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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Heroin Why does Black Tar Heroin exist?

H

hahapotatoman

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 9, 2021
Messages
6
From what I understand, it's worse in every way to powder heroin, and it doesn't even look like powder heroin is much more expensive than black tar.
 
hahapotatoman said:
From what I understand, it's worse in every way to powder heroin, and it doesn't even look like powder heroin is much more expensive than black tar.
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From what I've read black tar exists because it's made by acetylation of morphine that is extracted from opium along with all the other alkaloids present in opium rather than being made by acetylation of pure morphine. This means it has a lot of other acetylated crap and reaction byproducts in it.

Interestingly, the last time I got actual heroin (not the gray or white fentadope) it was a dark brown powder the day I bought it. The very next day it had absorbed moisture from the air or something and it turned into a brown, tacky, putty-like consistency. It was more like opium or some kinds of hash in consistency at that point.
 
hahapotatoman said:
From what I understand, it's worse in every way to powder heroin, and it doesn't even look like powder heroin is much more expensive than black tar.
Click to expand...
Really? Over my years of experience on both coasts, black tar heroin has always been quite a bit cheaper than powder heroin.

Of course you have to factor in the different purity levels. BTH seems to max out at 45-47%, while good ECP used to reach levels of 65-70%. At those levels a gram of ECP should cost 1.5x a gram of BTH... even then, IME, an actual gram of ECP (not a bundle weighing 0.4-0.8g) usually costs more than that.

There is a logical reason for tar to be cheaper as well as worse. Powder heroin, AFAIK, can only be made with acetic anhydride (AA), a notorious precursor chemical that is subject to tight international controls, making it relatively expensive and difficult to obtain on the black market. Tar heroin, on the other hand, can be produced by treating morphine base with glacial acetic acid (GAA), a less-restricted chemical that is widely used for legitimate purposes, which is therefore cheaper to obtain.

The level of residual acidity in the final product (heroin) is much higher when GAA rather than AA is used to acetylate the morphine. After all the conversion is done, acid hydrolysis draws moisture into the heroin, turning it into solid "tar." Impurities drawn in along with the moisture are responsible for the "black" coloration.

The acid hydrolysis taking place in the black tar can also end converting some of the original diacetylmorphine (DAM) into 3-/6-monoacetylmorphine (3-/6-MAM). The latter (6-MAM) is what heroin becomes in your body before it reaches the brain, and it may actually be a stronger opiate than DAM per milligram. The presence of unconverted morphine is also more common in black tar -- giving it the reputation for "pins-and-needles" effects -- since GAA isn't as effective as AA at acetylating 100% of the base.
 
JTemperance said:
Really? Over my years of experience on both coasts, black tar heroin has always been quite a bit cheaper than powder heroin.

Of course you have to factor in the different purity levels. BTH seems to max out at 45-47%, while good ECP used to reach levels of 65-70%. At those levels a gram of ECP should cost 1.5x a gram of BTH... even then, IME, an actual gram of ECP (not a bundle weighing 0.4-0.8g) usually costs more than that.

There is a logical reason for tar to be cheaper as well as worse. Powder heroin, AFAIK, can only be made with acetic anhydride (AA), a notorious precursor chemical that is subject to tight international controls, making it relatively expensive and difficult to obtain on the black market. Tar heroin, on the other hand, can be produced by treating morphine base with glacial acetic acid (GAA), a less-restricted chemical that is widely used for legitimate purposes, which is therefore cheaper to obtain.

The level of residual acidity in the final product (heroin) is much higher when GAA rather than AA is used to acetylate the morphine. After all the conversion is done, acid hydrolysis draws moisture into the heroin, turning it into solid "tar." Impurities drawn in along with the moisture are responsible for the "black" coloration.

The acid hydrolysis taking place in the black tar can also end converting some of the original diacetylmorphine (DAM) into 3-/6-monoacetylmorphine (3-/6-MAM). The latter (6-MAM) is what heroin becomes in your body before it reaches the brain, and it may actually be a stronger opiate than DAM per milligram. The presence of unconverted morphine is also more common in black tar -- giving it the reputation for "pins-and-needles" effects -- since GAA isn't as effective as AA at acetylating 100% of the base.
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All on point
 
There’s always the debate over whether it’s a result of using glacial acetic acid or the impure starting material. I can confidently say it’s the starting material. Acetic anhydride is a lot easier to obtain than one would think, but purifying morphine isn’t nearly as easy. If Glacial Acetic acid were so prevalent we’d see a lot more 6-MAM and unreacted morphine in samples of BTH then we do. Nearly always its most/all DAM, which would indicate AA used.

Then if we next look at the plethora of other alkaloids in the tar, we see either a crude extract or opium (likely crude extract) is used as the starting material.

I personally prefer the pure thing to the soup of alkaloids but everyone’s different, the other alkaloids bring more sedation. Also the tarry impurities found in opium and BTH will absorb moisture like a sponge as you experienced @simstim.

-GC
 
Last edited:
G_Chem said:
There’s always the debate over whether it’s a result of using glacial acetic acid or the impure starting material. I can confidently say it’s the starting material.
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Agree. I don't think one could obtain anywhere near 40-50% diacetylmorphine using glacial acetic acid without some kind of catalyst.
The main product would likely be morphine acetate (which is a salt and not an ester) and small amounts of 6-MAM.
It may be doable if you used a very large excess of glacial acetic acid and managed to boil off the water at the same time, but even then, it wouldn't be very efficient IMO...
I bet they're still using AA.
 
OpiateKiller said:
I’d take black tar over fentanyl anyday. I love shooting black tar
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Isn't black tar quite dirty? As in it contains a lot of impurities and so on... That's what I know from my research and they all say this makes it easy to get abscesses etc. when injected, even with good IV practices.

I can only get freebase heroin here in the UK and that has to be made into a water soluble salt with vitamin C or citric acid (vit C is much better for your veins as it is less acidific) and even this type kind of scares me when thinking about injecting it.
It's a quite acidic solution and I wonder what putting that into veins can do after a while, even with perfect hygiene.

I thought I'd never inject anything intravenously but I was going through withdrawal during Christmas of all times and all I had that was an opioid in the house was a forgotten baggy of heroin freebase. I don't have real life dealers and no post during the long Christmas bank holiday period. There was less than a point in the old baggy I had.
I don't really get much out of smoking it so that's why it had sat unused till then. It's just a complete waste for me.
I felt so bad with the withdrawal that I decided to give IV heroin a try for the first time ever.
Had sterile needles, syringes, cooker and filter and alcohol swabs and even sterile water ampoules. Sterile vitamin C sachets too. All obtained through the exchange website. I had all I needed for a safe injection at least.
I even washed my arm with soap before swabbing with alcohol.
Took me a couple of tries but I got into a vein (I had read a lot about IVing and watched videos out of curiosity many times before I ever even considered injecting intravenously).
I felt an instant warmth and the feeling of sleepiness. My eyes also always get dry when an opioid hits me. I didn't nod hard or anything. Didn't do enough for that to happen. It just immediately took all my withdrawal away at least and it also lasted quite a long time. Slept well that night for the first time in days.

I then washed my arm again with soap after applying pressure where the injection site was and used hirudoid cream on it to try and avoid getting any permanent marks.

The only thing unsterile thing I used was the heroin itself basically.
I don't think I could have been any more hygienic than that.
I'm really paranoid about stuff like that.

I don't think I could ever consider IVing black tar instead. Even during a bad withdrawal. I'd stick it up my butt maybe.

I know with black tar there's a risk of botulism with it as well and it can contain plant matter and who knows what else (not even talking about the pure cuts).

I wonder how your veins are doing if you IV tar.
How long have you been IVing it for?
I'm just curious and you don't have to reply if you don't want to.
I do hope it hasn't wrecked your veins and you're doing good still.
 
OpialiciouslyMe said:
Isn't black tar quite dirty? As in it contains a lot of impurities and so on... That's what I know from my research and they all say this makes it easy to get abscesses etc. when injected, even with good IV practices.

I can only get freebase heroin here in the UK and that has to be made into a water soluble salt with vitamin C or citric acid (vit C is much better for your veins as it is less acidific) and even this type kind of scares me when thinking about injecting it.
It's a quite acidic solution and I wonder what putting that into veins can do after a while, even with perfect hygiene.

I thought I'd never inject anything intravenously but I was going through withdrawal during Christmas of all times and all I had that was an opioid in the house was a forgotten baggy of heroin freebase. I don't have real life dealers and no post during the long Christmas bank holiday period. There was less than a point in the old baggy I had.
I don't really get much out of smoking it so that's why it had sat unused till then. It's just a complete waste for me.
I felt so bad with the withdrawal that I decided to give IV heroin a try for the first time ever.
Had sterile needles, syringes, cooker and filter and alcohol swabs and even sterile water ampoules. Sterile vitamin C sachets too. All obtained through the exchange website. I had all I needed for a safe injection at least.
I even washed my arm with soap before swabbing with alcohol.
Took me a couple of tries but I got into a vein (I had read a lot about IVing and watched videos out of curiosity many times before I ever even considered injecting intravenously).
I felt an instant warmth and the feeling of sleepiness. My eyes also always get dry when an opioid hits me. I didn't nod hard or anything. Didn't do enough for that to happen. It just immediately took all my withdrawal away at least and it also lasted quite a long time. Slept well that night for the first time in days.

I then washed my arm again with soap after applying pressure where the injection site was and used hirudoid cream on it to try and avoid getting any permanent marks.

The only thing unsterile thing I used was the heroin itself basically.
I don't think I could have been any more hygienic than that.
I'm really paranoid about stuff like that.

I don't think I could ever consider IVing black tar instead. Even during a bad withdrawal. I'd stick it up my butt maybe.

I know with black tar there's a risk of botulism with it as well and it can contain plant matter and who knows what else (not even talking about the pure cuts).

I wonder how your veins are doing if you IV tar.
How long have you been IVing it for?
I'm just curious and you don't have to reply if you don't want to.
I do hope it hasn't wrecked your veins and you're doing good still.
Click to expand...

I never had any issues nor vein damage, it was a great high and rush. Granted this was after fentanyl ruined my local supply but a friend was getting it shipped from Mexico .

Add a little heat for 10-15 seconds and you got a nice brown syringe full and boom to the moon

I mean ya I’d take #3 or #4 Netherlands / Afghan dope any day over black tar
 
I’ll never forget traveling to Seattle one time and went off into a stairwell to smoke some bud I bought on the street. I saw the nastiest used needle with the back end completely warped and black from what looked like someone heating and stirring some shitty BTH. Felt so bad for whoever that was.. If the heroin doesn’t dissolve with the tiniest heat it scares me to think injecting.

-GC
 
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