Xenon to look for pulmonary embolisms. She says she never heard of using Xenon to get high, but then their radioactive Xe was surely too expensive to use in the amount needed for that. I also imagine that, like all radioactive substances, there were strict guidelines in the use, storage, and accountability of the material.
ReplyDeleteXenon gas is probably available from your local welding gas supplier. It is also used as a natural aesthetic, so my guess is it is regulated. It is also very expensive. Since it comes in a metal tank it is very dry you would need a nebulizer.
ReplyDeleteBuy at any local welding gas supplier. Most won't have it in stock (bigger ones who supply universities will) but any can order it for you from Airgas/Matheson/etc. A lecture bottle will have around 25- 50 liters - this is the smallest size you can get, commonly used for chem lectures and demonstrations (duh), or lab use where you don't need a whole lot of something toxic, flammable, or whatever. While there's absolutely no reason the average joe shouldn't buy xenon, chances are that a supplier wouldn't accept the sale unless it was to a company -and probably a technical sounding one at that. For damn sure average joe wouldn't sound like he knew how to handle research gases; any chemist or physicist would, it's a baseline competency.
ReplyDelete"Clinics generally mix their xenon with about 30–40% oxygen to prevent asphyxiation". Probably a good idea to point that out.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the atmosphere only 21% O2 at sea level?
DeleteI was gonna ask if all these amazing psychotropic effects could be explained by a lack of oxygen.
ReplyDeleteXenon in the clinical setting has been used with CT to provide images of cerebral perfusion. That is the amount of oxygen actually getting to brain tissue. When used, it was added at about a 4% concentration. It is as the article correctly pointed out, completely inert. Its effect is entirely the result of oxygen deprivation. That's very dangerous in the brain, and organ with no physiologic reserve. Cut off oxygen and the brain immediately begins dying. Theoretically, the effect should be similar to that of auto-erotic asphyxiation.
ReplyDeleteXenon CT is no longer used as MRI provides much better images of cerebral perfusion without the use of xenon.
Xenon has "neuroprotective" effects. The mere presence of all that inert matter slows down the chemical processes leading to cell death. So, if you have to have brain hypoxia, you're way better off with xenon than without.
DeleteThat said, it's still hypoxia. I'm not all that curious to get high on the stuff. There was a fatal case of helium inhalation in my town in the last few years. A middle-school girl at a party took enough to clobber her respiratory drive, and by the time they figured out she wasn't breathing it was too late.
Xenon and other noble gases are used to make Neon lights. They are called Neon lights but different colors are achieved by various mixtures of noble gases. The old sccool automotive timing lights and disco strobe lights used Xenon tubes.
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