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Can cocaine be absorbed through the skin?

Are you asking that if you

Are you asking that if you simply touch cocaine will it go into your body? The skin does absorb but I really don't think that just touching cocaine will have a detrimental effect.

Cocaine hydrochloride (the

Cocaine hydrochloride (the white powder that people snort) can be absorbed through a mucous membrane, like in your mouth or nose. It can't be absorbed in any meaningful amount through undamaged skin. If some was absorbed, you'd feel the area go numb, because cocaine is a local anesthetic (in fact it's the original local anesthetic - you feel this in your mouth when you chew the leaves, which you will do if you ever get to visit the Andes). Even in the mouth it's absorbed more easily in the presence of a chemical base, which is why Quechua people at high altitude chew the leaves with a bit of white lime. Freebase cocaine (like crack rocks) is hard to absorb period, which is why people vaporise it in a crack pipe and inhale it into their lungs. You can't absorb much of that through your skin or through a mucous membrane. So no, holding some in your hand won't send you tweaking.

 

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