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Jack E. Henningfield, PhD; Edythe D. London, PhD
National Institute on Drug Abuse Baltimore, Md

Neal L. Benowitz, MD
San Francisco (Calif) General Hospital

JAMA. 1990;263(15):2049-2050.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Inhalation can deliver a drug to the brain more rapidly and efficiently than intravenous injection, thereby contributing to the addictive and toxic effects of psychoactive drugs such as nicotine and cocaine.^1-3 Because of the rapid equilibration of drug concentrations between arterial blood and the brain, postinhalation arterial drug levels should better reflect brain concentrations than venous levels, which reflect the average effluent concentrations from all organs. We are not aware of published data from human studies that compare concentrations of addictive drugs measured simultaneously in venous and arterial blood after smoking. An ongoing study of the effects of cocaine on regional cerebral metabolism required insertion of venous and arterial catheters in volunteers and provided an opportunity to measure concentrations of nicotine in arterial and venous blood after smoking a cigarette.

Study.—

Five men, 26 through 39 years of age, who smoked a mean of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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