I have always wondered, to those that snort drugs (cocaine, tobacco, ketamine, whatever else) how do they keep doing it without it building up in the lungs?
Does it just keep building up in the lungs until you can’t breathe anymore? Do the lungs just fill up with powder? If so, wouldn’t you only be able to use the drug so many times before you literally suffocate?
Thanks to you all in advance, really baffled on this one 🙂
Edit: Answered, thank you to all that contributed!
In: 5
The point of snorting drugs is to get most inside of your nose, not lungs. However, for whatever gets in your lungs, your lungs are always cleaning themselves. They can generally get small stuff out without problem, unless you are putting things in faster than they can remove them in eg. smoking.
Those substances don‘t end up in people‘s lungs, otherwise they‘d get pretty severe coughing fits every time. They stay in the nasal cavity where they‘re (partially) absorbed by the mucous membrane – that‘s how the relevant chemicals end up in the bloodstream. If there’s residue, it becomes part of the mucus and either ends up in the stomach by swallowing or in a tissue the next time they blow their nose.
When one snorts an illegal substance, the thinner membranes in your nasal passage allows the drugs a quicker entry to your bloodstream.
As I understand it, the drugs don’t end up in your lungs,.as the body’s natural response would cause coughing
People snort drugs which are water soluble. So these drugs dissolve in the moisture in the nose, which is then absorbed into the capillaries in nose.
So it’s hard for anything to make it to the lunges. If somehow you managed to snort drugs soo hard they made it to the lunges, they would just dissolve and get absorbed into your blood stream.
Same way your lungs don’t fill up with any random dust and phlegm. The mucus membranes that cover the inside of of your bronchi are covered with cilia, hairlike projections that constantly waft back and forth and push all the gunk uphill for you to either swallow or spit out.
Because you have a nose and sinuses lined with mucus that are designed to help trap stuff I’m them so it doesn’t get to your lungs. Otherwise every bit of dust, smoke, dirt and other junk would build in your lungs. But like all things in the body, they aren’t perfect.
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