SMOKING DRUGS
Article from The Truth About Drugs (Narconon history of 1990)
What is new about “crack,” “ice” and “Persian heroin”? To answer this we must look at how drugs are taken into the body. Alcohol and other drugs are injested in several ways. There is drinking or swallowing liquids, powders and pills. There is sniffing powders or vapors, as in the case of glue, paint, paint thinner, gasoline and other industrial poisons. Drugs can be injected under the skin or into veins. Smoking drugs such as tobacco and marijuana has been done for some time. There are even pharmaceutical drugs given as enemas; and some drugs such as LSD can be absorbed through the skin.
The quickest and most dangerous route is injecting a drug in a vein. The results happen within seconds. Once an overdose happens through injection, there is rarely any turning back. The effects of smoking a drug also happens quickly as it bypasses the digestive system and is absorbed into the bloodstream through the tissues of the lungs. “Crack,” “Persian heroin” and “ice” are simply forms of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine that are smoked.
Even though smoking cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines may be considered just another way to take the same drugs, there are some important differences. Cocaine is our best example to use as it is literally found in the oil of the coca leaf. Normally, cocaine is extracted from this oil and chemically turned into a water-soluble powder that can be sniffed/snorted into the nose or injected into a vein. The “free base” or “crack” form of cocaine simply has been returned to an oil form of cocaine that is smoked. “Ice” and “Persian heroin” are methamphetamines chemically produced in an oil form of the drug.
There is now ample evidence that drugs and toxins can and do stay in the body’s fatty tissue for long periods of time. The smoking of the oil forms of these drugs undoubtedly is cause for the concern that more of the drug will remain locked in the fatty tissue. By smoking a drug, you bypass the digestive system and make the breaking down of these drugs more difficult, not to mention any damage that these strong chemicals have on the tender tissues of the lungs. Overdoses have also become more frequent with the smoking of “crack” and “ice.”
Drug smoking, as well as the stronger marijuana available in the ‘90s, are more dangerous. There is no other way to put it.
There is good news. The really good pleasures in life are natural. Anyone can experience pleasures by in vesting in themselves the necessary time, work and effort to set and accomplish their goals in life.
By John Duff
Other Narconon newsletters from the ‘90s: