It is. But people can adapt. Many people these days grind up their oxy and snort it. Probably not a healthy thing to do in many ways, but still safer than injections. And definitely better than having used needles lying around.

Patches would also be a very viable option. My partner once received a fentanyl patch at the hospital for an injury. She later told me it was an instant trip to a very happy place, and she could understand why some would get addicted to it.

Not sure about the snorting part but for injections, maybe this anecdotal experience might help. I have several friends who use performance enhancing steroids and they say injections are better than the orals because the orals have to go through the liver and kidney etc to get processed which ends up hurting those organs more than injections which directly get in the blood stream. Maybe something similar applies for recreational drugs too?