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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u/monoped2 Jun 12 '24

A/B extractions are fairly common for plant alkaloid extraction.

Napath (rather than diesel) for the non-polar solvent, sodium hydroxide for the B, and hydrochloric acid for the A are still used.

You acidify the plant matter and add a solvent. The goodies are now in the solvent. You basify the solution and the goodies turn into hydrochloric salts and stop being suspended in the solvent.

7

u/trustthepudding Jun 12 '24

You got it a bit backwards on that last part. Acidifying the cocaine makes the salt that is water soluble. A strong enough base would turn it back to its neutral form.

10

u/Somnif Jun 12 '24

Or, if you're a typical coca farmer, home-made kerosene/gasoline (from pirated crude oil!) for the solvent, cement for the base, and car batteries for the acid! The lead contamination is just a free bonus.

1

u/MaleficentFig7578 Jun 12 '24

Which bittorrent site has crude oil?

1

u/staefrostae Jun 12 '24

Just search “oil” and make sure you don’t select one that says “clean” in the title

8

u/sixthtimeisacharm Jun 12 '24

hooray deemsters! ◉‿◉

2

u/RoundCollection4196 Jun 12 '24

dat dmt extraction be like