I was wondering if anyone knew why TV and film characters rub a bit of coke on their gums when they finish a line of cocaine. I am fairly certain that cocaine on the gums would likely make a somewhat pleasant tingling sensation, but that’s about it. Any hard-drug experienced member of the teeming millions willing to spill the beans?
Maybe they had a toothache. Cocaine was widely used as a local anesthetic in dentistry before Novocaine became availible.
tingly and numbing, indeed.
What else are you going to do with those little unsnortable smears on the mirror? Wash them down the sink?
You pay that much for a drug, you want to get much of it into your system as possible. Rubbing on your gums is just another way to get it into your bloodstream.
In Aleister Crowley’s 1922 novel Diary of a Drug Fiend, Sir Peter Pendragon poured his cocaine directly onto his tongue when he was flying his open-cockpit aeroplane, because he couldn’t snort it in the high wind.
'Zackly
Back in ‘those’ days, we also used to do what we called a “deep freeze”. Mix baking soda in warm water, swish it in your mouth for a little while (this supposedly opens up all your pores??) , then take a line and distribute it all over your gums, underside of your tongue, and the roof of your mouth.
Your whole face, head and neck would go numb for about 20 minutes. Cool feeling.
Cocaine is/was a tremendously expensive drug. After paying $100 a gram for something you’re damn well going to get every last particle into yourself one way or the other. So you rub the detritus from the mirror onto your gums.
I did have a friend (really) who would take a
small(dime-sized) piece of bread and wipe the
remains up and eat it.
I’ve also seen people lick the mirror, but
I think most people would rather not have
to clean the spit/coke mess up.
And Mendel, if you think the gum-rubbing
thing is odd, you’ll never believe where
else it gets applied. 
Please do not turn this into a “what are all the cool ways to take drugs” thread. The OP got his/her answer, and I’d just as soon this thread sink to the depths of the GQ pages, another example of ignorance fought and defeated.