How you take a drug affects how quickly you start to feel it and how strong the effect is. Also, depending on where the drug enters you, it can damage different parts of the body. How a drug is taken can make a difference to how likely you are to get addicted, too. Ways that cause the biggest concentration of the drug in the blood in the shortest time (smoking and injecting) give the fastest, strongest hit and are more likely to cause addiction.
Through the mouth
Drugs can be taken in pills, capsules, liquids or wrapped in paper before swallowing. Cannabis can be baked in cakes then eaten.
A drug will take effect when it reaches the stomach, starts to be digested and then enters the bloodstream. This is the slowest way of getting a drug hit (it can take up to an hour). Swallowing (in drinks or food) can mean less control over the amount taken but avoids much of the damage caused by taking a drug in other ways (such as through the nose, lungs, veins, etc). But swallowing drugs could hurt the mouth or throat, e.g. chemical burns caused by drinking badly made GHB.
Some powdered drugs like speed or cocaine can be rubbed into the gums; the drug goes through them and into the blood stream.
Through the nose
A common way of taking a drug is to snort it up a nostril, either directly up the nose from a smooth surface or through a straw, rolled-up banknote or a ‘bullet’ or ‘bumper’ (nasal inhalers used to snort cocaine or ketamine).
The drug enters the bloodstream through the blood vessels that line the inside of the nose and is then taken to the brain. The effect usually kicks in after a minute or so (up to 10 minutes). Snorting gives a quicker, stronger hit than swallowing.
With poppers the fumes are breathed in through the nose.
When snorting drugs skin around the nose or inside it can be damaged, causing bleeding. This makes it possible to spread infections in blood such as hepatitis C if things used for snorting are shared. With heavy use, cocaine can eat away the fleshy bridge of skin between the nostrils (septum).
Through the lungs
A drug can be smoked in a glass pipe that’s heated (e.g., crack cocaine or crystal meth), smoked from a piece of foil, or mixed with tobacco in a cigarette or joint (e.g., ketamine or cannabis).
The drug is in the fumes which go into the lungs. The drug then crosses into blood vessels in the lungs, and once in the bloodstream gets taken to the brain. The hit comes in a few seconds and can give an even faster hit than injecting.
Smoking can damage the mouth (e.g., burns from hot pipes) and also the lungs. Smoking a drug with tobacco risks smoking-related diseases like cancer, heart disease and breathing illnesses.
Through a vein (or muscle)
A drug can be injected if it already comes as a liquid (e.g., ketamine) or if it’s a powder that can be mixed with water. Depending on the drug, it’s injected through a needle into different parts of the body: steroids go into the muscle of the arse (buttock), others drugs need to go into a vein (never an artery). A drug injected into the wrong place can be life-threatening.
As the drug goes directly into the bloodstream and reaches the brain quickly the hit comes within seconds and is stronger than other ways of taking a drug. This means a bigger risk of overdose and getting addicted. Other risks include: collapsed veins, life-threatening blood clots, and bacteria and viruses getting into the body from dirty or shared injecting equipment (needles, syringes, spoons, filters, water, etc). These can include HIV, hepatitis B and C, as well as bacteria that can cause skin infections or life-threatening infections of the blood or heart.
‘Slamming’ is another word for injecting.
Through the arse
A drug can be rubbed or dabbed onto the mucous skin of the arse hole or inside lining of the arse. It’s then absorbed through this lining, gets into the bloodstream and is taken to the brain.
Sometimes a drug in its liquid form (or powder or crushed pills added to water) is put in a syringe with no needle in it, and then inserted through the arsehole to be injected into the inside of the arse.
Rubbing a drug on or into the arse can numb the area or irritate it, causing it to bleed or get inflamed, making it easier for infections to pass in or out of this part of the body.
Because the drug has to be absorbed through the lining of the arse this way of taking a drug isn’t very quick and wastes a fair amount of the substance. Drugs taken anally are absorbed faster than if swallowed and tend to have a stronger effect.
Drugs sometimes taken this way include cocaine, ketamine and crystal meth.
- ‘Dabbing’ means powdered drug is put on a finger which then is put up the arse.
- ‘Stuffing’ means putting powdered drug wrapped in a cigarette paper into the arse or inserting a tablet up the arse.
- ‘Dabbing’ and ‘stuffing’ mean more risk of the drug burning your arse lining because it’s not been dissolved in water – and a damaged lining leaves you more open to infections.
Taking drugs anally is sometimes called a ‘booty bump’ or in Australia ‘shelving’ and in America ‘keistering’ (‘keister’ is US slang for ‘arse’).
