Increased illegal drug use brings up questions of drug consumption methods

DELMARVA – With illicit drug use on the rise across the country, and right here on Delmarva, this raises the question of how those drugs are being used, and if different methods of consumption could be actually be more addictive.

When using a drug, specifically an illegal drug, even just after a first time use, it can open a door in your brain that you never knew existed and not in a good way.

The drug changes your brain chemistry when experiencing a substance that has never been introduced to the body before, and depending on your genetics or family history for substance abuse, it can turn a brand new experience into a daily and destructive habit.

Medical Professional James Trumble with TidalHealth say, “This daily habit is caused by a chemical change that we are injecting or smoking or using in some fashion.”

This is bringing up questions if certain ways of consuming these drugs are more addictive or not and Trumble says the short answer is no, but it is a little more complicated than that.

“You probably have more of an impact injecting, but believe it or not, inhaling it gets up to the brain faster,” but both injecting and smoking a drug are equally destructive.

He says that these two methods reach the brain faster than any other way.

He says that ingestion of prescription opioids have been a reoccurring problem across Delmarva, but with fentanyl being smoked or injected, the effects are felt almost immediately.

“You are going to have tolerances and withdrawal symptoms that are going to be very different between those two forms.”

“The liver degrades those medications in some fashion, where as if you were injecting or inhaling something the availability is almost immediate.”

Medical professionals say other than fentanyl, cocaine has also been on the rise as well.

Some rural counties on the Eastern Shore have even seen more cases of PCP use in certain communities.