"Freebase" Ketamine?

[Jamshyd]

As some of you who visit PD may have noticed, I had a long argument in there with a girl from Italy who claims that "freebase Ketamine is the 2nd most popular drug in Italy", and says that it can be bassified and extracted with Toluene.

To me, everything she describes sounds as though she's confusing Ketamine for Amphetamine, or that someone is ripping her (and other people there) off.

Questions:

a) Is it actually even possible to make Ketamine freebase?

b) Would such a base, which I imagine would be oily, be suitable for snorting, or any use for that matter?

I am giving her the benefit of the doubt as I have heard some strange drug stories from Italy - such as the fact that they have many exotic benzos there.

 

[greenmeanies]

it is an amine, so it can be freebased and extracted for sure (toluene looks like a good solvent too)

whether or not it's oily, cannot really say

 

[Jamshyd]

^ So that answers point a. What about the more important point b?

What, exactly, is the point of freebasing Ketamine, much buying it as such for 2X the price of hcl (as the poster told us)?

 

[helium-4]

Freebase would be more potent, but I read that ketamine is very caustic (ketamine synthesis erowid). So if that is the case I'd imagine there wouldn't be a point and she doesn't know what she is talking about.

It certainly wouldn't be worth twice as much as freebase ketamine isn't twice as potent.

 

[enduin]

I can tell you that at least in northern Italy ketamine is far from being a popular drug, freebased or not. It's actually a quite hard one to find! So either that girl lives in an area where K is more common than here (every region of Italy is more like a standalone country) or more likely she's talking bullshit.

Btw if you think about delorazepam, yes seems like it's marketed here only, but you are not missing that much, just another long halflife benzo...

 

[MurphyClox]

In general, free bases are much less stabile and more prone to oxidation than the corresponding salts. There is no reason for 'freebasing' ketamine unless you want to smoke it.

Ketamine freebase should be a solid when pure. Melting point is 92-93 °C. The racemic hydrochlorid melts at ca. 262 °C (with some decomposition I guess).

Extraction with toluene of the freebase is likely, but as I wrote above: What for?


Cheers! - Murphy

 

[hugo24]

I've handled Ketamine analog freebases and they appeared stable enough (for chromatography for example), but aminoketons tend to degrade fast generally. In K's case, steric hindrance and the fact that no easy buildable 5 or 6 rings can be formed prevents fast decomposition.

Now it comes to my mind that the thermal rearrangment to Ketamin is done hours at 200° without much decompostion. So theoretically it could be smoked but still there would be dirty degradation products. I know for sure that in the freebases there are some "funny smelling" products present, though it can be the aminoketone itself as they are often strong smellers (for example "Prolinketon" 2-Acetylpyrrolidin smells from cooked rice in extremely(!!) small concentrations).

Or is there a point of ramming up the fb your butt? Hardly...