Powder, cocaine purity

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. 

The relationships people form with plants are different from those they form with white powders. Crude natural drugs tend to he less toxic, and users tend to stay in better relationships with them over time. One reason for this difference is that plants are dilute preparations, since the active principles are combined not only with other drugs but also with inert vegetable matter. Drugs plants commonly contain less than 5 percent of an active princi-pic. (Coca rarely has more than 0.5 percent cocaine. By contrast, refined preparations may approach 100 percent purity. 

Cocaine as it is known today—in a synthesized form— was first isolated from the coca plant in 1855 by a German chemist named Albert Niemann. A paste is made from the leaves of the plant. Then this paste is heated with hydrochloric acid to produce cocaine hydrochloride. This is the most common form of cocaine the white powder that is separated into fine lines, a few inches long, and then inhaled into the nose. When it is found in powder form, its purity can be anywhere from zero to 90 percent pure. In the form known as crack or rock, it is generally 25 percent to 40 percent pure. 

From there, the cocaine is again repackaged and re-cut for sale to local dealers. By now, the drug has passed through several successive handlers and has been re-cut to reduce its purity at nearly every stage. The local dealers often reduce the purity themselves before selling it to users. By the time it reaches the user, the end product often bears little resemblance to the highly concentrated cocaine powder that first crossed the U.S. border. 

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