by James Clarke

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: June 17, 2009

The truth about illicit drugs is something hidden behind so much urban mythology and political scaremongering. To me, it seems there are two very powerful voices in our society on drugs, prohibitionist worst-case-scenario authoritarian laws and pundits, with a sort of hedonistic everything-is-good-for-you mythology standing in stark contrast.

I don't beleive that the prohibitionist agenda needs any introduction. "Narco-hedonism", on the other hand, is more subtle. It saturates our entertainment world, with fame going hand in hand with drug use. It's glamorous thing, it's an artistic thing. Even the famous deaths do little to dampen the rebel icon of drugs.

Somewhere in between these two is the harm minimisation approach, ignored by prohibitionist governments as too permissive, and by narco-hedonism as lacking the rebellion and fun of drugs. It's a voice that is usually only heard by serious and long term drug users, after their drug use has started to take over their lives, too little too late. As someone who works closely with drug users, this is the approach I know most about.

So, in the spirit of harm minimisation, this is my brief introduction to the twin drugs Crack and Cocaine.

Production

The Coca plant generally grows in Central & Southern America, where it is a fairly common cash crop, especially in Columbia, Bolivia and Peru. In these countries the leaves are chewed as a pick me up, in the same way that western people drink coffee/Coke/tea/Pepsi. There is little narcotic value in the leaves, and they die too quickly to be used outside the countries where they are grown.

The process of turning these leaves into a high class drug begins with soaking the leaves in water and sulphuric acid. It is then treated with various other acids and alkalis to produce a paste. This is sometimes smoked, but it doesn't hold its potency for very long so it's not usually exported. The paste is mixed with acetone, ether and hydrochloric acid and dried out. This makes Cocaine, the high society drug that urban legend says we can find traces of on most 50 notes. It's probably about 80%-90% pure, making it quite potent. Still that leaves about 10%-20% being acetone and acid, stuff that you wouldn't normally stick up your nose.

Thing is, it's expensive. So it makes a lot of sense for it treated in a variety of ways to expand the volume or turn it into a smokeable substance. Cocaine can't be smoked because it has a melting point of almost 200 degrees. One method is to create

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