"It taste like gas because it was smuggled inside a gas tank" ... good guess, but thats not true (or else ALL drugs would have that taste)..
A number of chemicals are used in the manufacture - early on, one of, hell, THE chemical used to extract the cocaine alkaloid from the coca leaves is, in fact, KEROSENE .. through out the process water and other solvents are stripped away, but the alkaloid is maintained in, yup, KEROSENE .. later in the process ETHER is introduced .. even in the final product the kerosene smell permiates...
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"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is: 'What are they in a position to do about it?'" (William S. Burroughs)