Currently watching Narcos, and I can’t stop thinking about how they just came up with “Let’s add gasoline and other chemicals to the coca plant leaves”
I know how the coca plant had/has “positive” medical effects, but what about the modern powder?
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Cocaine is an alkaloid: it’s one of a particular family of chemicals that many plants produce. Many alkaloids are drugs; that is, they have some noticeable effect if you put them into your body. Some of these include morphine, caffeine, psilocybin, and nicotine.
There are lots of ways of extracting an alkaloid drug from a plant. One way is to burn the plant and inhale the smoke: this is how people usually get nicotine from tobacco. Another way is to dry or roast the plant, then put it in hot water: this is how we get caffeine from coffee, tea, and other plants.
In the case of illegal drugs, people want to make an extract that is easy to smuggle — so it needs to be concentrated. And, often, they want to do it on the cheap, because the customers can’t be too discerning.
Cocaine can be extracted from coca leaves in lots of ways. Using harsh chemical solvents can be highly efficient. It might leave bad residues in the cocaine, but people who are buying illegal drugs don’t have a lot of places to complain if they are hurt by the contaminants.
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