Cracked up - A "base" problem. Background story and social detonators. (Part 1/3)

renzoarg (68)in #science • 7 years ago (edited)

What is crack and freebase Cocaine? Is it true that it creates irrecoverable zombies?

Golf pants, Volkswagen minivans, disco music and "kitchens" in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. The 70s. 1972, to be exact, Jesus was anxiously waiting at the fields, it could've been a Yucca plantation, but it was more beneficial to grow Coke (the plant, not the soda). Restless, he walks around the rather small facilities delimited by just the shadow that is cast by an improvised canvas roof as a tent. From time to time he stops moving and glances towards the rough hands that are stirring a mix in a pot, total strangers to the stench, sweat, mosquitoes and humidity.

- Is it done yet?

- Hold on, not yet, be patient!

- Just leave it as it is. Give it to me, I can't stand the cravings anymore.

Jesus smoked it nearly "raw". And he could not stop. He wandered Lima's streets, and mentioned to anyone that asked that he was smoking freebase cocaine, way more intense. He mentioned that the effect was short, the pleasure minimal, he mentioned that he was not felling very good, that he did not like it... And that he needed more. He did not eat nor sleep, until he spent his last energy reserves in a rant in the middle of the streets and collapsed.
He was taken to the hospital. In that moment, Jesus became the first patient ever registered under treatment for freebase cocaine consumption..

As the doctors and other healthcare professionals took a look at him, they were astonished by the particularities his clinical profile displayed, totally different to the one cocaine consumers had. Jesus, was the first domino o many. Quickly several similar cases appeared, not only at Peru; also at neighboring countries, a public concern alarm was triggered because of this new drug.

The freebase cocaine is a form that can be smoked. It is NOT the residue of the cooking pots used to prepare cocaine. Actually, it is the product that is acquired off a previous processing stage of the drug Wall Street brokers prefer

More crude, less pure than the traditional cocaine, easier to elaborate, it can be produced at a higher rate and be sold cheaper. The ideal biz.

The first registries are from back in the 70s-80s, from the countries where coke plantations and manufacturing labs were abundant (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia). The prohibition of sales over chemical precursors used to manufacture cocaine chlorhydrate -a strategy used to fight drugs in those countries- catalyzed the displacement of the manufacturing and consumption southwards, towards Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. In my country, Argentina, and Uruguay, the freebase established definitely in the drug market during the 2001-2002 economic crisis, that generated a major impact among the vulnerable part of the population. Therefore, it became "the drug of the poor", "Paco", the problem, instead of increasing the attention towards the needy part of the civilian population, it empowered their already prevalent social stigmas.