Culture and substance abuse

Although inhaling is commonly thought of as a novel form of drug use, it has been customary for centuries with finely ground tobacco or with a wide variety of hallucinogenic powdered plant derivatives in tropical South America (de Rios). Nose pipes facilitate snuffing in some cultures, and in others, drugs are blown, by turn, through tubes into the nostrils of companions. Pictorial evidence illustrates the use of enemas as an alternative means of ingesting drugs, especially among a few pre-Columbian Indian populations in Central and South America. In light of the rapidity of absorption from the bowels to the bloodstream, one may wonder why it has been so little used (or at least reported) in recent years. Even within the modern, urban United States, the verbs drink, smoke, and eat have variously been used to characterize variant means of ingesting drugs. Dire predictions about a generation of hopeless "crack babies" have not been confirmed, but differential treatment and punishment of users has resulted in the unjust imprisonment of many more blacks and for longer periods, even though whites are more numerous among drug users.