Hello everybody. As of yesterday I am officially now a snuffer: 4 flavors from Toque, thanks to this forum for the suggestion As an ex drug user, I was highly adept at insufflating chemicals to achieve the maximum bio-availability. The technique is simple: Insert a tube as far back into the nasal as comfortable, and snort as hard as possible with your head down. Contrary to popular belief, one does not tilt his head upwards at this point; doing so will cause the “drip” down one’s throat, and all the drip signifies is a significant loss of bio-availability, due to the fact that the chemical is eaten by the stomach rather than absorbed through the nose. After snorting any chemical, it is best to bend over and touch the toes for at least 30 seconds before reverting the head to its normal position. A proper technique will never result in the drip. However, this technique will still “hit the back of the throat” meaning the taste of the chemical is clearly present, but it will not leave a drip down the throat. I was surprised to learn from reading this forum that this is not the goal with snuff. As my understanding goes, the goal is to sniff heavily, rather than snort. I believe I even read that the goal is to get the tobacco into the region where one picks their nose. I understand that blood vessels exist in that part of the nose, but I am under the impression that a radically higher level of absorption exists further up the nose. I read here that snuff is not snorted primarily due to the fact that it is repulsive when hitting the back of the throat. But so are a lot of chemicals. The point (with drugs, at least) is to maximize bio-availability before comfort. Personally, my nose starts bleeding uncontrollably when ever I snort drugs, and I have been happy to see that I have had no bleeding by using the sniff method. I do not want to test it out, simply because my nose can’t hang anymore. TLDR: No drug user sniffs his drugs, because there are more blood vessels in the back of the nose than the front of the nose, and sniffing would lead to less absorption than snorting. Given that there is not a single drug on the planet that is not snorted, why would snuff be the exception? Doesn’t this indicate a failure to achieve maximum bio-availability? Or is the point not to maximize absorption of nicotine, but rather maximze the pleasure? Thank you all for turning me onto snuff. I very much enjoy it.
im new at snuffing too and i was wondering the same thing like the first time i tried snuff i snorted it like it was a line and holly crap nothing ever hurt like that before but using the sniff method makes the whole thing much more pleasurable
I’m new to snuff, but what the hell: originally from Florida and in the mangled words of randy travis “I aint no stranger to the drain” so I’ll take a poke at answering you question from one man’s pov. I want the odor of the tobacco to stay as long as possible so I just sniff it. I’m not just attempting bio-whatever with it. Just letting it linger about while I also get a nice nic hit as a bonus. I occasionally get greedy and knock one way back, but I think most folks are just taking a mellow little whiff and smelling it forca bit.
I’ll take a stab at it, with snuff (as with most other stuff, I reckon) it’s to do whatever provides the best experience. With snuff one usually wants to savor the scent, right? Not to mention the nic absorbsion(sp?). Also snuff is classier than most other stuff that goes into/through the old sniffer.
I venture to guess that although snuff takers appreciate the nicotine, many don’t snuff for the sole intention to get a buzz (whereas drug takers do so for the *high*. But correct me if I’m wrong.) Savoring the scents, improving fine techniques to sniff fine grinds, collecting snuff boxes and tins, sampling different snuff and finding favorite style or brand, the funbof experimenting with mixing snuff to create different flavors–or making one’s own snuff, making boxes, spoons, etc… Many of us treat this as an "artful hobby with nicotine benefits ".
Large doses of nicotine are generally unpleasant. Couple that with burning sinuses and you have got a double dare. You wouldn’t be the first.
I actually enjoy a good nose burn with some watering eyes. I’m not sure that’s the nicotine, however. I try not to accomplish it by horking down rails of scotch when a good pinch will do… Speaking of… (reaches for tin of WE Garrett) 
I am pretty sure the method in which we take snuff would also be the optimum of efficiency for illicit substances also just because how the body absorbs things. But it is so much cooler to suck down huge lines of stuff that cost a lot more than tobacco.
Well, snort a big bump of D white and then you will “Know”!
Snuff is my drug of choice; I will snort it if I want to Dholakia White is the king of the hill, Wille Pete will blow a hole thru the back of your skull.
for one thing snuff is lighter and more powdery. So it requires a more delicate touch. Also in the front of the nose creates more moisture then further back the moisture interacting with the snuff is what leaches the nicotine. It’s like a tobacco leaf snot tea, unlike other things people put in their noses for entertainment which are absorbed diffrentily.
I remember snorting when i first started with snuff… The coughing, the eyes popping out of the head sensation… I guess i never noticed any nicotine hit due to being distracted by the initial fear that my sinuses would blow out of my head. Lol! :D.
I can snuff or snort depending on the snuff and my goal with it. I have found that some snuffs have different scent notes when snorted than when sniffed. Some are better, some are worse, and some I like to get really high up there and then take some to the front of the nose. It can really mix up the scent experience. When I first started trying bumps they set me on fire and it was entirely unpleasant. Now I have the technique down so it settles in a painless way (most of the time) and can be quite wonderful. The drip is WAY worse when you take it way up, which is fine with some brands and gag inducing with others. I like Willie Pete better bumped, HDT is a great combined high and low experience, and I think most Toques are best left in the front of the nose. I think WP is far easier to take in a line than it is any other way. But…it takes practice, just like a good pinch. The first time I tried Quit like that I was praying for death. I would guess that Bohica and Doolali would have grave consequences if bumped. Seriously though, try some HDT just as high as you can get it, and then get some properly in the front of the nose. For me, it brings out the buttery note to a mouth-watering level. That may just be me though.
I haven’t snorted anything else, but I assume one point of difference is that the chemicals one snorts are actually soluble. With snuff, however, the nicotine is absorbed from the finely ground particles of tobacco. The tobacco particles themselves aren’t soluble though so I guess they’re eventually flushed from the sinuses/nostrils in the same way that other particulate matter is. Ie, in the mucus that either comes out as snot or goes down the throat. Anyway, snuff is cheap - there’s no need to maximise your hit. For me as an ex smoker, I just want to emulate the hit I would have got from a cigarette. A couple of snuffs into the nostrils achieves this nicely without having to go any further up the passages. Edit: if you were using a pharmaceutical grade nicotine powder, maybe snorting would be the way to go for a nic hit.
Awesome! Thank you all for your replies. When I think about it, I never hold in the smoke from a cigarette just to increase absorption. I also don’t smoke solely for the nicotine: I enjoy the flavor, the mechanics of the process, the flame, and the manipulation of smoke.
Tradition and history as well, even though you might not think drug taking necessarily has any. It’s common to snort things like MS contin, even though that is a very inefficient way of taking that particular drug - but people do it because that’s how you ‘take drugs’.
@Rake If you were using pharmaceutical grade nicotine powder, you’d be dead. But you are right, its non soluble plant particulate matter we are snuffing, not a chemical refined from plants or minerals.
Oxycodone is paradoxical. It is true that it has a lower bioavailability when snorted than when taken orally, unlike most opiates, but the reason most people snort it rather than pop it is because of the speed at which it crosses the blood brain barrier is so much faster. So there is a loss in bioavailability, but a gain in the quickness of the hit, and that hit, otherwise referred to as the rush by opioid users, is better for them than the loss of bioavailability. No oxycodone user would perceive a better high from popping over snorting, although they are technically getting a better bioavailability through popping. All this goes to say that there is more to drugs than bioavailability! And opioids should always be used intravaneously, nevertheless: 100% bioavailability and a faster rush. Although smoking is actually the fastest rush, 15 seconds compared to 60 seconds for IV, in this case, the bioavailability outweighs the quickness of the hit, the combination of both being a better rush.
This is easy to explain. You don’t need to snort snuff because nicotine is a natural ingredient which is soaked away from the tobacco and into the blood via nasal membranes in the front of the nose. Your body draws most of the nicotine out of the powder while still allowing you to become enveloped with the fragrance. Nicotine can only be felt for a short while and shortly thereafter, the tobacco is discarded. We don’t try to put the entire physical substance of snuff in our blood. Cocaine and other drugs can be felt for much longer and the physical makeup of the substance IS the substance itself. The objective is to absorb ALL of that white powder as possible. We don’t snort nicotine… it’s simply a pleasurable element to snuffing. If they made snuff out of coca leaves, for instance… snorting that would be just as redundant as snorting snuff. Your blood won’t absorb powdered leaf particles, and your sinuses won’t soak up as much nicotine from the tobacco. Even though the entranceis the nostrils, these are two totally different things.
I think that the difference between snorting & snuffing would be analogous to the one between cigarette smoking vs pipe smoking. The firsts goal is a nic rush, flavor is secondary. In the latter ones, the priority scale is the opposite. You get taste in your mouth, and smell in your nose. Your lungs and nasal septum are plentiful of blood vessels, but have neither smell nor taste receptors. I love snuff, and appreciate the flavors as much as the nicotine rush. But if I was only looking for a nic high, I´d better try a more effective method of delivery.