Cocaine and general anasthetic?

Question

a mate of mine is due to go for an operation in 4 days time which will require a general anasthetic. he wants to get some coke tonight, (something which i DO NOT APPROVE OF) and thinks that he'll be fine for his op. i think he's being really stupid. could the drugs still be in his system? will it mix with the anasthetic and kill him? i'm really worried.

Answer 1

Cocaine depletes catecholamines, which makes some of the drugs we use to support blood pressure useless.  It CAN have an effect on his anesthetic, and he CAN have serious problems because of it.

There are other interactions as well.  He needs to tell his anesthesiologist, so that alternate medications can be available, or his risks go WAY up.

Cocaine is among the worst drugs to have in your system with anesthesia.  BIG risk of heart attack and strokes.  I'm particularly concerned with exaggerated hypertensive responses to laryngoscopy.

Bad, bad idea.

Answer 2

It is definitely not a good idea as you do not know what drugs the anaesthetist will use. The chance are he will be fine but is it worth the risk. If he does use it get him to tell the anaesthetist as it is that poor person who will carry the can if anything does happen to your mate!

Answer 3

It won't make a difference. I read a statistic that for the first hour after you do coke, your risk of a heart attack multiplies 8-fold, so if he's having a heart operation, maybe best to shelve the blow. I can hardly talk though ;)

It will be detectable, but they won't be testing for it, nor able to report it.

Answer 4

I don't reckon its a good idea.  If he can't control his desire to get coke in even in the face of a major operation then perhaps he should consider some sort of drugs counselling.

Answer 5

If you think about it logically  they're gonna have to give him more anasthetic to counteract the coke as coke's an amphetamine. The more anasthetic the greater the risk.

Answer 6

Cocaine will be fine with the anaesthetic, unless he has them at the same time in which case the anaesthetic would be less likely to work and he could become consious mid op, which would not be nice. 4 days will definately be fine though.

Cocaine won't mix with the anaesthetic and kill him, but it might mix with some c**p that's mixed in with it and kill him, or kill him on it's own if he's silly with it.

Answer 7

it wont kill him, but it will still be detectible in his blood

Answer 8

If he does do it (bc we all know that if he wants to he will) tell him to make certain his docs know about it.  They wont send him to jail, but they will be aware of it so that they will know if its still safe or if they would need to make any adjustments.