Freebase form cocaine

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. 

When the coca leaves are first harvested, they are thrown into pits, pounded or chopped, and then mixed with kerosene or gasoline as well as other chemicals. This process removes the cocaine from the leaves. This is the freebase form of cocaine, but it cannot stay in this form for long or it begins to lose its strength. In order to transport the cocaine, it is mixed with chemicals and converted into a kind of salt, which is less fragile and more easily transported. 

Cocaine is active via nearly every possible route of administration however, insufflation of snow or coke represents one of the most popular routes. Administered in this manner, peak effects and plasma levels are achieved within 30 minutes (48). Smoking the freebase form of cocaine ( crack ) results in an even more rapid effect. The freebase form rather than the hydrochloride salt is used for smoking, because the temperatures required for vaporization of the salt result in considerable decomposition (48). Intravenously administered cocaine can achieve peak blood levels within a few minutes. Cocaine is metabolized to benzoylecgonine, the methyl ester of eegonine, and to a lesser extent, to eegonine, norcocaine, and hydroxylated derivatives. 

As an illegal drug, cocaine occurs in different forms. The hydrochloride is soluble in water and can be injected, sniffed, or chewed. Freebase is cocaine base, which is gained by extraction of cocaine from alkaline solutions with ether. It evaporates at high temperatures and can be inhaled by smoking. Another smok-able form of the cocaine base is crack , which is obtained by precipitating cocaine hydrochloride from solution with baking soda. 

Freebase A smokablc form of cocaine, As a verb, to smoke cocaine in this form. 

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. 

In the identification of products that are suspected to contain illicit compounds, the use of reference materials (controls) for the main compounds analyzed, as well as for the main adulterants that could be present, is recommended. As an example, seized cocaine samples could have the following adulterants caffeine, lidocaine, benzocaine, ketamine, and procaine among others. The samples and controls used in chromatographic runs can be dissolved in methanol at a final concentration of 1 mg mL-. The chemical form of the controls (i.e., freebase or salt) that will be spotted on the plates is not important. Both forms are acceptable because the compounds always move as freebases on TLC plates [3]. 

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