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Getting rid of Levamisol

xxl

xxl

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This is what I read on the web: "The hydrochloride salt of levamisole is a white crystalline powder with odorless; soluble in water and methanol; slightly soluble in ethanol and methylene chloride; insoluble in ether; stable in acid aqueous media but hydrolyzes in alkaline (or neutral) solutions."

Ether is impossible to get rid of these days so let's forget about it. Ethanol is a possible solvent for purification. But what I'm most interested in is the fact that it hydrolyzes in alkaline (or neutral) solutions. This would mean that by basing your blow you hydrolyze (=destroy) the Levamisol. Good news. Question: are the hydrolisis products harmless?

Here's the source of the quotation: http://chemicalland21.com/lifescience/phar/LEVAMISOLE HYDROCHLORIDE.htm
 
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It seems that the solubility of levamisole in alcohol is still too high. Levamisole is even less soluble in dichloromethane though. What about coke in dichloromethane? If coke is very soluble in dichloromethane, then dichloromethane might be the solvent for purification. It is not too controlled and it is not even toxic. We have to find a way of getting rid of this shit.
 
OK, I'm talking to myself but I think this is important. It seems that chloroform could be a suitable purification solvent. Levamisole is considered "slightly soluble" in chloroform. Maybe someone could chip in with info as to whether cocaine solubility in chloroform is sufficient for chloroform to be used.

After all, drenching your blow in enough chloroform to dissolve all the blow, filtering out the particulates and leaving to evaporate is no big deal. Chloroform is not that hard to come by either.
 
I'm thinking that any mild base (bicarbonate, carbonate etc.) used to freebase coke might not be harsh enough to hydrolyze the thioamidine in Levamisole without heating/prolonged reaction time. (Though I personally don't have too much experience with thioamidines). This could be problematic since cocaine has two esters that are also susceptible to alkaline hydrolysis and trying to find conditions to selectively hydrolyze Levamisole in the presence of cocaine without destroying the cocaine would require experimentation and a good analytic equipment to make sure the cocaine has survived.

Anyone have a clue as to how much Levmisole is typically used as a cutting agent? If it's 1:1, 2:1, 3:1 etc.
 
seep said:
17:1
Click to expand...

lol

I was serious. If it's 1:1 with coke then recrystallization would be difficult. If the coke is at least about 70% pure, it should be amenable to purification with a couple of careful recrystallizations.

I was thinking that it would depend how "high up on the food chain" it was cut. It seems reasonable to me at least that if someone was using Levamisol to cut coke at an early stage, they might be doing it with at least a vaguely consistent ratio before it enters into circulation.

Dammit Seep, I'm a chemist not a drug dealer! :) (obviously a chemistry nerd evidenced by the Star Trek reference. . .)
 
I wasn't kidding. A 2007 Italian study found levamisole content to be 6% by weight. This is why so many people are groping about for a rationale as to why levamisole is added in the first place.

(whoops, I should've said 16:1)

If it continues to be present as an adulterant, after all the negative press, one has to begin dismissing the synergism theories.

I was thinking that it would depend how "high up on the food chain" it was cut. It seems reasonable to me at least that if someone was using Levamisol to cut coke at an early stage, they might be doing it with at least a vaguely consistent ratio before it enters into circulation.
Click to expand...

From everything I've read, the levamisole is added by the makers.
 
. . . Interesting. I wasn't expecting that level of precision. Sorry to assume you were joking :)

It would make sense I suppose for the producers of coke to be the culprits, since Levamisole is an exotic adulterant for everyone to be just throwing it in haphazardly throughout the drug hierarchy.
 
Try purification via a variation of column chromatography, called "Dry Column Vacuum Chromatography" (DCVC). See: Pedersen & Rosenbohm, Synthesis, 2001, 16, pp.2431 - 2434. The full paper is available in the Rhodium-archives at Erowid. Purification of several dozen grams is possible in one run, using a minimum of solvent. The questions is now: How do cocaine and levamisole perform on TLC?

- Murphy
 
There's a paper somewhere that you can separate C from all sorts of other ingredients (codeine, caffeine etc.) using benzene:acetone 50:50. How many grams would you say would be feasible using tlc? In my mind tlc is really an method of identification, not much of a purification method. I guess one would use a rather broad "paper", then cut out the band horizontally corresponding to the "coke front".
 
@xxl:

1. I don't think that there is ONE solvent mixture that can be used to purify cut cocaine. It always depends on the cutting agent. Maybe benzen/acetone 1:1 works for removing codeine and/or caffeine, but for sure not for cutting agents that are currently used...

2. With TLC one could purify at best some mg, but I was rather talking about a column chromatography technique called DCVC, which allows for the purification of up to 100 g with a minimum of solvent.
The question "How do cocaine and levamisole perform on TLC?" was aiming at the Rf-difference of those 2 compounds on an analytical TLC. This is always necessary to decide if a column is worth the effort or not.

- Murphy
 
^ If you have access, Clarke's Analysis of Drugs and Poisons lists the Rf values for various systems. From the look of that, separation using TLC shouldn't pose a problem.
 
As for the amounts of levamisole...

I wandered into ecstasydata.org, and there's been 3 samples of cocaine sent to them from last september to last january.

The ratios of cocaine:levamisole were 4:1, 10:1 and 2:1. So obviously the 16:1 ratio doesn't always hold true.
 
Wait a second here. Where would 2:1 cut come from? Why would smugglers send 50% cut cocaine through a smuggling route???

It supposedly wouldn't make sense that the levamisol is being added domestically...
 
Coolio said:
Wait a second here. Where would 2:1 cut come from? Why would smugglers send 50% cut cocaine through a smuggling route???

It supposedly wouldn't make sense that the levamisol is being added domestically...
Click to expand...

You made the same arithmetic mistake I did. Two parts to one is 67 and 33%.

But yeah, what the hell?

Question: In the late 90's I'd buy sacks of cutting powder at a flea market in Opalocka (Miami). I think I remember buying it in Jersey City too, but I'm not sure. IIRC, #1 cut was white and #2 was tan-colored (for heroin). They were in cellophane sacks labeled #1 and #2. Does anyone remember these products? I have no idea what they were.
 
is anybody stil on tis subject cuaze its quite interesting cuase even here in holland we are findig this cutting stuff???
 
I know this thread isn't exactly new but...

I just assumed the levamisole was being put in by the growers and processors of the cocaine before being sold to the smugglers.(ie mexican cartels) and that the levamisole must be hard for the smugglers to detect?

Like if I was cutting my coke with sugar the smugglers would easily be able to detect that and kill me. But they can't tell how much leva is in there. only thing that makes sense to me.

Like melamine in milk kind of?

How would levamisole effect the hot plate test? How do smugglers test the purity? And if levamisole is destroyed by alkaline solutions then maybe it cooks up into crack real easy...easier than other cuts.
 
I have seen testing kits that rely on the inhibition of bovine alkaline phosphatatse by levamisole. The enzyme works on a colorless compound to convert it to an orange nitro compound which indicates the BAP is working - iff the reaction doesn't happen then the coca is adulterated.
 
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