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Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: bobhope333 on September 11, 2013, 12:24 pm

Title: Cocaine to base- problem with particular brand of ammonia
Post by: bobhope333 on September 11, 2013, 12:24 pm
Hi, I recently purchased a gram of very nice coke, I used a kief catcher to powder it, as 1/3 was stuck to the screen, I used a small amount of water to dissolve it off and decided to base it, I used some ammonia- Knockout- Bird Brand, I think- not at home at mo (recently purchased after ammonia was banned from UK shop shelves- may have bought from a shop though, can't remember). Usually, I just use straight ammonia, but it should have worked anyway, what happened was, it just went very cloudy- not really a precipitation. No oil appeared floating or at the bottom, even on heating, I added more ammonia in case it was especially weak ammonia- no difference! I covered the glass beaker with tinfoil and left it, the next day the white cloud had gone and it was perfectly clear. Having found some PH litmus paper, I tested it and found the solution to be at least 9, if not more- showing it was certainly alkaline enough to basify the C.
After having done all this, I remember I had a similar thing happen last time I used this particular brand of ammonia- that time, I put it down to the coke, BUT this time, I know the coke was really good C, so it must be the ammonia. I shook the bottle, but no real frothy suds form, but am wondering if it could be some additive that has been used in new ammonia to prevent it's use in such a situation- anti-abuse.
My next step is to use some hexane to attempt to dissolve the base (if any exists) and extract it (hexane being non-polar- no access at the moment, to diethyl ether, hoping hexane will be a good substitue).
Basically, I would like to know if hexane would work, and if anybody can shine any light as to why it has gone wrong (please, no replies saying it must be the C, I can pretty much discount that).
Other issue is, if the C has not basified (though after measuring the alkalinity, I don't see how that could be possible), what solvent would be best for lifting it back out of solution.
Hope somebody with sound knowledge can help me with this, it has been in solution for 4 or 5 days now, I am worrying that it will have oxidised and be useless very soon, if it is left!
Title: Re: Cocaine to base- problem with particular brand of ammonia
Post by: Ben on September 12, 2013, 01:07 am
You should be careful in choosing your ingredients.

Many of these conversion reactions call for household chemicals, but some of them contain substances that may improve their performance in cleaning and such, but ruin any chemial reactions you try with them. In case of ammonia you would, for example, want just ammonia and not something that contains surfactants (soap) as well.

It may sound stupid, but in case of chemicals like ammonia or lye, the best options are usually the cheapest products available.

Hexane as such is fine to do the free base extraction, as long as you are aware of the serious fire hazards, and not mess up the pH increase step using ammonia products containing soaps and such!
Title: Re: Cocaine to base- problem with particular brand of ammonia
Post by: bobhope333 on September 13, 2013, 09:03 am
You should be careful in choosing your ingredients.

Many of these conversion reactions call for household chemicals, but some of them contain substances that may improve their performance in cleaning and such, but ruin any chemial reactions you try with them. In case of ammonia you would, for example, want just ammonia and not something that contains surfactants (soap) as well.

It may sound stupid, but in case of chemicals like ammonia or lye, the best options are usually the cheapest products available.

Hexane as such is fine to do the free base extraction, as long as you are aware of the serious fire hazards, and not mess up the pH increase step using ammonia products containing soaps and such!
Thanks Ben, I'm really surprised that something like that could stop such a basic reaction, what a bastard! Typical of our nanny state, that it's been taken off the shop shelves. I tried to pull it out with the hexane, but nothing came out at all, I guess I'll just have to dump it, I don't suppose there is any way to remove the coke from the ammonia/soap solution, would one end up with some sort of ammonia salt mixed with the cocaine hcl, I presume the cocaine will still be in it's hcl form,(my chemistry is a bit limited!). To be honest, it's a bit of an intellectual endeavor, as I wouldn't really fancy using it even if I could extract it- I covered the glassware with some aluminium foil to stop the fumes floating round the house, it ended up being left like that for nearly a week, the foil looks a bit discoloured, so I'd be afraid of the solution being contaminated with some aluminium salt or something.Think I'll have to invest in some text books, it always used to be my favourite subject at school, but that was quite a while ago now, lol.
Cheers for the fire warning, I have been pretty careful, I opened all my windows to get a good through draught, and I turned off my fridge (did it in the kitchen), to prevent sparks. I went for the hexane as, as far as I could make out from the net, it was pretty much equivalent to diethyl ether, but without the problems of explosive peroxides forming! There does seem to be quite a difference of opinion as to what the danger of peroxides forming is, it would appear that most diethyl ether has something in it to help prevent that, but I don't fancy taking chances so I'll just stick to the hexane, it took me a while to get my head round all the different names, ie, petroleum ether (hexane) and diethyl ether, etc. Some sources seem to just say ether, I suppose that is the problem of trying to gain knowledge off the Internet, it's not quite the same as a good old text book written by a chemist!
Also ( sorry to pick your brain like this!), but could you substitute lye for ammonia, or would it be too alkaline, ie, would it harm the cocaine?