Coca paste

Dissolve 1 g coca paste in 10 ml 3% sulfuric acid, cool to 0° and add with stirring 8 ml 6% KMn04 and 10% sulfuric acid, 1 ml at a time over one hour. Let stand /a hour and add powdered oxalic acid with stirring until the precipitate which has formed dissolves. Extract two times with ether, basify the aqueous solution with NH4OH and extract four times with 18 ml ether. Dry and evaporate in vacuum the ether to get cocaine. The aqueous solution contains ecgonine, which can be converted to cocaine as shown below. 

The dried coca leaf is treated, through a chemical process, with an acid solution such as sulfuric acid, producing raw cocaine or coca paste. The coca paste which contains approximately 70% cocaine, is put through another chemical process with hydrochloric acid creating a hydrochloric salt or cocaine hydrochloride which is soluble in water. This particular process is very time consuming and can take from 1 to 2 weeks to complete. This process is used by both the legitimate and illicit manufacturers of cocaine. 

The use of scheduled substances in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, depicted in figures A.I-A.IV below, represents classic production and manufacturing methods. The extraction of cocaine from coca leaf and the purification of coca paste and the crude base products of cocaine and heroin require solvents, acids and bases. A wide range of such chemicals has been used at all stages of drug production. 

Cocaine is found in several forms. It can be extracted from the coca leaf to form coca paste (basuco, pitillo), which is not water soluble but can be smoked. The paste can be further treated to form cocaine hydrochloride (cocaine powder), which can be dissolved in water and injected, or can be snorted into the nostril. 

In Colombia, the yearly average price for coca paste amounted to US 879/kg, and US 1,762/kg for cocaine HCI. Farm-gate prices for coca paste, which had fallen to pre-2001 levels at the start of 2006 (US 750/kg) recovered during the year and reached a new high of over (US 1,010/kg) in December 2006. 

Over 99 per cent of all dismantled clandestine laboratories in 2005 were in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. This shows that almost the complete cocaine production chain, from coca paste to cocaine base and finally cocaine HCI, is located close to the cultivation areas in the three countries. An analysis by type of laboratory reveals that laboratories in Bolivia and Peru, with very few exceptions, produced coca paste and cocaine base, whereas in Colombia a substantial number of laboratories produced cocaine HCI. Preliminary figures for 2006 show a similar pattern. 

While in the past (until the mid-1990s), coca paste and coca base exports from Peru used to be in the hands of the Colombian drug cartels, a significant proportion of the Peruvian cocaine exports is now organized by criminal groups from Mexico and leaves the country by sea. 

Includes laboratories processing coca paste/base, cocaine HC1, heroin, morphine, potassium permanganate, and non-specified. 

Overall, prices for coca-related products have been remarkably stable over the last five years in the case of coca paste and for an even longer period in the case of cocaine HC1. 

The annual average of the farm-gate prices for coca paste, the first derivate in the cocaine production chain, changed little compared to 2005. However, the annual average hides a price increase by 38 per cent from a five-year low of 1,714,000 Colombian pesos in January... 

Colombia, monthly farm-gate prices for coca paste ( 000 COP/kg), 2000 to 2006... 

In 2006, wholesale prices for coca paste and cocaine HCI fell by 14 per cent and 8 per cent respectively compared to 2005, similar to the prices for sun-dried coca leaf. 

The use of the concept of potential production at the country level also means that actual heroin or cocaine production is under-estimated in some countries, and over-estimated in others while the estimate for the global level should be only slightly affected by this. The calculation of potential cocaine production estimates for Peru, for instance, exceeds actual local cocaine production as some of the coca paste or coca base produced in Peru is exported to neighbouring Colombia and other countries for further processing into cocaine. Based on the same reasoning, potential cocaine production estimates for Colombia under-estimate actual cocaine production in the country. Actual cocaine manufacture in Colombia takes place from locally produced coca leaf as well as from coca base imported from Peru. 

Reporting trends in the use of a drug type may be also biased by opposing trends for the individual substances (cocaine HCL, coca paste/base, crack-cocaine). For the... 

COCA PASTE An impure free base made from coca leaves. It is used mainly in South America. Coca paste is smoked and is highly addictive. 

FREE BASE The form of cocaine that can be smoked. There are three free-base forms of cocaine coca paste made from processed coca leaves crack (which is made with powder cocaine and sodium bicarbonate) and free base (which is made with powder cocaine, ammonia and ether. This form is rarely used since crack was discovered). All free base is highly addictive. 

Sometimes called bazooka, coca paste is an impure free-base form of cocaine that is smoked. It contains 20-90% cocaine and it is psychoactive. Smokers experience a rush or a spike similar to the effects of smoking crack or injecting powder cocaine. This is fol-... 

Powder cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride) can be over 100 times more potent than coca leaves. By adding acids and purifying agents, 22 lbs (10 kg) of coca paste can be refined to 2.2 lbs (1 kg) of powder. This powder approaches 100% purity, but it is diluted with fillers before it is sold on the streets in the United States. Common fillers are cheaper drugs such as amphetamines or sugars such as lactose or inositol. Average street powder purity is 60%. The most common way to use powder is to snort it into the nose, but it can also be dissolved in water and injected into the veins. Powder cocaine cannot be smoked. Powder cocaine is addictive when snorted and highly addictive when injected. 

Powder cocaine and coca leaves cannot be smoked. The heat required to smoke these forms of cocaine destroys its psychoactive properties. In order to smoke cocaine, it must be changed to a free-base form. In South America, the most common free base is coca paste. In the West, people smoke crack, and to a much lesser extent, free base made with ether. The free base or crack is put into a glass pipe, heated, and the vapors are inhaled. 

Following cultivation of the plant material, the leaves from which the cocaine will be prepared are harvested and dried in the sun. From these, coca paste and, subsequently, cocaine is produced. In general, coca paste is prepared by one of two methods. The first involves wetting the leaves and macerating them with dilute sulfuric acid, thus forming the water-soluble sulfate salts of the alkaloids. The mixture is then extracted with kerosene. After phase separation, the aqueous layer is basified with ammonia, lime or sodium carbonate, and the alkaloids precipitated. They are then recovered by filtration. 

Coca paste (Basuco) Street cocaine Crack... 

GAS CHROMATOGRAM OF ILLICIT PERUVIAN COCA PASTE AFTER SILYL TREATMENT15 Eicosane used as an internal standard. 

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