Drugs - Without the Hot Air: Minimising the Harms of Legal and Illegal Drugs by David Nutt

Author:David Nutt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781906860400
Publisher: UIT Cambridge
Published: 2012-08-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chewing is the slowest route into the brain, with levels of the drug generally peaking 1–2 hours after chewing begins. Regular chewers of drugs such as khat, coca leaves and nicotine gum, can develop tooth, gum and jaw problems.

Drinking and eating. The drug generally takes effect after about 30 minutes. Sometimes this delay means that users find it hard to judge when they’ve had enough, increasing the risk of overdose. This is why people taking strong alcoholic drinks can get extremely drunk so easily.

Rubbing onto membranes such as gums, eyelids and genitals, is effective in 15–30 minutes. This can cause infections and necrosis. When stimulants are frequently rubbed into gums, the teeth can start to fall out as their blood supply is cut off.

Snorting hits the brain in 3 to 5 minutes. Compulsive snorters of drugs like cocaine can seriously damage their noses, getting nasal ulcers or perforating their septums.

Shooting or injecting can be done into veins (which hits the brain in 10–20 seconds) or into muscle (3–5 minutes). It is associated with a range of related harms, such as skin and other bacterial infections, viruses such as hepatitis and HIV, and also thrombosis and the risk of sudden death.

Smoking is another very quick route, hitting the brain in 10–20 seconds. Tobacco smoke is carcinogenic and smoking of all kinds can cause respiratory problems such as asthma and emphysema.

Inhaling is the route of use for gases such as butane and liquid solvents, which reach the brain within seconds, and the heart even faster than that. Inhalants can cause sudden heart and breathing failure and death.

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