Quality of Cocaine

Qulity of Cocaine

I'm a regular peaker so I know all about testing my pills and do so all the time. I was just wondering is they a way of testing the qualtiy of coke without having to take it? Or do you just have a line a go yeah thats the stuff?

Well pill testers don't test for the quality of MDMA - just for it's presence. So unless you've got access some pretty kick arse (and highly expensive) lab equipment then there's no real way to test the quality of cocaine...
I believe there is some sort of reagent test for the presence of coke, but it's not as widely available as those used for amphetamines like the EZ-Test series. Check erowid, they might have some more info...
{edit}
OK... I found it on erowid here...
It's called the Cobalt-Thiocyanate reagent and it turns blue in contact with cocaine. It will also turn blue in the presence of PCP. Have no idea where you'd be able to get this reagent if you really wanted it though...
Full details on Cobalt-Thiocyanate reagent test kits here
Hope this helps...
[ 18 June 2002: Message edited by: Pleonastic ]

You can test the purity of cocaine hydrochloride by freebasing the white powder to 'free the base' cocaine from the hydrochloride. Essentially this is a process that when completed will let you know how much of your cocaine is actually cocaine (you'll probably be underwhelmed with surprise).
Generally street cocaine ranges up to about 30-60% purity for the maddest stuff that goes around. I have no figures to support this statement, but every time I've seen someone do a kitchen freebasing of some nice coke, they end up with an answer of bout 30-60% purity. This isn't to say that the coke is shit, if you receive this answer, it just means it's normal. People tend to expect that kind of purity. It also means when someone tells you they have 95% pure columbian fish scale, they've either gone there to pick it up themselves, or they're lying through their arse hehehe.
Typically freebasing cocaine involves mixing, say, a typical quantity of cocaine in warm water with about a half quantity of bicarb soda and heating and stirring until the reaction is complete. In the end what is left over, is usually some percentage (like 30-60%) of original weight of home-based cocaine. I say home-based because it's not technically cocaine freebase, which requires some more tricky chemistry and noxious chemicals. But, what you're left with is, technically, crack. (When smoked, the rock crack and any unreacted bicarb soda burns with a popping, cracking sound... hence the name). However, it's not normal cocaine, and since it's freebased in a fashion, it's not water soluble either, which means you can't snort it, because it won't dissolve in your nose. And, you can't eat it, because it's not really active that way either.
So there you are - you know how pure your cocaine was, but you can't use that portion as normal coke anymore. The process can be scaled down, I assume, though I haven't seen it done with smaller quantities than about a gram. If anyone wants specifics for this, email me. I'd rather not put a detailed crack recipe on Australian Drug Discussion just now.
BigTrancer
[ 19 June 2002: Message edited by: BigTrancer ]

Well they beat me to it.... again. The only thing I'll add about the Cobalt tester is that yes it does gove the same reaction to PCP, but it is very unlikely you'll get offered any of that posing as coke. There's more chance you'll be offered lidocaine, novacaine, and a few other man mde 'aines, either mixed in with the good stuff, or by themselves. All of these will also test positive with the cobalt tester, altho a certain chemist did once tell me there's a little known two stage test that can eliminate most of the common adulterants, but he never told me what it was coz he wanted to market it.
So basically using a Cobalt tester is about as reliable as that hoary old film cliche of sticking your finger in it and then sticking it in your mouth; if your mouth goes numb, well, you've got some sort of 'caine there...
There is also a process called "washing" which will remove all adulterants and leave you with only pure cocaine, but this is tricky, and is usually only done by people who move kilos around. Basically if you have to ask you'll never know

Thanks alot for your help guys!

Doing a small bump (which any good dealer should allow) before purchasing is truly the best way of determining quality. If that is not possible, and you are experienced with cocaine, taste might be useful as well.