CDR: Re: Whipped Europeans

[BENHAM TIMOTHY JAMES]

Well to do coke-heads had been "freebasing" the alkaloid (free base)
for years before crack was invented. Crack just made the same thing
available in small quantities to the (black) masses and a panic
ensued.

Tim

> 
> Said by Sampo Syreeni <decoy at iki.fi>:
> 
> -- begin quote --
> >Crack cocaine is made using a relatively simple procedure which changes
> >that equilibrium to where almost all of it blows into the brain at
> >once. This is why crack cocaine is considered worse than the "regular"
> >powder.
> 
> 'Freebasing' wasn't it? Cook in high pH to release the free alcaloid form
> from the salt. What I do not remember is the precise reason for the high
> permeability - water solubility?
> -- end quote --
> 
> I don't think so.  The hydrochloride form (regular "powder") is water-soluble, 
> but the free alkaloid is fat-soluble.  That's why it's smoked instead of 
> snorted.  But the process not only converts the cocaine, it also loses any 
> dilution material ("cut").  So the final dose is, for all practical purposes, 
> pure cocaine that needs no additional conversion in the bloodstream.  It might 
> not be permeability that's responsible for the different effect.  Could be a 
> simple matter of delivering a higher quantity of ready-to-permeate material.
> 
>