What's going on here and is this legit

[dalpat077]

Anybody in the know here care to give an opinion on the video below.

I posted this before (although this is an edited and trimmed version of the original that I found) and at first called BS. But I've subsequently found out that heating to evaporate excess water and solvents and speed up the process is indeed a crude shortcut (albeit not a recommended course of action). Note that the video is sped up in parts (point is this didn't happen in six or so minutes obviously).

One reason I'm still skeptical though is the apparent yield given the amount of starting organic material (although maybe all was not shown).

It's not me or anybody I know just by the way i.e. don't know these fellas from a bar of soap. But apparently this was done in the jungle in a far away place.

I'm inclined to think they ended up with a pile of baking soda but maybe not. It's not in agreement with any of the teks. that I've seen though.

Spoiler: Video

 

[sekio]

interesting that they add both acid, and base, to the coca leaves (one or the other please).

and given that they add a fuckload of bicarbonate to the (already basified) cocaine base in gasoline, and THEN boil off the solvent, I would hazard a guess that their "crack" is 75% bicarbonate or more

the problem with cocaine extraction is every little producer will have their own method that is based on word of mouth and not science

 

[dalpat077]

interesting that they add both acid, and base, to the coca leaves (one or the other please).

Pretty much what I noticed too and why I was inclined to call possible BS.

and given that they add a fuckload of bicarbonate to the (already basified) cocaine base in gasoline, and THEN boil off the solvent, I would hazard a guess that their "crack" is 75% bicarbonate or more

Same as above i.e. another reason for calling possible BS. That sure was some yield compared to the amount of organic material used initially (if, as I said in my initial post, the little bit that was initially shown in the video was all that was used or if that was just a small batch being added to a larger unseen batch of organic material).

The heating part is what threw me initially though (all of the above aside) i.e. all the teks. that I have would have you do the total opposite i.e. using ice baths etc. to keep the temperature down. But then I have found, since, one or two where heating, to speed up the procedure, is done. Who knows. Not I.

the problem with cocaine extraction is every little producer will have their own method that is based on word of mouth and not science

Yeah well. Hence my crass attempting to take a look at all of these things with a fresh pair of eyes as it were.

 

[sekio]

yeah a lot of things make no sense there
it really seems like a case of a couple locals running a good scam... "hey gringo, me show you how we make cocaine, 2000 peso". A certain fraction of the white male, 25-45 year old "party hard" travelers will jump for the opportunity, and are probably clueless about chemistry anyway (or at least too polite to ask questions/object)

1. I wonder if the leaves are even coca?
2a. Bicarbonate, okay, that's their base... now "potassium"? Clearly some sort of a salt given he didn't pour a liquid metal and cause a massive fire.
2b. Cement? You already have a base, it's not needed.
2c. Phosporous? Are you kidding me? Again, doesn't look like red phos, and certainly wasn't white phos because nothing burst into uncontrolled flames.
3. Now they add sulfuric acid, to immediately negate any of the cement and bicarbonate they added.
4. Pushing a dented pot full of gasoline and Lord knows what under the noses of your guests is kind of a bad move as a host, I think. They know what gas smells like, they are grown adults, likely with vehicles. When I was in the lab and I wanted someone to smell something, I would at worst badger them for a few minutes after proving to them the odor won't kill or incapacitate, that usually was all that I needed. Shove a glass bottle of ether under someone's face, they're liable to knock it right onto the floor, where it shatters into a million pieces, and oh yeah you're both inhaling ether now. whether you want to or not! Hopefully you have good ventilation, idiot!
5. They don't check pH at all, anywhere. I bet you money their extraction pH is way too acidic to extract any of the alkaloids at all into the gasoline. The chlorophyll obviously came along though.
6. Plastic bag as sep funnel is a Cool Lab Trick, though.
7. Why is there no attempt to dry the gasoline solution with anything? MgSO₄, hell even dry, fused, anhydrous sodium carbonate (cook the hell out of sodium bicarbonate) would work.
8. Why the hell do you need to heat the baking soda, on a gas stove? You're not heating enough to fully convert it to carbonate, not that it's necessary. It's not like it makes anything safer, adding hot reagents to low boiling solvents = not advised.
9. Gasoline solutions being cooked on an open gas burner, in a ladle of all containers? Are you looking for a pyrotechnic display, or just stupid?
10. Cocaine freebase melts at like, 90C. There's no way it would remain a white solid on an open gas burner set on high. With that setup it would all vaporize away.
911 Make sure nobody assays the end product, does any testing, or even keeps any as a sample. It would be a shame if it was just a bunch of sodium bicarbonate and some sodium carbonate, and contained next to no real cocaine.

These guys actually have a really good scam
Suprised nobody called them out on any of this

 

[dalpat077]

These guys actually have a really good scam
Suprised nobody called them out on any of this

Funny you should mention this. The two idiots that made the video (I cropped the original) didn't try it (at least not on the video). And the comments section was amusing to say the least. But, well, I had to ask of course (for the reasons given).

I got one or two more videos though i.e. a lot longer and sure do look like the real deal. Will post links to them (they don't require cropping of any kind).

 

[dalpat077]

You see. This is why we cannot have nice things!

This is a Vice article. And one would think it'd be accurate. Or why bother then if it's not?

I Learned How to Make Blow in Colombia

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Colombia is the world’s biggest producer of cocaine, providing around 80 percent of the whole planet’s supply. In true entrepreneurial spirit, mom and pop coke shops, or “kitchens,” pepper the countryside, churning...

www.vice.com

Moving on.

I wouldn't go watching the video content contained in the below spoiler unless you've been clean for at least 26 years and have no intention of ever going near the shit again!

Spoiler: Strictly for educational and research purposes only!

Spoiler: Last chance to change your mind and think twice!!

Alright then!


In this one we get to the microwave part toward the end. And not to mention some lab. equipment and glassware and measuring the pH etc. I saw BS being called about this video on drugs-forum though. Seems pretty legit to me when putting this all together and comparing it to the teks.




Here's another one but details a bit sketchy for my liking (note how the presenter seems to get the chemicals all mixed up). Heating applied.




In this one we also see heating applied:




This one I've included for one simple reason. Although they got interrupted take note of the part where the reporter gingerly sticks her finger into the solution to touch the precipitate and note the color and the formation. It seems this stuff precipitates out in chunks (as opposed to what these teks. would have you believe). And there's an uncanny resemblance between this, the video above, and the Vice article referenced in this post.




Note: if any of these videos become unavailable then please let me know (YouTube becoming a touchy feely with their copyright infringements and wasting my time).