Articles On Cocaine
Cocaine is a very dangerous and illegal drug. This book is not intended to be used in the manufacture of cocaine but merely for informational purposes. Chemistry, even in its most basic form, can be very dangerous. None of the information in this book should be tried. Cocaine is a very addictive drug and can require extensive rehabilitation in order to overcome its addictive powers. There are some great resources out there to help you overcome this addiction. Here are some resources:
Overview:
Cocaine does not require the erthroxylum coca leaves in order to be manufactured. One can use alternate sources for the primary alkaloid. This method uses the tropine alkaloid which is initially derived from the belladonna atropina plant (known as Deadly Nightshade and is found mainly in Europe).
Cocaine:
3-beta-hydroxy-1alphaH, 5alphaH-tropane-2beta carboxylic acid methyl ester benzoate, C17H21NO4.
Synthesis:
The proposed synthesis is such that no raw materials are required from any of the current cocaine producing countries. The basic formula for cocaine is as follows:
- Making tropinone. This uses succinaldehyde as the precursor which is originally synthesized from atropine.
- Converting the tropinone into 2-carbomethoxytropinone (also known as
methyl-tropan-3-one-2-carboxylate), This is an oxidation.
- Reducing 2-carbomethoxytropinone to ecgonine, Columbians convert raw plant leaves to ecgonine using alkaloid extraction. This is a reduction.
- Changing ecgonine to cocaine base. This is where the Columbians start their process after extracting the alkaloid-containing ecgonine from the raw plant leaves.
- Changing cocaine base to cocaine hydrochloride. This is 97% pure and is, essentially, the same as what the Columbians produce.
Economic Impact:
The wide acceptance and implementation of such a process would have a tremendous economic impact on North America, the cocaine producing countries (Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil) and the intermediary transit countries (Mexico, Carribean, Costa Rica, etc.). The flow of illicit drug money would stop going from North America into Central America and South America. This would greatly improve the economic conditions of North America but would, potentially, impoverish those countries that are directly involved in the cultivation, production, transportation and trafficking of cocaine.
Political Impact:
This process, if implemented, would have severe political ramnifications. The current political leaders, corrupt or not, would definitely feel the impact due to the lack of money coming in to their respective countries. This would also have an impact on the corrupt politicians in North America if such domestic cocaine production occurred.
Legal:
Cocaine is not legal to produce or sell and therefore it should not be manufactured under any circumstances. This brief is merely for introspective thought. If however, cocaine was legalized, then these procedures could be followed in order to produce an economically feasible domestic cocaine manufacturing facility.
Feasibility:
All of the raw materials and production apparatus are readily available. The costs of producing one ounce of 97% pure cocaine would be approximately $200.00 US. This represents about 10% of the current cost (based on current street prices). This means that (a) 90% of the profits would remain with the end consumer and (b) the other 10% would remain with the raw material producers (mainly in North America).
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