Well, obviously. Injection has nothing to do with the lungs. But the reality is that the potential harms of injection vastly outweigh the harms of inhalation. Yes, a smokers cough sucks. A fatal overdose, HIV, HCV, Blood poisoning, endocarditis, they suck more.
Are you serious? Injection has EVERYTHING to do with the lungs!!!
Just like you mention endocarditis, injection of pills is bad because bacteria and binders/fillers and inactive ingredients get into the circulatory system. Correct?
Well, the lungs are part of the circulatory system as well. The way oxygen enters your body is by passing the membrane of alveoli in the lungs, into capillaries, through the circulatory system and eventually are distributed to cells. Well, they have many MANY of these capillaries that are so small that they love to trap all the particles that are injected into the body. Inactive ingredients such as microcrystalline cellulose and talc get stuck and build up in the lungs over time.
This causes many problems and can lead to a lung transplant, among other things. So it affects the lungs just like it can affect the heart.
SMOKING pills destroys the lungs also obviously. It is not like smoking weed or heroin. Inhaling the wax, binders/fillers and so on is HORRIBLE for the lungs. It WILL eventually destroy them just like injection. Just as the stuff in pills is very harmful to inject, they are the kinds of things you DON'T want to be smoking.
And plus heating the pills destroys the oxycodone or whatever they are smoking in the process. It's a waste. Have them snort or plug it! Those routes of administration will yield a much higher BA and get them much higher.
Yes injection leads to HIV, Hep C, etc., so you should advice against injection. However, you should supply clean needles and at least ADVISE to buy micron filters, even if you cant afford them. Warn them of the risks.
But again, don't tell them to smoke pills. Tell them to plug it, most opiates get you very high this way. Or simply advise insufflation.
EDIT: Haha the post above by belarki is primarily the same as my post, oh well.