Alternatives
Insufflation (snorting or sniffing) is usually safer than injection in terms of the relative danger of transmission of blood-borne viruses. However, the membranes in the nose are very delicate and can rupture when snorting so users should have their own snorting equipment not shared with anyone else, to prevent viral transmission. As with injection, a clean preparation surface is required to prepare a drug for snorting. Nasal membranes can be seriously damaged from regular snorting.
Drugs can also be smoked or "chased." Smoking and chasing have negligible risk of bacterial or viral transmission and the risk of overdose is lessened compared to injecting, but they still retain much of the 'rush' of injecting as the effects of the drug occur very rapidly. Chasing is a far safer way to use heroin than injecting, with the best option being to use new aluminum foil, first passing a cigarette lighter flame over both sides to help sterilize it.
Swallowing tends to be the safest and slowest method of ingesting drugs. It is safer as the body has a much greater chance to filter out impurities. As the drug comes on slower, the effect tends to last longer as well, making it a favorite technique on the dance scene for speed and ecstasy. People rarely take heroin orally, as it is converted to morphine in the stomach and its potency is reduced by more than 65% in the process. However, it is well known that oral bioavailability of opioids is heavily dependent on the substance, dose, and patient in ways that are not yet understood. Pills like benzodiazepines are best swallowed as they have talc or wax fillers in them. These fillers won't irritate the stomach, but pose serious health risk for veins or nasal membranes.
Shebanging involves spraying the dissolved drug into the nose to be absorbed by the nasal membrane.
Plugging, or rectal ingestion, relies on the many veins in the anal passage passing the drug into the blood stream quite rapidly. Some users find that trading off some of the 'rush' for fewer health risks is a good compromise. Shafting usually involves about 1.5 ml of fluid mixed with the drug.
Women have the added option of shelving, where drugs can be inserted in the vagina. This is similar to the rectum, in that there are many blood vessels behind a very thin wall of cells, so the drug passes into the bloodstream very quickly. Care should be taken with drugs such as amphetamine that may irritate the sensitive lining of the rectum and vagina.
Substances below a certain molecular weight can be absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream when dissolved in the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) which is available as liquid or gel; there therefore exists the possibility of creating a topical concoction with medical-grade DMSO and a given drug which will solve the first pass and GI tract destruction problems in addition to faster onset of effects.
Read more about this topic: Drug Injection
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