Smoking Hard Drugs Is Now Killing Many Users
A sudden shift in drug overdose deaths is tied to smoking meth, fentanyl, more.
By Mark S Gold
Published by Psychology Today on November 1, 2024
Key points
• More people are overdosing from smoked rather than injected drugs.
• Smoking may appear safer than injecting, but drug-death data proves that smoking causes more overdoses.
• Some people are dying from vaping and also snorting drugs.
• Experts agree that crack cocaine smoking is making a comeback.
Most people believe that smoking major drugs like heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, or cocaine is much safer than injecting the drug. After all, there are serious risks of major skin abscesses with injection as well as the risk of contracting infections like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C (and many other infections) when shared needles are used.
