The Manufacture of Cocaine
The conversion of the coca leaf to the product that is illicitly marketed on the American street as “cocaine” (the quotation marks are included because the product sold on the street often contains more adulterants than pure drug) involves many steps. It begins with the coca plant itself. Erythroxylon coca, an evergreen shrub approximately three feet tall that grows most commonly in the easter foothills of the Andes Mountains. More than 200 strains of alkaloids, the vast majority contain little, if any, cocaine. The bush thrives at elevations between 1,500 and 5,000 feet and generally contains a relatively small amount of active cocaine; the average Peruvian coca leaf contains approximately one-half of 1% cocaine. The bitter taste of the alkaloids probably contributes to the flourishing growth of the coca bush by making the visually attractive bush an uninviting grazing source for the local animal population.
The coca plant can be harvested between six months and three years after its first planting, depending on the strain that has been planted. Once a growing area has been established, the leaves can be harvested several times a year, simply by stripping the leaves off the bushes. The farmers then take the harvested leaves to local processing plants located in the villages, where initial stage of extraction takes place. Here, coca paste is prepared by macerating coca leaves with kerosene, water, sodium carbonate, and sulfuric acid. Between 100 and 200 kilograms of coca leaves are necessary to produce 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of coca paste. The conversion of the leaf to paste thus results in an enormous reduction in bulk as well as an increasingly (40%-91%) pure product now worth four times the price of the original leaves. The decreased bulk enables drug traffickers to transport the paste far more easily than they can move massive quantities of coca leaves. Coca paste is converted into cocaine hydrochloride, the snowy white powder sold on the street, by adding a number of chemicals, which may include hydrochloric acid, potassium permanganate, acetone, ether, ammonia, calcium carbonate, sodium carbonate, sulfuric acid, and more kerosene.
Meanwhile, the price of the product has been steadily escalating. It takes approximately 2.5 kilograms of coca paste to produce a kilogram of pure cocaine hydrochloride, with a concomitant tripling of the price. In addition, the smuggling of cocaine from South America to the United States is a risky business; participants therefore expect to be well compensated for their efforts. Thus the price of cocaine is again increased by approximately 300% after it has been illegally exported to the United States. Unfortunately, the manufacture of cocaine for street distribution does not end with the smuggling of cocaine into the United States. Rather, the drug is then distributed from large drug traffickers to a series of increasingly smaller drug dealers. In each of these transactions, adulterants are added to the cocaine to make it less pure and thus more profitable to sell.
At any of these stages in distribution, cocaine hydrochloride can be converted to crack cocaine. Crack is a form of freebase cocaine that is made by dissolving powdered cocaine hydrochloride in water, adding baking soda, and heating the resultant mixture. As it cools, crystals or “rocks” form; these then can be smoked. Smaller drug dealers will often perform this simple procedure in their homes or in “rock houses” and then sell the finished product to their customers.
As cocaine use has varied in popularity, the purity of the drug sold on the streets has similarly fluctuated. In 1976, street samples submitted to drug analysis laboratories averaged 53% to 73% cocaine. Although estimates of cocaine purity in the early 1980s were considerably lower, averaging between 20% and 40%, recent reports have cited an increase in the purity of street cocaine – an ominous trend for its addictive potential. If we conservatively estimate the purity of a street sample of cocaine to be 25%, the price will have quadrupled again between importation into the United States and distribution to the user. The net price increase, then, from coca leaf to the purchase of cocaine on the street is approximately 15,000%. The current price of cocaine on the American street ranges from 50$ to 100$ for a gram (1/25th of an ounce). Crack is sold by the “rock” or in vials containing many pinhead-sized pieces, at a cost of $2 to 20$.
Treatment Available for Cocaine Addiction
If you are addicted to cocaine or crack cocaine, The Causeway Retreat can help you in many ways. We specialize in the treatment of addiction problems. Our treatment facilities has no institutionalized approach and focus on people who are there for the treatment of their problems. If you would like to find more about our services, please give us a call on 0207 100 7260.
