Three Types of Cocaine

Today, cocaine is overwhelmingly found in powdered form.  From that, it can be made into ‘crack’ (a crystallized form for smoking that looks like dried glycerin soap) or dissolved in a liquid (for injecting). Dealers will also lace it with other chemicals that have a similar appearance.

Lacing or ‘cutting in’ other chemicals is a dealer’s attempt to expand the amount of product they have for sale. This happens at every stage of the selling process. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reports that the higher the demand for the product in an area, the less pure user-available drugs are.

Usually, in higher-use areas, the drugs must pass through more links in a chain. They are, for example, laced at the manufacture location (rural Columbian lab), shipping location (boat in Columbia), shipping time (journey to Newfoundland), for the sale to dealer (Newfoundland to a dealer in Toronto), and by the dealer for sale to user. That means that cocaine available on the street has been laced at least 5 times. Assuming that the cocaine is 99% pure to begin with, each step is cutting in other substances to make up about 18% of the product they sell’s weight. This scenario is consistent with the European Monitoring Centre’s finding that Western cocaine purity average is 26%: about one fourth cocaine.

The substances laced in are sometimes inert and will not have too much of an effect on the user. These include powdered sugars and flour. Other times, the drugs are potentially harmful to the user: dried household cleaners, fluoride, lime dust, and dried poultry/bird feces (especially where available). Finally, dealers, especially those in the ‘club scene,’ will cut in other things to enhance the expected feeling of cocaine.

This move can be the most deadly. They will often lace in chemicals made from other plants purchased legally. Many of these ‘stack’ with cocaine and vastly increase the chance of overdose. Also, users can be very allergic to these compounds and have deadly reactions for which there is little a hospital can do. A hospital can do equally little for if cocaine is injected.

Injected cocaine is a mixture of an acidic substance (vinegar, lemon juice, etc) and the powdered cocaine base. By mixing, the acid isolates the cocaine molecules (‘brown down’) into a very ‘hard’ form. As one can imagine, injecting vinegar and lemon juice is extremely painful and very harmful to the body’s systems. Compound these dangerous effects with the high absorption rate and injectors always run the risk of death if they push the plunger a millimeter too far. The chemical opposite of injected cocaine, crack cocaine is made with a substance of base (pH) substance.

Crack cocaine must be ‘cooked’ out of a basic substance (most commonly baking soda) and powdered cocaine. It is often laced at this stage as well in order to increase volume or dull effects so the user can function semi-normally after use. The creation process can be very dangerous given the tendency of cocaine to explode when exposed to such heat.

There are some really good Cocaine Treatment in Ontario where you can detox and get the proper treatment for your addiction.

^{Reference: http://ar2006.emcdda.europa.eu/en/page009-en.html}

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