Heroin turning

How important is it for a forensic chemist to understand why heroin turns the Marquis reagent purple or why cocaine forms a blue precipitate with the cobalt thiocyanate reagent ... 

In 1979-1980, some illegal fentanyl analogues appeared that were being sold as substitutes for heroin on the street. Suddenly, a series of more than a dozen mysterious deaths occurred in southern California. Upon autopsy, the victims strongly looked as if they had overdosed on heroin however, no traces of heroin could be found in their bodies. Later, forensic chemists identified a fentanyl analogue (alpha-methyl-fentanyl) that was present in all of the victims. As it turns out, alpha-methyl-fentanyl was being sold on the streets under the name China White (Figure 7.2), because it resembled (and contained) pure synthetic heroin that was produced in Southeast Asia. 

Opioids are administered in several ways. Opium was most commonly taken recreationally by smoking, but intravenous administration has become most common since the isolation of opium alkaloids and invention of the hypodermic needle. The development of heroin from morphine at the turn of the twentieth century led to more intense euphoric effects and greater risk for addiction. Heroin may also be snorted, or it can be smoked when added to a medium such as tobacco. Medically, opioids are commonly given through oral, subcutaneous, intravenous, transdermal, or rectal routes. 

Many pharmacologically active organic chemicals fonnd in natnre are alkaloids. In general, these componnds contain one or more nitrogen atoms, which in turn impart some basicity to the molecnle. Well-known alkaloid examples are caffeine, cocaine, codeine, ephedrine, morphine, nicotine, qninine, and scopolamine. Heroin is derived from morphine by a chemical modification that increases lipophilicity, making the heroin molecnle inherently more pharmacologically potent than morphine. The exhibition of its basic properties by an alkaloid (Aik) involves (by definition) the acceptance of a proton H+ according to ... 

Once the opium has been collected from the plant, it is far from ready to be sold to traders or turned into heroin. In its raw state, opium is brown and has a gummy paste-like consistency, and it must be dried for several days as it contains a... 

These drug products are used in a number of ways to treat various medical conditions, including the common cough, diarrhea, and pain. Surgeons and dentists also use morphine, the most important chemical substance within the opium poppy, as an anesthetic. Unfortunately, most opium is turned into heroin and ends up in the veins of addicts. 

By the turn of the twentieth century, however, it was too late. Even with heroin in disrepute, it had already gained a strong foothold as a profitable worldwide commodity, and its production and trade could not be stopped. Heroin, even more so than opium, was an ideal drug for trade. Heroin, as a white powder, was lighter than opium, much more potent, and much... 

Law enforcement efforts, harsh sentences, and community efforts gradually reduced the use of crack in the 1990s. However, some users turned to heroin, which was now available in inhaled or smoked form. Heroin prices had gone down, and the drug offered a longer-lasting high. ... 

At the turn of the century, the German chemical company Bayer was capitalizing on a previously unnoticed chemical improvement on morphine. In 1898, Bayer began aggressively marketing heroin as a cough cure for the rampant disease of the time, tuberculosis. Heroin, a derivative of morphine, crosses directly into the brain, where it is converted immediately back to morphine. Unbelievably, it was said to be non-addictive. 

Heroin was even proposed as a way to cure morphine addicts. This turns out to be a recurring theme in the story of narcotics to hopeful physicians, a new version brought to market appeared to be free of abuse potential, until enough people used it to prove otherwise. 

Opium and morphine, in the early days of the mob, were not illegal drags heroin only came into circulation at the turn of the century and was not made illegal as a prescription drag until 1924. But the British dope-runners had a direct hand in the infiltration of narcotics into the United States, through the third wave of crime-tainted immigration, from China. 

Heroin is rapidly hydrolyzed in vivo to 6-monoacetylmorphine (257) and thence to morphine (1) (see also p. 26). N-Demethylation and O-demethyla-tion are significant metabolic routes in animals, with the former oxidative process leading to normorphine (258) from 1, and norcodeine (259) from 2, which may in turn be eliminated as their 3- and 6-glucuronides, respectively. 

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