I was doing some research on fentanyl for a friend of mine who ran out of breakthrough meds and was going to chew one of his plastic (non-gel, the kind with the glue on the back side) patches to control BT pain. I discovered this interesting study on dogs showing a marked increase in absorption and bioavailability via the buccal route with an increase in pH in the mouth. Pretty sweet. I'm going to ask him to try this with some baking soda and report back.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7879944
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7879944