Cocaine hydrochloride salt

For recreational use, cocaine (hydrochloride salt) is often administered by nasal insufflation ( snorting ) or less frequently, intravenously. Cocaine is more volatile when converted from the salt to the freebase therefore freebase cocaine may be inhaled by smoking. This latter route of administration results in a rapid onset of action. It has gained increased popularity owing to the ready availabihty of the freebase cocaine form known as crack. Consequently the number of emergency room admissions related to cocaine toxicity has increased. 

Cocaine hydrochloride salt is what is commonly sold as cocaine powder, which has traditionally been injected or snorted. If the cocaine hydrochloride salt is treated with alkali, it reverts into the neutral molecular base. This can be done using baking soda (NaHCOj) to make crack, one form of free cocaine. If the hydrochloride salt is smoked, heating it up destroys most of the cocaine, whereas the molecular base crack form is more volatile,... 

The molecules are identical except for the ionic bond in cocaine hydrochloride. Ionic forces are extremely strong forces, and therefore the cocaine hydrochloride salt has a much higher boiling point and is more water soluhle. Since the salt is highly water soluble, it can be injected directly into the bloodstream where it dissolves. Crack is smoked because it can dissolve in the organic tissues of the nasal passage and lungs. 

Crack cocaine A concentrated form of the drug (free base) formed by heating cocaine hydrochloride (the salt) with sodium bicarbonate Cocaine HCl + NaHC03 > Cocaine + NaCl + H20 + C02. 

The hydrochloride salt is inhaled or injected. It can be converted to cocaine base (crack or rock) and smoked to achieve almost instant absorption and intense euphoria. Tolerance to the high develops quickly. The high from snorting can last 15 to 30 minutes the high from smoking can last 5 to 10 minutes. 

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. 

Once the cocaine has been legally produced from the coca leaf, it is exported to various countries for medicinal use, basically as a topical local anesthetic (applied to the surface, not injected, only treating a particular area). In the United States the crystalline powder is imported to pharmaceutical companies who process and package the cocaine for medical use. Merck Pharmaceutical Company and Mallinckrodt Chemical Works distribute cocaine in crystalline form (Hydrochloride Salt) in dark colored glass bottles to pharmacies and hospitals throughout the United States. Cocaine, in the alkaloid form (base drug containing no additives such as hydrochloride in the crystalline form) is rarely used for medicinal purposes. Cocaine hydrochloride crystals or flakes come in Vs, A and 1 ounce bottles from the manufacturer and has a wholesale price of approximately 20 to 25 per ounce (100% pure). 

Cocaine hydrochloride is a water-soluble salt that can be injected or absorbed by any mucosal membrane (eg, nasal snorting). When heated in an alkaline solution, it is transformed into the free base, "crack cocaine," which can then be smoked. Inhaled crack cocaine is rapidly absorbed in the lungs and penetrates swiftly into the brain, producing an almost instantaneous "rush."... 

The extraction process can be performed in acidic conditions which produces the cocaine as its hydrochloride salt. Alkaline conditions will produce a lipophilic "free base" which can be extracted with a nonpolar solvent like ether. The ether can be volatilized with heat and the free base smoked, snorted, injected, or eaten. The salt form cannot be smoked. Cocaine paste, not common in the U.S. is a kerosene extract which may contain 20-90% cocaine sulfate. Crack is the result of free-basing with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). The residual fillers and other impurities... 

Cocaine and amphetamines share a similar profile of addictiveness, though cocaines addictive properties are more intense. The cocaine that is inhaled nasally is the hydrochloride salt. The free-base form of cocaine, called crack cocaine, is also abused. As with the street drug ice, which is the free-base form of methamphetamine, crack cocaine is volatile and may be smoked for what is an intense but profoundly dangerous and addictive high. 

Cocaine is used medically by otorhinolaryngologists and plastic surgeons as an epinephrine cocaine mixture. Solutions for topical application are typically less than 4% cocaine hydrochloride. In the U.S. cocaine is a scheduled drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Refined cocaine, in the form of the base or hydrochloride salt, is self-administered by many routes, including snorting, smoking, genital application, and by injection. 

Coca leaves were not used in Europe or the United States because coca leaves do not travel well. But in 1860, a German chemist, Albert Niemann, separated cocaine from the leaf. In doing so, he unleashed the most powerful naturally occurring stimulant. In the salt form (cocaine hydrochloride), which is commonly known as powder cocaine, it travels very well. Soon, large quantities were being consumed abroad. 

Is the pH of solutions containing these salts likely to be acidic, basic, or neutral NaCl, Nal, NH4C1, cocaine hydrochloride, sodium acetate, sodium palmitate. 

It is a white crystalline solid, slightly soluble in water, but soluble in acidic aqueous solutions and soluble in organic solvents, such as chloroform and diethyl ether. It is available in the illicit market as hydrochloride salt or free base (crack). Cocaine is usually mixed with other substances used as excipients. 

Cocaine can be administered via a variety of different rontes. Popnlarly, the hydrochloride salt is insufflacated ( snorted ) from a line of white powder and the drng absorbed across the mncons membranes of the nose. Alternatively, it may be administered by injection. Crack cocaine, or Rocks may be administered by smoking. 

Pharmacologists often take refined natural drugs and change their chemical structures to vary their properties. A very simple change is to combine an insoluble drug from a plant with an acid to make a water-soluble salt. In this way the "freebase" form of cocaine, which is usually smoked because it will not dissolve, is turned into cocaine hydrochloride, a water-soluble compound that can be inhaled or injected. 

Cocaine is a widely abused, addicting drug. Cocaine is usually obtained as its hydrochloride salt (cocaine hydrochloride) but can be converted to crack (the neutral molecule) by treatment with base. Which of the two compounds here has a higher boiling point Which is more soluble in water How does the relative solubility explain why crack is usually smoked but cocaine hydrochloride is injected directly into the bloodstream ... 

The form in which cocaine is administered is an important determinant of abuse liability (see Table 6.2). Street cocaine, which takes the form of a white powder, is produced by combining a paste made from coca leaves with a hydrochloric acid solution to form a salt—cocaine hydrochloride. Because it is a salt, street cocaine is water soluble and can be injected or taken intranasally (sniffed or snorted). Intranasal cocaine can produce intense effects, but because it causes constriction of blood vessels in the nose, absorption is slowed. By the way, it is this vasoconstriction that results in inflammation and tissue damage of the mucous membranes of the nose in chronic intranasal users. Overdo.se deaths, psychosis, and dependence are all possible consequences of intranasal cocaine but are less common than with injected cocaine. Because sniffing was the major method of administration on the street until the late 1980s, the hazards of cocaine abuse were underestimated. 

Cocaine hydrochloride should melt at 180°-186°(B.E), 183°(P.G.), 186° (Fr Codex). It should be perfectly colour-less, and should afford a bright, neutral solution in water. This salt of cocaine is the one most generally employed in medicine. It is largely used for producing local anesthesia in minor operations and in dental practice. Given internally, or in small hypodermic doses, it acts as a nerve stimulant, restorative, and tonic. The mental exhilaration it produces often conduces to the formation of the cocaine habit, which is even more unfortunate than the morphia habit in its results. Source Barrowcliff 1920... 

Uses.—For most purposes cocaine hydrochloride is preferred to the base, but the latter is used in ointments and oily solution because of its greater solubility in fatty substances. Other salts of cocaine have been used in medicine. Cocaine borate has been recommended for ophthalmological uses. Cocaine hydriodide which occurs in colorless crystals moderately soluble in water, has been recommended by R. Marcus as being especially suitable for use by cataphoresis for the production of anesthesia. For medicinal uses, see Cocaine Hydrochloride. 

Hydrochloride salts have been popular materials to study, particularly in recent years, as evidenced by the reports of Bryce et al., Chapman and Bryce, and Hamaed et al. (see Figure 11 for an example). Data are summarized in Table 4. To the best of our knowledge, the first chlorine SSNMR report for a powdered hydrochloride salt appears to be that of Pines and co-workers, who studied cocaine hydrochloride in 1995. The study utilized multiple techniques to study the hydrochloride salt, including N NQR. The chlorine-35 SSNMR experiment was carried out at 7.0 T using a Hahn-echo pulse sequence, and a chlorine-35 Cq of 5.027 MHz was reported. To avoid the intensity distortions that result from a finite pulse applied to a broad line shape, a variable frequency offset approach, in which the frequency was stepped in 2 or 4 kHz increments over the entire spectral width, was used to acquire the spectrum. 

HgjCU Noncombustible solid. Violent reaction with sodium. Slow decomposition in light, forming mercury and mercuric chloride. Incompatible with acetylene, alkali chlorides, ammonia, bromides, azides, carbonates, chlorine dioxide, cocaine hydrochloride, cyanides, copper and copper salts, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxides, iodides, iodine, iodoform, lead salts, lithium, potassium iodide, mbidium, silver salts, sodium carbide, sulfates, sulfides, sulfites. On small fires, use any kind of extinguishers. 

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