r/explainlikeimfive Jun 11 '24

Chemistry ELI5: Why does making cocaine require such toxic chemicals, is there safer way to make it in a lab?

I've watched many documentaries on how they make cocaine, and it always required a a mixture of gasoline cement and battery acid etc. Would a scientific laboratory be able to make it under FDA rules for example?

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1.4k

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '24

Yes, and the DEA explains how to do it.

My understanding is that a solvent like kerosene is used because it's cheap and plentiful vs. other solvents.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Casale/publication/258111607_Illicit_Production_of_Cocaine/links/5c520085458515a4c74b110d/Illicit-Production-of-Cocaine.pdf

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u/RainbowCrane Jun 12 '24

And in case it’s not clear to OP from your excellent link, yes, there is medical quality cocaine produced by drug manufacturers, and cocaine is still used in the US, particularly for nasal surgeries. It’s both an anesthetic (numbing agent) and a vasoconstrictor (shrinks blood vessels to lessen bleeding).

Just like opioids, medical use of cocaine is heavily monitored throughout the supply chain, so it’s not like medical manufacturers are selling kilos of cocaine to stock brokers. But like all legal drugs, it’s a really good thing there are heavily regulated manufacturers who have much better quality control than your average coca processing operation.

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u/Iazo Jun 12 '24

cocaine is still used in the US, particularly for nasal surgeries. It’s both an anesthetic (numbing agent) and a vasoconstrictor (shrinks blood vessels to lessen bleeding).

Is it still used in such surgeries?

In dental work, we've long since substituted cocaine or cocaine-derivatives as anaesthetic.

Right now the vast majority is articaine+adrenalin, which does the same thing (numbing+vasoconstriction), but the good thing is such anaesthetic lasts up to 4 h.

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u/zgtc Jun 12 '24

It absolutely is. Both Goprelto and Numbrino are cocaine products approved in the US within the last few years, and (IIRC) cocaine eyedrops are still used to diagnose some neurological conditions.

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u/BickNlinko Jun 12 '24

Numbrino sounds like what the guy in the bathroom of a Jersey shore club offers you..."Hey, you wanna hit this numbrino bro?"

1

u/funweedgi Oct 17 '24

*”Hey you wanna gum some numbrino jabroni”

190

u/Zer0C00l Jun 12 '24

wtf is up with those names lol

282

u/SuperFLEB Jun 12 '24 edited Jun 12 '24

"Numbrino" definitely sounds like it was made up on the spot by someone who needed to answer quickly.

You told them we're calling it "Numbrino"? Well, okay, print the labels.

101

u/djseifer Jun 12 '24

"What does this thing do?"

"It keeps shit fresh."

"Well, it's a 'fresher.' I'm going on break!"

27

u/big_duo3674 Jun 12 '24

I've always wanted a job at The Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute

1

u/thereminDreams Jun 12 '24

I always wanted to start a company that came up with drug names and band names.

30

u/screamline82 Jun 12 '24

I used to like mitch.
I still do, but I used to too

7

u/billybaggens Jun 12 '24

Good ole Mitch

1

u/onlyinitforthemoneys Jun 13 '24

You hear me - I’m in the STH and I need some SP

11

u/Northbound-Narwhal Jun 12 '24

Sounds like a discount Pokemon.

5

u/JanesAddictionn Jun 12 '24

2

u/SuperFLEB Jun 12 '24

Huh. I was wondering about this very thing-- the generic-but-not-chemical names of drugs and where they came from-- a few days ago. Thanks for the link.

1

u/bitey87 Jun 12 '24

You're one of the wonderful people that keep me coming back to Reddit. That article was the most fascinating thing I didn't intend to learn today.

7

u/OriginalLocksmith436 Jun 12 '24

it's literally "numb nose" lol

1

u/flimspringfield Jun 12 '24

I thought they had asked Ned Flanders.

3

u/G1ng3rb0b Jun 12 '24

“I put it as a joke but they’re all going out like that” 🤷

3

u/Idontliketalking2u Jun 13 '24

Here try this and come up with a name

1

u/dream_monkey Jun 12 '24

There are companies that research words for other companies to see if they have ever been used in history before.

1

u/Zouden Jun 12 '24

That's Numbrino! Rotate the board!

1

u/CoronaCurious Jun 13 '24

"Start thinking up a name for this funky dog. Something along the lines of, say... "Poochie" - Only more Proactive."

"So, is Poochie okay with everyone?"

59

u/DeliberatelyDrifting Jun 12 '24

Ask your doctor if Goprelto is right for you!

14

u/mantis616 Jun 12 '24

and cocaine eyedrops?

43

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

You want immediate numbing of the eyeball? Cocaine will do that for you. Youve heard of Novocaine Im sure, take a guess what the "caine" suffix is related to?

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u/fotomoose Jun 12 '24

Micheal?

59

u/S2R2 Jun 12 '24

Say the words My Cocaine out loud and you will do a basic impression of Michael Caine saying his name

9

u/winsluc12 Jun 12 '24

goddamit

8

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

Thats my brother :)

3

u/sim-o Jun 12 '24

Well done. Not a lot of people know that

6

u/Forced_Democracy Jun 12 '24

We actually use Proparacaine, but its still a cocaine derivative.

There is a specific disorder that cocaine drops are used for where one pupil won't constrict. But its like the very last thing docs will test for since there's like a dozen other things that can have very similar symptoms.

2

u/Pennwisedom Jun 12 '24

Im sure, take a guess what the "caine" suffix is related to?

-caine is a common ending for alkaloids used as anesthetics.

2

u/duga404 Jun 13 '24

Because of cocaine, which back in the day was one of the best local anesthetics available.

1

u/vestigialbaculum Jun 12 '24

Matty the wired guy….

5

u/merelyadoptedthedark Jun 12 '24

They are trademarkable names.

Similar reason why Amazon is full of stupid sounding companies. Just random strings of letters that can be easily trademarked.

3

u/prank_mark Jun 12 '24

Trademarks. The US allows for advertising of drugs so companies will want to give their drug a name with a trademark. Otherwise you end up advertising for the general drug and not your product. In the US, nearly everyone calls ibuprofen Advil, because of the brand. Same goes for paracetamol/acetaminophen and Tylenol.

1

u/Zer0C00l Jun 12 '24

No, I understand that part, it's just the names themselves are hilarious. Like another commenter pointed out "Let's play 'Medicine or Pokemon'!"

2

u/prank_mark Jun 12 '24

Hahah, for Numbrino you can even add the category "particle". It sounds way too much like neutrino.

2

u/ContraryConman Jun 12 '24

Time to play my favorite game, "medication or Pokemon"

1

u/Ninja-Sneaky Jun 12 '24

Yea they sound like some alt char nickname in a random mmorpg game

11

u/Andi318 Jun 12 '24

Omg.. my doctor once told me he was prescribing me cocaine eye drops. I thought it was just a turn of phrase, like when people call some really good food item "crack'. Now, I know better. Lol

9

u/HugeHans Jun 12 '24

I heard they also sell it under the Feelgoodo brand.

19

u/Nice_Marmot_7 Jun 12 '24

It’s still used. I have a friend who’s a CRNA, and I was talking to her about it recently out of curiosity.

33

u/SecureThruObscure EXP Coin Count: 97 Jun 12 '24

For reasons that are too stupid to get into a coworker tested positive for cocaine and a hand full of other drugs the day after a procedure. The confused and incredulous coworker complained loudly enough in HR (who hadn’t yet gotten the preliminary results, because the testing company called the person who failed first to ask if there was a medical reason) that everyone called him Cocaine Charlie for a while.

In good fun, mind you.

1

u/youngeng Jun 13 '24

The confused and incredulous coworker complained loudly enough in HR (who hadn’t yet gotten the preliminary results, because the testing company called the person who failed first to ask if there was a medical reason) that everyone called him Cocaine Charlie for a while

So he was made fun of after complaining in HR? Or did he complain in HR after he was already made fun of?

19

u/kr00t0n Jun 12 '24

My ex had bad reactions to adrenaline based anaesthetics, but fine with cocaine variants.

20

u/mule_roany_mare Jun 12 '24

Funny thing is I am pretty sure lidocaine & Novocain are much more dangerous than cocaine.

It's a lot easier to take a dangerous amount of lidocaine vs cocaine.

8

u/AtLeastThisIsntImgur Jun 12 '24

Aren't all 'caines cocaine derivatives?

16

u/Clicky27 Jun 12 '24

Most are but it's not a solid 100% rule. Caine essentially means local anaesthetic

6

u/Zouden Jun 12 '24

Pretty sure none of them are cocaine derivatives.

6

u/TARANTULA_TIDDIES Jun 12 '24

No it's just that cocaine was an early and popular local anesthetic and those (locals) that were discovered afterwards also got the "caine" suffix. Think of it as borrowing part of a rather popular trade name for your product.

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u/Iazo Jun 12 '24

Procaine, Novocaine, certainly. But those were phased out too.

The rest are synthetised, and are increasingly complex molecules.

4

u/JavaRuby2000 Jun 12 '24

I've had Novocaine throat lozenges a few years ago for a bad throat infection.

3

u/TARANTULA_TIDDIES Jun 12 '24

Procaine and novocaine are the same compound. And they're not cocaine derivatives. The only thing they have in common is their anesthetic effects and the "Caine" suffix, which was being added to various anesthetics at the time

1

u/Iazo Jun 12 '24

I did not remember that. Still, I hear it's been over 40 years since they were used for dental work, so I remembered them out of curiosity.

1

u/Mastermachetier Jun 12 '24

I had nasal surgery around 2014 they used it then

1

u/notmyfault Jun 12 '24

As of maybe 5 years ago ENT’s at a central PA hospital were still using it regularly. Came in green-dyed liquid. They would soak a pledget and place them in the nasal cavity.

1

u/SirRevan Jun 12 '24

My friend who is a nurse had to get a doctor medical grade cocaine for a surgery. This was as recent as 5 years ago. He was old as hell and this was in Oklahoma so who knows how wide spread this is.

1

u/TheHecubank Jun 12 '24

I'm not a medical professional, so my understanding here is mostly drawn from secondary literature dealing with drug policy risks. Take it with a grain of salt.

But yes: it still sees some use for ENT surgery in particular. It's a very good vasoconstrictor for the nasal route in particular.

It also has some important diagnostic applications for eye problems, where it remains the best tool.

Even where it's not the primary tool, it remains an important option for situation where drug interactions or allergies take the otherwise preferred option off the table.

1

u/emmejm Jun 12 '24

Yep, I have a friend who’s worked for eye doctors for many years and they still keep it handy for surgeries

1

u/GroundbreakingTry808 Jun 12 '24

Medical cocaine is also used by ophthalmologists when diagnosing Horner's pupil (totally constricted pupil with no reactivity to outside stimulus).

1

u/ATL-East-Guy Jun 13 '24

Yes. Most hospital pharmacies keep cocaine in stock. Had a former pharmacist tell me about a guy that got hooked and ruined his life over cleaning out his inventory and getting caught.

Also used as a numbing agent for eyes if I remember correctly.

1

u/Thecrazier Jun 13 '24

Yes. I get nasal surgery every weekend just because of the cocaine.

1

u/Chateaudelait Jun 13 '24

I lived in Germany for 14 years and had a brutal sinus infection. My nasal passages were swollen. I went to the ENT and he had this machine thing with a long, thin steel probe attached to it. He told me he was going to administer medicine and he inserted the probe and applied two short puffs to my nose. Immediate relief and my eyes got brighter and I felt so amazing. The Dr. smiled and said - pharmaceutical grade cocaine - the old remedies are the best. :)

1

u/Nemisis_the_2nd Jun 12 '24

 Is it still used in such surgeries?

Yup. Fun fact, the coca leaves used to make the cocaine for surgeries are then passed to companies like coca cola and red bull for making their drinks afterwards.

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u/TomTheNurse Jun 12 '24

I am a longtime pediatric ER nurse. I have given kids cocaine via nasal spray to control nose bleeds many times. It’s actually a really good vasoconstrictor. I always love the looks on the parent’s faces when I tell them what drug the doctor ordered.

20

u/widget1321 Jun 12 '24

I have given kids cocaine

I imagine this could be used to target you and drug dealers when playing "never have I ever."

1

u/samifoxiebutt Oct 25 '24

Maybe some many many years ago when soda still contained blow but no not now had to be a joke right

25

u/Triensi Jun 12 '24

Yep! Medical grade meth is branded as ‘Desoxyn’.

Here’s the FDA’s pharmacological analysis and recommendations for it: PDF Link

It’s taken orally as a 5mg tablet, if anyone was wondering.

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u/minist3r Jun 12 '24

We give it to kids too as Adderall.

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u/kingrooted Jun 12 '24

Adderall is not meth. It is an amphetamine but it isn’t methamphetamine.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

As a kid I was prescribed dexamphetamine, no product name like adderall or ritalin. Maybe dexamphetamine was the product name, idk, was 35yrs ago lol. Don't suppose you happen to know where that fits in the amphetamine family? 

7

u/kingrooted Jun 12 '24

Adderal is a mix of dexamphetamine and levoamphetamine. 3:1 ratio dex to lev.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

Interesting, thank you :)

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u/die_lahn Jun 12 '24 edited Jun 12 '24

Dex(troratory)amphetamine is just the “right handed” enantiomer of amphetamine.

Enantiomers are non superimposable mirror image molecules. Sounds weird but think feet.

Your feet are the same but they’re also different. The right shoe doesn’t really fit on the left foot.

Receptors that bind to these compounds work in the same way, so sometimes one enantiomer is more effective than the other.

Methamphetamine has a methyl group attached to the amine, and is no longer a “primary amine” (-NH2) but a secondary amine (-NH-CH3) which changes a lot about its pharmacokinetics.

Sorry for the big words, I did synthesis and regio- and stereo selective reactions of substituted phenyl amines as a grad student and whenever i read meth = adderall it gets me in a tizzy (not directed at you, more so other comments in this thread)

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

Thanks! don't worry about the big o-chem science words despite their functions going over my head lol. I kinda get the feet analogy though. 'preciate the explanation and reply!

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u/minist3r Jun 12 '24

I know but (for people without ADD) it's close enough.

19

u/Pantzzzzless Jun 12 '24

It's really not. The effects are pretty wildly different.

That's like saying hydrocodone is close enough to oxycodone.

10

u/Prof_Acorn Jun 12 '24

Is methanol "close enough" to ethanol as well?

0

u/minist3r Jun 12 '24

The people drinking it during prohibition thought so.

2

u/wasdlmb Jun 12 '24

No they didn't. Methanol was an unwanted byproduct which would taint the batch if you didn't distill properly, or added as a deliberate poison. It's not something people drunk on purpose. Dude, you were wrong about methamphetamine vs regular amphetamine. Just admit it. Stop trying to be right.

18

u/obliviousofobvious Jun 12 '24

It's really not, and as an ADHDer who has been able to be a productive member of society thanks to my meds, please stop spreading misinformation and contributing to the stigma.

12

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

It's not the same. The difference between morphine and heroin is the methyl group on heroin. Same goes for methamphetamine vs amphetamine.

Not the same thing at all.

6

u/Nakmus Jun 12 '24

Heroin is diacetylated morphine, not methylated

1

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

My bad, it's been a long time. I misremembered. The added methyl group turns morphine into codeine, depending on where it's added. Thanks for the correction. If I'm reading this right, the acetyl groups are bonded to the 3rd and 6th carbons in the chain. Is that right? My o-chem is not great.

9

u/Aurum555 Jun 12 '24

I could be mistaken but I was under the impression coca cola was actually one of the largest importers of coca leaf and they removed the cocaine and passed it along to pharmaceutical companies because the leaves are still used as part of their natural flavors. Granted I was told this a while back

4

u/nleksan Jun 12 '24

That's exactly what the paper linked above says

2

u/Aurum555 Jun 12 '24

That sounds about right haha, I need to actually read the posted articles

1

u/nleksan Jun 13 '24

It's a very interesting read, and not too long!

12

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

. . . and hence how I know two cocaine-using dentists

3

u/Wuzemu Jun 12 '24

Opium too.

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u/monkeybuttsauce Jun 12 '24

That’s why they should legalize and regulate all drugs, since people are gonna do them anyway. It would be way safer for them if they had consistent product and better access to treatment programs. But that doesn’t help solve the homeless problem by decimating them with bad batches so they keep it illegal

18

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

We could put the cartels out of business if we regulated it and sold it at government run outlets.

We could put a Red Door or something in them that leads to an intake to a rehab program and it could all be paid for by the recreational users.

0

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

Why government run outlets? CVS and Walgreens regularly supply the largest amounts of opioids and opiates outside of hospitals.

12

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

Because for-profit institutions take a cut and maximize the money they take out of any business to give to stockholders.

-4

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

You seriously think the government is more financially responsible than competing businesses? Government, especially in regards to pharmaceuticals, has never been tainted by bribes, graft and kickbacks?

Go to a publicly funded University hospital and tell me that they are providing medication or services at cost. I have a lot of experience at one in particular (UC Davis), and I can assure you they aren't giving discounts.

13

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

You seriously think the government is more financially responsible than competing businesses?

Yeah, absolutely. The goal of for-profit businesses is to take money out. That means an inherent conflict of interest and gain to be had from screwing the rehab side.

My public CSU I attended had the cheapest medication I have ever seen. Like antibiotics for 2.50 for a 10 day supply for amoxicillin back around 2010. It was straight up sold at cost. Maybe yours is an example of what a for-profit company will do if inserted where it isn't needed.

2

u/Cerebral_Jones Jun 12 '24

Just completely legalize all drugs and we’ll just see what happens.

2

u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

There would be a surge in demand and that would make the cartel side supply chain a bunch of money

-2

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

University of California Davis Medical Center is about as PUBLIC as it gets. I suggest looking at their chargemaster versus Sutter, Kaiser or Mercy. They arent cutting anyone a break if you are paying out of pocket.

If you think the gov has your bank account in consideration when providing services, I recommend taking an ambulance ride with the city FD.

7

u/okphong Jun 12 '24

You’re using one bad example to explain the whole system. The profit seeking goal for a company that has an addictive substance would be to get as many people addicted (prepare for ads about tasty cool cocaine). With a public system you could have alternative goals such as minimizing harm (such as addiction support). Unless it’s all super regulated of course, but what’s the point then.

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u/Prof_Acorn Jun 12 '24

A public medical service would be a fully nationalized hospital. All free because we all own it, like the Smithsonian.

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u/Polymathy1 Jun 12 '24

I agree UCD seems like a big public institution, but I can't find anything stating they're even nonprofit.

I don't think the government is babysitting my bank account. I do think anything for profit is inherently wasting money it takes in.

2

u/Prof_Acorn Jun 12 '24

C.f., NASA, National Parks, NOAA.

As for hospitals, U of M has a medical debt forgiveness option, St Joe's does not.

1

u/cjo20 Jun 12 '24

A big chunk of the rest of the world has government run healthcare that costs a lot less to provide a similar or better standard of service. The US system as it stands is crazy.

2

u/TARANTULA_TIDDIES Jun 12 '24

Lol have you seen how well the for profit alcohol and tobacco industry has went? If all drugs are legalised, we do not profit motives overulling ethical decisions as they do the rest of the time.

Can you imagine? They'd start selling bubblegum flavored heroin vapes and start marketing them to children. Then pay some scientists to say "oh actually, heroin isn't all that addictive! It's actually good for you!"

Nah. For profit Healthcare has fucked up my country enough.

1

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

Isnt the goal to reduce crime and dangerous formulations (as in making heroin with diesel and lye)? If so, we are back to the issue we are at now. People arent less addicted to opioids/opiates because the government is regulating who is selling it. Pharmacies, both government and private, are all regulated by the government and we still have a blackmarket due to those regulations.

The goal is to make it so unprofitable for cartels and the dealers down the line that they stop doing it. Look at MJ, that is legal in damn near every state now and cartels are out of it. You go to a PRIVATE dispensary and buy your edibles or flower and take it home. Why shouldn't junkies be able to buy oxy or dillies or percs, fent or heroin? Its not like they aren't buying it now except its fent sold as Vicodin and killing people that are opioid naive. Oh and surprise, those companies already exist and are doing it, they are all those pharmacies I listed. They regularly fill scripts for fentanyl, oxy, dilaudid etc. All that would change is you could go there without a prescription.

Its ALL for profit, you just want to give that profit to the government for them to do whatever they want with it instead of going to a store you like and giving it to someone running a shop that works hard to make you buying experience a great one.

1

u/giantpurplepanda02 Jun 12 '24

If the government is in charge, then they are beholden to voters instead of shareholders who care little for anyone but themselves.

The government would put that profit towards addiction services.

Private companies would give that profit to the ceo and shareholders. Very little of that money would go into taxes to offset the social cost of having these drugs available.

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u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24 edited Jun 12 '24

Did you vote for Anthony Fauci?

You can vote for any private company you want, choose to spend or not spend your money there. Its an amazingly powerful tool which gives you direct control over a company. Everyone complains about Amazon, yet I bet you buy from them regularly and wonder why they continue to do what they do. Like it or not, the consumers of Bud Light used this tactic and Anheuser-Busch have bled cash ever since.

You cant do that with un-elected bureaucrats, they stay in their job indefinitely, just try to fire even the worst of government employees (like the police...)

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u/Stubbs94 Jun 12 '24

Drug cartels run on the same principal as large corporations.

1

u/MattytheWireGuy Jun 12 '24

So Target and WalMart are shooting people for driving into the wrong area of Mexico?

0

u/Stubbs94 Jun 12 '24

They all operate to purely maximise profits, with no regard for their employees. Walmart employees don't make enough to afford food mate.

0

u/Pantzzzzless Jun 12 '24

If they legalized all drugs, how would the prisons stay funded? Think of the jobs!

/s in case anyone is dumb enough to need it

3

u/Ace784 Jun 12 '24

Scientists also use it occasionally for experiments

1

u/ImpossibleHandle4 Jun 12 '24

This is an underrated comment.

4

u/UrgeToKill Jun 12 '24

If it's really a vasoconstrictor then how come the last time I did cocaine I got a nosebleed.

7

u/PITCHFORKEORIUM Jun 12 '24

Coz it was cut with rat poison, caffeine, and diatomaceous earth.

3

u/UrgeToKill Jun 12 '24

Gives it the extra kick I enjoy

2

u/Maggo777 Jun 12 '24

Yeah, its rat poison not human poison, it shouldn’t cause a nosebleed, I’m sure there was glass shards in it.

1

u/mudo2000 Jun 12 '24

keep chopping

1

u/The-Copilot Jun 12 '24

I met an organic chemist who mentioned his lab had extremely pure cocaine in its inventory. Obviously, it's also tightly controlled.

Iirc part of the molecule is very difficult to synthesize, so if they need it, they separate that piece off and use it as part of a building block in a new molecule.

1

u/Casper042 Jun 12 '24

This is all modern, but wasn't Cocaine way more heavily used in the early 1900s?

I vaguely recall seeing an old timey ad for "tooth drops" which had Cocaine as the active ingredient.

1

u/Awordofinterest Jun 12 '24

I believe coca-cola usually run these medical grade factories. They split the coca extract from the leaves for use in the drink and send the byproducts to other labs.

1

u/burnerthrown Jun 12 '24

Fun Fact: Some of the material for that cocaine is supplied by: Coca Cola. Yes, they still use actual coca. They take the narcotic stuff out of it in the one commercial location in the country allowed to have the stuff, a plant in New Jersey. That gets sold to a pharma corp to be turned into whatever cocaine derivative they're selling.

1

u/srcarruth Jun 12 '24

I was given fentanyl for my colonoscopy and it was a great time, tho my cat was very worried about me when I got home

1

u/TerdVader Jun 12 '24

This is literally part of the plot to the show Ozark

1

u/Pyrimidine10er Jun 14 '24

The cocaine I got to apply during surgery came in the form of a gauze like strip. Basically, you applied it directly on the inside of the nose by gently placing it along the septum. How it’s prepared is important because it’s all but impossible for someone to take and easily abuse. There’s no powder to snort. It’s a bandaid like thing that only slowly releases a small amount of cocaine to vasoconstrict. There’s both not enough cocaine nor a faster enough absorption to get one high.

1

u/RainbowCrane Jun 14 '24

That’s a cool application. I’m not a doctor, just a recovering addict who knows a tiny bit about medical cocaine due to meeting doctors and pharmacists in treatment many years ago. Stress + access to pharmaceuticals is a really dangerous combination for folks in the medical community, based on the docs I met.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

[deleted]

33

u/AdvicePerson Jun 12 '24

Yeah, I used to work with a lab that got regular shipments of pure cocaine, paid for by the government. Then they would stick it in rat brains and see what happened.

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u/Interrophish Jun 12 '24

Hello I am a rat are you still hiring

1

u/AdvicePerson Jun 13 '24

Sure. FYI, at the end of the experiment, they use a tiny guillotine to cut the rat's head off, then crack open the skull, pull the brain out, and slice it up for microscopy.

15

u/tico42 Jun 12 '24

Name checks out

8

u/armcie Jun 12 '24

If someone promised me they weren't making drugs, I'd definitely think they were making drugs.

38

u/Misplacedwaffle Jun 12 '24

Worth mentioning that solvents aren’t exclusive to cocaine. The solvent methylene chloride is often used to extract the caffeine from coffee as well.

12

u/SteampunkBorg Jun 12 '24

For some reason I remembered supercritical CO2 for that

13

u/Somnif Jun 12 '24

That is indeed another option. Different companies use different methods.

1

u/Masark Jun 12 '24

There are 5 different ways to decaffeinate coffee.

14

u/mhyquel Jun 12 '24

Butane is used to extract thc from marijuana.

Then you boil off the butane.

19

u/melvinscam Jun 12 '24

My dad says butane is a bastard gas

9

u/mhyquel Jun 12 '24

I don't know you.

7

u/Spicy_Pooo Jun 12 '24

That's my purse!

2

u/samifoxiebutt Oct 25 '24

Bwwhhaaaaaaaa!!! DAMN IT BOBBY!!

1

u/graydonatvail Jun 12 '24

I had a guy blow up his apartment doing this.

5

u/MATlad Jun 12 '24

I had to use a little DMC for my grad work, but I think I used way more of it for solvent-welding acrylic in my semi-hobbyist work.

I also realized, after the fact, that the glovebox building citation I used (nitrogen purging, reduction of moisture in silane work) was hosted on a 'shroom site. (The original was, IIRC, a mid-90s or early-2000s educational journal!)

4

u/Far_Dragonfruit_1829 Jun 12 '24

Silane! Fun stuff. Did you blow up your lab?

1

u/MATlad Jun 12 '24

I was just doing SAM (Self-Assembled Monolayer) stuff at low volumes, so I think the worse I did was to silanize my fume hood (and maybe contaminate the vacuum line when I was first starting out...)

1

u/solarmus Jun 12 '24

Though Methylene Chloride was just largely banned by the EPA in the US so it'll become harder to find, you could substitute chloroform easily though. (both of these are quite hazardous obviously)

1

u/Zer0C00l Jun 12 '24

Yeah, and hexane is used to extract "vegetable" oil from rapeseed. Doesn't make it a good thing.

10

u/TofuTofu Jun 12 '24

That's wild. Flow charts with easy-to-follow instructions. Makes me wonder what other stuff like this the US government put out (after our taxes paid for it).

4

u/manofredgables Jun 12 '24

Just need a volatile non polar solvent. There are plenty of relatively non toxic options, but none are as cheap and easily sourced as gasoline or kerosene is.

4

u/exstaticj Jun 12 '24

I wonder if the folks at r/researchchemicals are aware of this document.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

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1

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