[caddywampus]

I have a family member who came forward to the rest of the family as struggling with a heroin addiction in the beginning of 2021. Since then he has been clean for large stints and has relapsed at least once last September. As his closest loved ones, we are trying as best as we can to support him in his recovery, but this is made difficult by his withdrawal and reluctance to share his struggles. He plays everything off like he’s fine, even when his closest family members know from other sources that it’s not. He’s not the kind of guy to ever ask for help.

Then about a month ago at a family event I saw him come out of the bathroom and walk quickly out out of the house to his car. I went into the bathroom (I had been waiting to use it for at least five minutes) and immediately upon opening the slightly cracked door, before even entering the bathroom, I smelled smoke.

It was ashy, almost cement-ish or dusty smelling.

I immediately grabbed another family member and told him to go smell it. He said it smelled like burning rubber to him.

I also asked another person to smell and she said it was definitely smoke but couldn’t place the scent. All three of us discreetly went and smelled it within a couple of minutes. After that it largely dissipated. He came back inside and continued hanging out with everyone.

None of us have ever smelled this before. It was certainly not typical cigarettes or marijuana — I know those scents well.

None of the other family members know anything about drugs, or have ever been exposed to any other substances, so we didn’t know what the smell could have been.

Two weeks later at my house, the exact same scenario repeated. He came out of the bathroom and moments later from down the hallway near the kitchen I smelled the same smoke. Walking into the bathroom, it was clear he had been smoking something.

A google search made me think it was perhaps crack, based on his behavior and how different it has been from when he was deep in his heroin addiction. However, several surface MDTs have come back negative for anything.

Since then, multiple family members have talked to him and asked him personally how he was doing, or if he was taking any drugs or had relapsed. Each time he said no very straightforwardly. He was very convincing, saying all of that was behind him. He even said that he had no idea what we smelled in the bathroom.

While I wish that this was true, I have my own doubts.

What could he have been smoking in the bathroom?

I know that what I smelled wasn’t just a freshly-flushed dump that someone lit a match for.

[pds]

Smoking heroin on foil….

[donthaveaclue]

Crack smells sweetish to me – almost sickly smelling.

I can see it as having an ashy lingering smell to some people.

[pds]

Or burning H up on a spoon.

I’d say H smells like a cigar kinda after smoked..

Hope this helps..

[caddywampus]

Thank you. I know cigar smoke well, and I’d agree that the bathroom smoke smelled similar. That is probably the closest thing I can think of to what I smelled, though not actually rich enough to be cigar smoke. Plus, he wouldn’t hide a cigar at all.

Heroin is his drug of choice, however the multi drug test we did on the surfaces came up negative for any substances, including heroin. Does anyone know how sensitive those tests actually are?

[pds]

Hey. If he us only using heroin then he can provide a clean urine as little as a few days after use. Methadone and other longer opiates stay in the system way longer. But heroin , days.

Was it a urine test or from the mouth ???

Both test are usually pretty good as it’s what company’s use to test there employee’s.. But can be fiddled using a clean persons wee if the person new about the test before hand and got hold of clean for the day..

If he is using. He will be telling you what ever .. But if he is doing it in your house , you will soon catch him at.

[Author]

Posts