In every year from 1995 to 2005, most Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) admissions for primary heroin addiction injected the drug. However, the proportion of primary heroin admissions who injected the drug declined from 69 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 2005 (despite an 8 percent increase in the number of such admissions over this time period). Although inhalation has remained the second most frequent route of administration, the proportion of primary heroin admissions who inhaled the drug increased from 27 percent in 1995 to 33 percent in 2005.

What makes cocaine freebasing particularly dangerous is that users typically do not wait that long for their next hit and will continue to smoke cocaine freebase until none is left.

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.

According to 2005 DEA statistics, New York state, with a population exceeding 19,000,000, had 35 Meth Lab Incidents. North Dakota, population 636,677 had 159 for the same year, Nebraska had 224 and Iowa had 753!