Smoking: Smoked or Inhaled drugs enter the lungs and are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through tiny vessels lining the air sacs. Smoke is created when a material is vaporized under heat to form a gas. As the gas spreads into the cooler surrounding air, it condenses into microscopic liquid droplets. These droplets catch the light and appear as visible smoke. Because of the very small size of the droplets, much smaller than dust particles, inhaled smoke continues all the way to the lung air sacs, where it comes into contact with the bloodstream and is quickly absorbed. Blood from the lungs continues to the heart and some of it is pumped directly to the brain.
TIME TO BRAIN: 7-10 seconds
Injecting: This is the most direct way to take a drug, but surprisingly not as fast as smoking. There are several methods of using a needle to inject a drug. It may be injected to a vein, into a muscle, or deep into the skin. If the drug is injected into a vein, the blood first returns to the right side of the heart. It then is pumped to the lungs, returned to the left side of the heart, and then pumped into the brain. The other types of injection spread the drug into other tissues. Blood bathing these tissues will eventually pick up the drug, return it to the heart, lungs, and heart again, and then carry it to the brain.
TIME TO BRAIN: 15-30 seconds if injected to a vein
3-5 minutes if injected into muscle or skin
Snorting: Drugs snorted into the nose are absorbed by blood vessels in the mucous membrans of the nasal passages. Although these blood bessels are very close to the brain, the drug-laden blood first returns to the heart, after which some of it is pumped back to reach the brain.
TIME TO BRIAN: 3-5 minutes
Contact: Some drugs can be absorbed directly through the skin, or mucous membranes in the eyes, mouth, vagina, or anus. Some people may take tiny LSD blotters and drop them into the space behind the lower eyelid, where the drug is rapidly absorbed. Liquid LSD can also be dropped into the eye, but this is seldom done.
TIME TO BRAIN: 3-5 minutes
15-30 minutes for skin and other areas
Injesting: A drug that is eaten, drunk, or taken as a pill first passes down the esophagus to the stomach, where it is mixed with gastic fluids. It then moves on to the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the tiny blood vessels lining the walls. Intestinal blood goes to the liver, where the drug may be filtered out or altered. Blood from the liver then reaches the heart and is pumped to the brain. At any step along the way, the drug may be metabolized or degraded, making this method both the safest but also the slowest and least efficient way to take a drug.
TIME TO BRAIN: 20-30 minutes
12-02-2006, 08:52
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