Could use some help on various administration routes.

[Humanity]

Not being the experienced user, swim still hasn't the full grasp of different routes of drug administration, thus making reading some trip reports more difficult to understand. What he means is, he understands that sublingual means you pop it under your tongue, rectal administration speaks for itsself and so on.

But is there anyone with a bit of spare time on their hands that would like to make a full detailed list containing different drug administration methods, including hazards, benefits, and as an important point - the required properties a drug must have for the given administration to work (solubility, more common in tryptamine/phenethylamine use and so forth).

After U'ingTFSE, albeit briefly, and also having a look around Erowid, such a handy collection of knowledge was nowhere to be found. But just in case there are no volunteers for this "project", some of my immediate questions include:

How can you tell whether a drug can/can't be administered via smoking?
How can you tell whether a drug can/can't be administered orally (chew and swallow)?

[Fantasian]

W'oK

Here we go, i havnt included some rather wierd ones that you dont really hear of except in a medical context like intra-cranial (into the brain) or intrathecal (into the spine)

In no particular order

Intravenous -
near enough 100% of the drug is straight into the system, this usually involves administering the medication in a liquid form directly into the vein, it is important to note for recreational users that many street drugs are mixed with things that should not be IV'd and particularly something i see on the forum again and again about pills being injected, yes it's possible and yes some will give an effect but the risks are absolutely massive when considering pill binders properties and their likeliness of causing a thrombosis (blod clot). This method of admin is often accompanied by a powerful rushing feeling due to the rapid effects as the user goes from feeling nothing to peaking very rapidly, particularly with that of heroin and cocaine however there are reports of other substances like MDMA, cyclizine and DMT among others to also producing very rushy feelings. The duration of this is usually the least, one will begin to notice a pattern that the most intense peak effects usually leave for a shorter duration.

Intra-muscular injection
Roughly 100% here is absorbed but rather than the instantanious effect of IV drug use it takes between 4-15 minutes to peak in effect. This is often used in hospital for analgesia to avoid giving the pleasurable euphoric rush associated with IV. Ketamine users also often use IM as a route of administration to achieve the revered K-hole.

Subcutanious injection
This is administering the injection into the fatty layer beneath the skin but before the muscle. Sometimes this is misinterpreted as skin popping which it isnt, skin popping normally refers to intradermal which is imbetween the skin layers. This is a very gradual absorbtion but again the full 100% should be absorbed eventually. but this can take 10-20 minutes to take effect.

Smoking -
roughly 80% of the drug is absorbed through the small capilleries lining the lungs, the drug must be in an inhalant form or smokable. What defines on whether the drug can be smoked is it's burning point and the point at which the molicule breaks down, hence why MDMA unless converted to it's freebase form cannot be smoked and the same reason people convert cocaine to crack. This too because of it's rapid effects is commonly associated with a rush of feelings, known particularly well to crack users. The duration here is often a little longer than IV but not much depending on the drug.

Insufflation
Or better known as snorting, this is well known among cocaine users, the drug is absorbed through the nasal mucosa quite rapidly, with effects from 1-10 minutes normally peaking around the 15 minute mark. Often a problem with this is that much of the drug is swallowed through the dripping of the substance down the back of the throat which often leads to some oral absorbtion as well as a nasty taste. It's important to note that most recreational drugs that are snorted are hydrochloride salts and therefore and acid hence why it hurts so much, the user is burning his nose.

Rectal
Or better known as plugging, this means administering either a liquid or tablet sized drug up into the anus and using the very vascular wall to maximise absorbtion, in terms of absorbtion this area is similar to the nose but none is lost down oral and assuming the user does excrete is much of it should be absorbed. It might be worth noting that something which will irritate the nose will equally irritate the wall of the anus, so those people avoiding insufflation because it hurts would be ill advised to use this route. 10-15 minutes for your ass to absorb )

Sublingual
This involves placing the substance in liquid or solid form under the tongue or along the gum line and holding it there, again this is mucus membrane absorbtion and it about 80% but much of the substance no doubt is swallowed and absorbed orally, one problem with this Route of administration is that things tend to taste bad and back to our hydrochloride salt again we're getting ulcers ( 5-10 minutes for effects.

Oral
The good old just swallow it routine, often the safest bet because of the various body systems that clean up what you eat but more on that later. this is only around 40% absorbtion rate but the effects tend to last quite a bit longer, partly because the absorbtion occurs through the whole GI tract but much of it happens in the intestine. Usually takes around 40-70 minutes to take effect.

Transdermal/topical
On the skin or rubbed into the skin, this tends to be reserved for drugs that are extremely potent, LSD and fentanyl both come to mind. ABosrbed through the small amount of capilleries on the skin surface taking 1-2 hours to take effect.

If ive missed anything feel free to remind me and ill add it in )

Now to look at why we use one over another.
Often people like rapid intense effects which is why they go for the more rapid routes, and others prefer a longer duration hence why they go for the slower absorbing routes. Reasons for why to go for one over another really depend on the drug.
THat said it is important to associate the significant risk increase with injecting anything including IV/IM/SC.
Obviously any hole into your body including that directly into your blood system could introduce infection which is something most users dont want. This includes the risk of HIV, hep C among other blood borne infections.
But the main reason people tend to avoid injection as a route of administration is that when things are taken orally several of your bodies mechanisms break down any crap that could be in the drug, things such as first pass metabolism, stomach acid and the such are all skipped out when injected.

One of the problems in what your asking is that the hazards and benefits etc are differant depending on the drug administered for example cocaine IV has differant hazards to ketamine IV. If you want to be more specific ill try to help.

Any further questions feel free to ask

P.S. TO answer your questions

How can you tell whether a drug can/can't be administered via smoking?
TO be perfectly honest you need to know the burning + melting point and the structure of the drug. You cant really just weigh it up by eye. It's also worth being aware that burning some substances will lead to a toxic metabolite so trial and error really isnt the way to go here. Best idea, research it and you'll soon find something if it can be smoked. For example if you look around for people smoking MDMA (in it's common salt form) you cant find virtually any experiences, with such a popular drug this would suggest it cant be done. Knowledge is power.

How can you tell whether a drug can/can't be administered orally (chew and swallow)?
Very few drugs cant be absorbed orally but there are a couple, DMT for one without the use of harmala alkaloids, a simple question on the forum concerning the drug your talking about would point you in the right direction but everything i just said applies again to this question. However your body can tolerate things a little better orally than smoking so toxic metabolites would be less harmful but still it begs the question that if you dont know whether you can swallow something or not should you really be doing it at all. If you dont know whether you can swallow it one would also assume that you dont know the dosage, duration of effect, dangers, after effects. Like i said before knowledge is power.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Fantastic, mate, thanks for taking the time !

[thomasj]

When you mention the different routes a chemical can be metabolized it varies alot on what chemical you are dealing with. For instance, you say IV has more of an absorbtion rate than a suppository... this is not always true take opiates for example easily absorbed both ways but most of the metabolization takes place in the lower intestine so, therefore a suppository would be around 80% of the chemical, bypassing the veins and going straight to the source will in this case yield more.
About pills and the IV route... Most pills have no benefit of IV'ng some people just are addicted to IV'ng and will try to shoot up just about anything. Alprazolam can be insufflated and iv'd but it doesn't even have nearly as much absorbiton as oral. Plus the salt compunds that make up most of the pill's form is not a good idea to IV, a 2mg alprazolam will weigh considerably more because of the other compunds necessary to make it into a pill that will harden in to a form you can take oraly.

Reputation Comments on this post:

bad information and a clear lack of knowledge

[Fantasian]

Originally Posted by thomasj

When you mention the different routes a chemical can be metabolized it varies alot on what chemical you are dealing with. For instance, you say IV has more of an absorbtion rate than a suppository... this is not always true take opiates for example easily absorbed both ways but most of the metabolization takes place in the lower intestine so, therefore a suppository would be around 80% of the chemical, bypassing the veins and going straight to the source will in this case yield more.
.

Bypassing the veins? Going straight to the source? Opiates are a Central nervous system analgesic, they dont work by affecting the single part of the body. In the case of a suppository the drug is absorbed in the mucosal lining of the colon and lower intestine into the Bloodstream and into the Veins. There is no bypassing! please make sure your information is a little more accurate before posting no offence intended.

[thomasj]

none taken. seriously though more of the opiate is absorbed threw the lower intestine than anywhere else so, you wouldn't lose some of the chemical the longer it has to travel in your blood streamm?... thats what I meant. I know your not bypassing entirely, obviously, all routes involve your blood plasma. Im sure you know that since your studying to be a doc.

[Fantasian]

ah i see what you mean, much of the absorbtion of opiates is in the intestine when compared to the entire GI tract, so for example it's significantly more effective than taken orally. I guess i miss interpreted that you were comparing it to IV administration.

[Humanity]

Thanks very much for the long elaborate reply, it was pretty much exactly what I needed!
However, what I was hoping to get a bit more info on was the chemical requirements of a drug nescessary for these administration methods to work/not work. Well yes, you talked about the boiling/melting properties of substances being important for smoking. But what about oral consumption? Does the substance have to, for example, withstand the acidity of our bowels to take effect? How easy is it for our own body to break a compound down before we can metabolize it?

Peace, and thanks again

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good questioning

[Fantasian]

No problem at all im glad to help, i hope the following gives some insight but if you have a particular substance in mind it would be easier to be more specific with the information.

Every administration level has it's differant barriers, im not the most knowledgable in the world about this so if someone wants to step in feel free.

Oral has several barriers to absorbtion, Initially like you already mentioned stomach acid plays a part as much of the absorbtion takes place in the intestine the substance must be able to cope with the very low pH and associated enzymes in the stomach. This is sometimes why medicines are in a tablet form rather than a capsule, tablets tend to stand up to the more rigorous body processes in the stomach.

Mono-amine oxidase also has a significant role here when considering quite a few tryptamines particularly that of DMT, this is the enzyme that specifically breaks down alot of compounds and is the reason harmala alkaloids are used to INHIBIT this enzyme. It's worth being aware however that the inhibition of this enzyme leaves the body very vunrable to toxins and even some regular foods can become quite dangerous as it plays a significant part in toxin breakdown. Some people have toyed with this concept using MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) combined with very low dosages of all sorts of drugs combined with the correct diet to get a significantly longer duration and higher intensity of effects but it's definately not something the beginner or intermidate drug user should attempt and even with advanced more knowledgable users it's ground where one must tread carefully, after all you are playing with your brain....

Other substances can interfere or increase absorbtion with various drugs for example it is well known that caffenee increases absorbtion in the lower gut as well as bicarbonate soda increasing absorbtion in the upper gi tract. Cocaine while absorbed to some degree orally has the problem of vasocontriction along the GI tract leading to stomach aches and a lack of effective absorbtion.

Again depending on the substance in question there are differant limitations, one substances hinderance is another substances cataylist.