TEK - oxidizing cocaine...

[sputnik2020]

If swim wanted to purify his coca paste could he do it with hydrogen peroxide instead of potassium permagnate?
If so does any one know how?
Any help would be great

[Ahuaeynjx]

Well it depends if SWIY's coke was really the uncut "paste" which is the freebase, or if it was a dirty mix of coca hcl and various cuts.

Assuming the latter is what SWIY have in mind it is very difficult to purify cocaine these days since people cut it with various alkaloids like caffeine or ephedrine, some even use the dentist anasthesia powder... all those alkaloids will behave like cocaine and follow through even if you attemps an acid/base extraction.

So if SWIY has a small quantity , he can try to wash it in non-polar like toluene, then rinse the remenant with a little cold acetone. This will get rid of some toxins and wax kind of stuff but unless you have access to a chromatographic column or distillation apparatus and are working with large quantity you cannot do much more.

And who gave SWIY the crazy idea to oxidise SWIY's cocaine ? It will logically break down and become inactive or close to !

Namase,

Ahu

[Benga]

Originally Posted by Ahuaeynjx

Well it depends if SWIY's coke was really the uncut "paste" which is the freebase, or if it was a dirty mix of coca hcl and various cuts.


And who gave SWIY the crazy idea to oxidise SWIY's cocaine ? It will logically break down and become inactive or close to !

Namase,

Ahu

Ahuaeynjx, from what I read I believe 's Sputnik2020 not refering to processed cocaine purification but to actual coca paste step of cocaine processing, ie the step before it is converted to coca base and then to hcl.
it's about removing processing chemical impurities ( cinnamoylcocaines ), not removing cuts.
It is standard procedure to oxidise the paste with a potassium permanganate solution.
Can't really help with the original question but here is a describtion of this step from
Rhodium, with a note on alternate oxidizing agents, although they are not named, unfortunately.

Namaste to you too

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Alternate Oxidizing Agents

Although potassium permanganate is the most popular oxidizing agent (primarily because of its ready availability and the color change associated with its use), several alternate oxidizing agents have been increasingly reported. The efficacy of these latter reagents is under current investigation at this laboratory.

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Paste to base procedure :

Conversion of coca paste to coke base is a purification procedure. As was noted above, the cocaine purity level of coca paste varies from 30 to 80%, depending on the extraction technique, variety of coca, and competence of the operators. The remainder consists of inorganic salts and various alkaloidal impurities, notably cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, which are co-extracted from the leaves. Failure to remove these impurities results in a final product (i.e., cocaine hydrochloride) of poorer quality with respect to cocaine content and especially color and appearance. This is well known among laboratory operators, and as a result, this step is rarely skipped.

Coca paste is first re-dissolved in a small amount of dilute sulfuric acid (thus reconstituting a fresh agua rica solution); as previously noted, the solution has a yellowish-brown color similar to beer. Some operators then slightly increase the pH of the solution with careful addition of base. The solution is then titrated against a concentrated aqueous solution of potassium permanganate, a powerful oxidizing agent. Potassium permanganate gives an intensely purple solution when dissolved in water; as it reacts with the oxidizable alkaloidal impurities in coca paste, it is reduced to manganese dioxide (an insoluble, brown-black solid), which precipitates out of solution. While many operators just add a set volume of concentrated aqueous permanganate to a given weight of coca paste/volume of agua rica (as determined by experience), the more usual method is to slowly add the solution with vigorous stirring, wait a few minutes, and then check to see if the solution has any yellowish-brown color remaining. This is determined by visual inspection of the solution after waiting for the precipitated manganese dioxide to settle out; if the solution is still colored, the addition of the permanganate solution is continued until the solution is finally colorless. Thus, potassium permanganate also acts as its own visual endpoint indicator. Over-addition or too rapid addition of permanganate is known to result in decomposition and loss of cocaine, so the operators work carefully to get it just right.

When the permanganate addition is judged to be complete, the solution is filtered to remove the precipitated manganese dioxide. The resulting colorless, slightly acidic solution (still commonly referred to as agua rica, hereafter oxidized agua rica) is again treated with a solution of base (usually dilute ammonia at this stage) with stirring. Again, the ammonia neutralizes the cocaine sulfate and any remaining sulfuric acid, thereby precipitating purified coke base, which is filtered, dried, packaged, and transferred to a crystal laboratory.

In a recently developed and currently quite common variant, both solvent and acid extraction laboratories are being extended to production of coke base. In this alternate, coca paste is never isolated; rather, the unoxidized agua rica solution recovered from back-extracting the kerosene solution is filtered, adjusted (if desired) to higher pH with a carbonate or bicarbonate salt, and then treated directly with the potassium permanganate solution. This is a short-cut technique directly converting coca leaf to coke base, and offers several advantages to the clandestine operators:
There is a net savings of whatever inorganic base is being used to precipitate coca paste and the sulfuric acid required to reconstitute the agua rica;
The previously described difficulties associated with the poor shelf-life of coca paste are avoided (coke base is much more stable than coca paste); and
The operators save a lot of time.

Coke base generally varies from 80 to 95% cocaine. Since potassium permanganate oxidation tends to remove both the cinnamoylcocaines and other colored impurities typically found in coca paste, the appearance of coke base is usually much lighter, varying from light tan to white; in addition, it has a drier, more mobile (free-flowing) consistency versus coca paste.

If too little potassium permanganate is used, an individual coke base exhibit may retain significant levels of cinnamoylcocaines (varying as high as 15% relative to cocaine for coke base derived from ECVC). Conversely, if improper mixing, poor pH control, or excess permanganate is used, cocaine itself may be oxidized to N-formylcocaine, which in turn can be hydrolyzed to N-norcocaine8,10,26,33,60. N-norcocaine can also undergo an intramolecular transamination reaction, giving N-benzoyl norecgonine methyl ester26,60. Thus, poor potassium permanganate oxidation techniques contribute directly to the relative amounts and types of impurities found in the coke base and eventually in the resulting cocaine hydrochloride (i.e., high cinnamoylcocaines with low N-norcocaine and N-formyl cocaine contents or low cinnamoylcocaines with higher N-norcocaine, N-formylcocaine, and N-benzoyl norecgonine methyl ester contents).
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b

Reputation Comments on this post:

Great post , thanks for copying the info and keeping it alive !

[Ahuaeynjx]

What a weird idea to put cocaine into oxidizing conditions... many bees well know that if coca is put in water it will oxidise in a few hours since it is so sensitive, and why would the permanganate selectively attack the impurities, it's all alkaloids... I'm sorry it can well be on rhodium, but seems silly to me...

If they distilled their base I'm sure the product would end up around 80-90% pure. And SWIM know very well that the stupid oxidised cocaine SWIM can find in the street is incomparable to the yellow beige stuff (the crude filtered extract) that SWIM can find if SWIM goes into these countries that produce it ! Ask them to take the processed paste and they will refuse, they prefer to snort some gak than artificially aged cocaine...

You know what they say ; sometimes such crazynesses are so silly (ahem 9/11) that they can pass in front of SWIM'S face for generations before a human wakes up and is able to communicate clearly that this sillyness is physically verifiable by many means. SWIM know who the big drug barons are ; and SWIM know there have access to professional governmental labs... they just want to kill us ! SWIM must grow his own !

Namase,

Ahu

[Benga]

I think your confusion comes from the fact that you're not taking into account that the oxidisation is done at the cocaine paste stage, it is a standard part of the cocaine paste to cocaine base conversion, before HCl stage.
Oxidising HCl would indeed be detrimental. But we're talking about purification of cocaine *paste*.
It's not just because it's on rhodium, it's a really standard procedure in cocaine production for purifying paste with a high ciscinnamoylcocaine content - you are right in saying that yellow coloring is often a sign of less oxidised cocaine. The DEA has been pushing for a control of potassium permanganate and other oxidising agents as they are such a key element in cocaine production.

here are some other examples which confirm this procedure and might clear things up as to why the base is oxidised :

from druglibrary :

paste to base conversion

As with the paste recipes, the base recipes have many versions. This one is
one of the more common and a continuation of the paste recipe.

--Step 1

The coca paste is added to sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid and water. The

paste is dissolved into the acid solution.

--Step 2

Potassium permanganate is combined with water. This mixture is added to the

coca paste and acid solution. Potassium permanganate is used in this step to

extract other alkaloids and material that is undesired in the final product.

In particular, potassium permanganate is used to break down the alkaloid

ciscinnamoylcocaine found in large concentrations in E. novogranatense

varieties. If the coca paste has a high concentration of this alkaloid and

potassium permanganate is not used, then crystallization of cocaine HCl will

be very difficult.

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from a DEA website :

Operation Purple, a voluntary initiative launched in 1999 to track shipments over 100 kilograms of the key cocaine precursor potassium permanganate, demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy. In the first eight months of 2000, Operation Purple tracked 597 shipments totaling over 16,000,000 kilograms of potassium permanganate. Of these, 51 shipments were stopped or seized. In 1999, from its inception on April 15 through the end of the year, the figures were 248 shipments tracked, totaling 7,778,000 kilograms, and 32 shipments stopped or seized. During 2000, participation in Operation Purple grew from 18 to 28 countries, ICPO/INTERPOL, and the World Customs Organization. The UN International Narcotics Control Board has assumed the role of central coordinator of the operation.

One indication of the impact of Operation Purple is chemical analysis of recent cocaine seizures showing that only eight percent were highly oxidized. Formerly, 80-90 percent was in the highly oxidized range. Potassium permanganate is needed for oxidation. Highly oxidized cocaine is very white and fluffy. Lower oxidation results in a dark, lumpy and less attractive product. Another indication is that traffickers are attempting to manufacture their own potassium permanganate. In 2000, three clandestine potassium permanganate laboratories were uncovered in Colombia.

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a thread describing a (real) small scale extraction procedure, from what I remember the base is also oxidised with potassium perm :

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/sho...extraction+5kg



a DEA proposition to regulate not only potassium permanganate but also sodium because of its use in illicit cocaine production :


AGENCY: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Justice.
Sodium permanganate is directly substitutable for potassium permanganate, an important List II chemical used illicitly in the production of cocaine. Potassium permanganate is widely used as an oxidizing agent for removing impurities from coca base in the illicit production of cocaine. Potassium permanganate is utilized because it produces an aesthetically pleasing, white, crystalline form of cocaine hydrochloride, which is easily marketed.

Because of its importance in cocaine production, potassium permanganate has been the target of international cooperative efforts to monitor potassium permanganate shipments and prevent its diversion. This effort remains an international priority involving the competent authorities of 22 countries.

if you need more info on the use and role of oxidisation as a purification of cocaine PASTE, and of potassium permanganate in cocaine production you can google it up here :

http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8

[Ahuaeynjx]

Well SWIM understands what you mean in a way...

But SWIM is not confused, SWIM actually have taken all this into account and still if you ask SWIM, knowing how things are and how the greatness of sugar is destroyed in refinement for example, SWIM wouldn't put a so weak alkaloid in an oxidising environement to make it whiter ! SWIM would be more intelligent and distill the base, gas then proceed a good recrystalisation step !

Of course SWIM is just sharing ideas, SWIM still dosen't think "we" were talking about a particular thing since the thread starter isn't even participating ! This made SWIM laugh for a moment !

Namase,

Ahu