Highs: The lowdown

Cocaine C17H21NO4 is a crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant Erythroxylum coca, grown extensively in Colombia. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and is known to suppress appetite. Ingesting cocaine creates a euphoric sense of happiness and increased energy. It is for this reason that cocaine is used as a 8216;8216;recreational drug8217;8217;. The alkaloid, however, is also a topical anesthetic that was used in eye, throat, and nose surgery in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Cocaine can be addictive, and its possession, cultivation, and distribution is illegal for non-medicinal / non-government sanctioned purposes in virtually all parts of the world.

To extract cocaine, coca leaves are put into a solution of water and sulfuric acid, in which it is kept submerged for a few days. The fluid is then drawn off and subjected to a succession of mixing and stirring in plastic buckets8212;limewater, petrol, acid, potassium permanganate, ammonia. The reddish brown liquid that results is filtered. When ammonia drops are added to the filtrate, it turns milky and starts curdling. The curdling results in ivory-coloured granules. This is the cocaine base, with cocaine content of around 75 per cent. Around 500 kg of leaves yields half a kilo of base. The base is further refined with chemicals into cocaine hydrochloride, which is the white or cream-coloured crystalline powder that is the final product.

Heroin or diacetylmorphine C21H23NO5 is a semi-synthetic opioid. It is a derivative of morphine, which itself is derived from opium. Acetylation of morphine produces the white crystalline form, diacetylmorphine hydrochloride. It is highly addictive.

Morphine is first isolated from the crude opium. This involves dissolving opium in water, reacting with lime fertiliser to produce a precipitate that is again reacted with ammonia; what is left is then filtered to yield morphine. The morphine is reacted with acetic anhydride8212;a chemical also used in the production of aspirin8212;in a complicated five-step process. The first step requires cooking the morphine at 85 degrees Celsius for six hours with an equivalent weight of acetic anhydride. In the second, a treatment of water and hydrochloric acid purifies the product moderately. Addition of sodium carbonate at this stage produced a particulate: heroin. Step four involves heating the heroin in a mixture of alcohol and activated charcoal until the alcohol evaporates. The fifth step is optional, as it only changes the heroin into a finer white powder, more easily injectable. In this last, most dangerous step, the heroin after being dissolved in alcohol, precipitates in tiny white flakes when a mixture of ether and hydrochloric acid is injected; this step is dangerous due to the fact that the ether may explode, levelling or severely damaging the refinery.