Heroin users who inject the drug expose themselves to additional risks, including contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C, and other blood-borne viruses. Chronic users who inject heroin also risk scarred or collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and liver and kidney disease.

In more hopeful news, a recent survey of high school juniors and seniors found that 78% felt that heroin was "too great a risk" to try.

Since passage of the 2006 Patriot Act which controls public access to pseudoephedrine, limits quantities, and requires identification to purchase the medicine, the number of homemade meth labs has been reduced significantly. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that 75% of all methamphetamine available in the U.S. today is produced in “super labs” operated by Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

Cocaine is abused using numerous methods. It is snorted, injected swallowed, applied to oral, vaginal, or even rectal mucous membranes and even mixed with liquor. Snorting cocaine is the most common method of administering the drug. When one snorts cocaine they typically place a line of coke, about 0.3 cm wide by 2.5 cm long, on a smooth surface. The finely divided powder is then snorted (inhaled quickly) into a nostril through a plastic or glass straw or a rolled currency bill. This ritual is usually repeated within a few minutes using the other nostril. There are also special spoons and other paraphernalia addicts use for snorting cocaine.