Smoking speed (base) with tobacco will probably cause around 75% of the meth to be destroyed or transformed into other compounds. Some of these are likely to be very toxic. Smoking with grass will produce other compounds in addition to some of these. You certainly do not want to smoke anything cut. Burnt sugar smoke is definitely not good.
Check out
pyrolysis products of smoked methamphetamine at the bottom of my post on this page of:
My nana can't tell an amphetamine from a methamphetamine
Smoking is so effective because the small amount which actually gets through is absorbed super fast and races straight to receptors. As with injecting, 1st pass metabolism in the liver is bypassed, meaning the concentration of a single most active compound remains higher for longer. As vapour inhalation lowers the dose response, it usually means toxicity is also increased. Although a similar thing occurs with mucous membrane absorption, this is slower and much actually ends up in your stomach anyway - subject to 1st pass.
A possible explanation for why the high seems different can be seen by comparing inhalation with the fate of Meth via oral administration. With vapour inhalation, there isn’t 1st pass metabolites to “cloud” the buzz. Many of these first metabolites are active (that’s why meth has such a long active half life) but differ in their additive effects - possibly producing more ephedrine like effects. Some speculation by Shulgin suggested PMA could be a metabolite, particularly with long term users. Shulgin thought that maybe it is PMA in heavy/ long term users that produces psychosis. I don’t know if this was ever proven, although his mechanisms seemed valid. More likely it was disproved, or we’d have heard more about it.
Vapourising speed in a crack pipe will still cause some to decompose and form other compounds. It will also cause the vapour to condensate on the glass pipe. Unless this is cleaned, each successive fill will increase the amount which deposits. As this becomes moist (condensation from heating and cooling) more will accumulate.
To get around this problem with crack, several pipes are often used. As each is used, it is cooled, scraped, placed in soapy hot water (not needed for meth salts), then clean hot water, and dried before re-using while still warm. Pipe cleaners have been said to be a base-head's best friend. Serious users’ conscious of economics may have 4-6 pipes between 2 people, as each must be thoroughly dry before reusing. Straighter pipes are reportedly easier to clean, and gausses are usually used with crack pipes. An “advantage” of smoking a meth salt over an H2O insoluble like crack, is that anything salt contaminated can in theory be used orally if it can’t be retrieved for smoking.
When it comes to measuring various forms of administration against addiction potential, I think simpledimple has the best message. It’s quite reasonable to expect going from snorting to smoking meth would have the same “morish quality” as is usually observed when someone moves on from coke to crack.
[ 13 October 2002: Message edited by: phase_dancer ]
