cocaine paste
{{broader|Cocaine}}
{{short description|Crude extract of the coca leaf}}
{{Redirect|Oxi||OXI (disambiguation)}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=December 2020}}
Coca paste (paco, basuco, oxi, pasta) is a crude extract of the coca leaf which contains 40% to 91% cocaine freebase along with companion coca alkaloids and varying quantities of benzoic acid, methanol, and kerosene. In South America, coca paste, also known as cocaine base and, therefore, often confused with cocaine sulfate in North America, is relatively inexpensive and is widely used by low-income consumers. The coca paste is smoked in tobacco or cannabis cigarettes and use has become widespread in several Latin American countries. Traditionally, coca paste has been relatively abundant in South American countries such as Colombia where it is processed into cocaine hydrochloride ("street cocaine") for distribution to the rest of the world.{{citation | editor1=Nicholas J. Kozel | editor2=Edgar H. Adams | author=Ronald K. Siegel | author-link=Ronald K. Siegel | contribution=New Patterns of Cocaine Use: Changing Doses and Routes | title=Cocaine Use in America: Epidemiologic and Clinical Perspectives | series=NIDA Research Monograph | volume=61 | year=1985 | publisher=U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services | pages=204–222 | url=http://archives.drugabuse.gov/pdf/monographs/61.pdf | access-date=2016-04-09 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009021412/http://archives.drugabuse.gov/pdf/monographs/61.pdf | archive-date=2016-10-09 | url-status=dead }} The caustic reactions associated with the local application of coca paste prevents its use by oral, intranasal, mucosal, intramuscular, intravenous or subcutaneous routes. Coca paste can only be smoked when combined with a combustible material such as tobacco or cannabis.{{citation | editor=A. Arif | title=Adverse health consequences of cocaine abuse | publisher=World Health Organization | year=1987 | url=http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/37270/1/9241561076.pdf}}
History
Coca paste use began in Bolivia and Peru in the early 1970s, first in the capital cities and then in other towns and rural areas. In a few years its use had spread to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and some Mexican cities near the border with the United States.
In Argentina, cocaine paste was sold for about 30 cents per dose in 2006, enough for a powerful two-minute high.{{cite news |quote=Paco is cheap. It usually goes for about 30 cents a dose, enough for a powerful two-minute high. |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0405/p04s01-woam.html |first=Kelly |last=Hearn |date=April 5, 2006 |title= A new scourge sweeps through Argentine ghettos: 'paco' |work=The Christian Science Monitor |accessdate=10 December 2020 }} However, its price has increased because of higher demand, among other reasons.{{cite news |url=http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/31102007/43/n-argentina-nuevo-precio-paco.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102061634/http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/31102007/43/n-argentina-nuevo-precio-paco.html |archivedate=November 2, 2007 |url-status=dead |title= El nuevo precio del paco |language=es |date=31 October 2007 |work=ar.news.yahoo.com }}
Preparation and effects
Crude cocaine preparation intermediates are marketed as cheaper alternatives to pure cocaine to local markets while the more expensive end product is exported to United States and European markets. Freebase cocaine paste preparations can be smoked. The psychological and physiological effects of the paco are quite severe.{{cite journal|last=Jeri|first=FR|title=Coca-paste smoking in some Latin American countries: a severe and unabated form of addiction|journal=Bulletin on Narcotics|year=1984|volume=36|issue=2}}{{cite journal|last=Phillips|first=Katharine|author2=Adriana Luk |author3=Gursharan S. Soor |author4=Jonathan R. Abraham |author5=Shaun Leong |author6=Dr Jagdish Butany |title=Cocaine Cardiotoxicity|journal=American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs|date=June 2009|volume=9|issue=3|pages=177–196|doi=10.1007/bf03256574 |pmid=19463023|s2cid=70385136}} Media usually report that it is extremely toxic and addictive.{{cite web|last=Mcdonnell |first=Patrick J. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-25-fg-paco25-story.html |title=Argentina confronts plague named Paco |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2007-05-25 |access-date=2009-04-05}}{{cite news|author=Christine Legrand |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2009/03/26/en-argentine-des-meres-se-mobilisent-contre-le-paco-la-drogue-des-pauvres_1172844_3222.html#ens_id=1170226 |title=En Argentine, des mères se mobilisent contre le "paco", la drogue des pauvres – Amériques |newspaper=Le Monde.fr |accessdate=2009-04-05|date=2009-03-26 }}{{cite news|last=Navai |first=Ramita |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3828309.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726120712/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3828309.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 July 2008 |title=Cocaine's lethal leftovers take violent grip on slum children |work=The Times |date= 2008-04-28|accessdate=2009-04-05 | location=London}} {{Registration required}} According to a study by Intercambios, media appear to exaggerate the effects of paco. These stereotypes create a sense that nothing can be done to help a paco addict and thus stand in the way of rehabilitation programs.{{cite web |url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34692 |title=DRUGS-ARGENTINA: 'Pasta Base' Destructive but Not Invincible |publisher=Ipsnews.net |date=2006-12-09 |accessdate=2009-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213162639/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34692 |archive-date=2009-02-13 |url-status=dead }}
''Basuco'', Colombia
Basuco is the term used for cocaine paste in Colombia. Basuco is derived from the Spanish word for trash (basura), literally meaning "dirty trash" (of cocaine), referring to the paste left at the bottom of a barrel after cocaine production. Basuco is mostly smoked, either rolled like a cigarette with tobacco or cannabis, or more commonly from selfmade pipes. These are often improvised from PVC so users will inhale toxic plastic components. Another term was bazoca 'big mouth' meaning it can be swallowed or hidden in damp areas flushed in toilet thrown in ponds if raided or someone with a big mouth told cops about you on way to process lab by mules through jungle paths etc. But most likely because workers could hide it in their mouth if hiding it or stealing it to get it into prisons, punishable by death by many cartels if they find the growers smoke it as they become a liability. Also named bazooka to many in the international trade in western countries due to it being the base alkaline smoke able form smoked on an hooka pipe western slang base hooka aka bazooka slang bazooka Joe, hey Joe what do you know being a saying on OK what's the result is it pure and how much as it came about as a way to test purity of cocaine after the base to cocaine hydrochloride path a known quantity of soluble cocaine is dissolved then filtered from any unsoluble cuts then weighed and finally put through the acid base process base extracted in water the precipitate oil base solidified then removed and weighed against the evaporated water containing cut or salt weight left behind then compared to an equation of known extraction loss IE. 1gm pure cocaine roughly loses 12% of the weight as reaction loss occurs candy rock is different and can gain weight but less pure as contains sodium chloride salts carbon dioxide bubbles and the cuts normally remain in end product if made mixed bicarbonate n cocaine vodka or water cream microwave way. This base used to be thrown away and junkies started realising you could smoke it but not snort it as base vaporised but not soluble in water or nose cocaine opposite if hcl soluble but heat destroys it. Soap manufacture is very similar process. Basuco is very addictive and said to be "more potent than the crack cocaine found across European and American cities". Basuco users may take other psychoactive agents, like industrial alcohol and MDMA to manage the drug effects, the high and the paranoia.{{cite journal |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00189-0/fulltext |author1=Joe Parkin Daniels|title=Bogotá tackles basuco addiction| journal=Lancet |date=12 September 2015| volume=386| issue=9998| pages=1027–1028| doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00189-0| pmid=26382982|s2cid=5224411 |accessdate=11 September 2015 |url-access=subscription}}
Per the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Colombia there were 4,644 basuco users in Bogotá alone; the drug's illicitness and accompanying homelessness prohibit an accurate count.
Since September 2012, a "Mobile Centre for Attention to Drug Addicts" (CAMAD) has been providing basic human services with an interdisciplinary team moving by bus in Bogota's worst affected neighbourhoods and working in a prison. Three hospitals participate with walk-in treatment, amongst them the public Hospital Centro Oriente. Gustavo Petro, the former Mayor of Bogotá and current President of Colombia, established CAMAD before finishing his second term as mayor in October 2015, and the future of the program is uncertain. Since CAMAD cannot offer services such as HIV testing, needle exchange, or safe injection sites, its "current levels of progress are not comparable with those of countries that have invested greater resources in the implementation of such schemes", per UNODOC. CAMAD has been criticised by a Colombian non-governmental organisation called "Technical Social Action" (ATS) for not doing enough, and also by "right-leaning politicians and the public for negotiating terms with the criminal gangs that control [certain] areas".
''Paco'' in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay
Cocaine paste is very popular through several South American countries including Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and is referred to as paco or pasta base in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.
Between 2001 and 2005, the use of paco in Argentina increased by 200%, with more than 150,000 young people taking it regularly.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6896056.stm | work=BBC News | title=Drugs scourge takes hold in Argentina | date=2007-08-29 | accessdate=2010-04-30}}
In 2007, crackdowns in Peru and Bolivia forced traffickers to move to Argentina to produce cocaine which, according to the Los Angeles Times, is ideal for its "advanced chemical industry, [its] porous border with Bolivia and a notoriously corrupt police force." Eventually, this prompted traffickers to sell their byproduct to locals. The use underscores a significant shift in both Argentina and its larger neighbour Brazil, both of which in just a few years have become sizable cocaine consumers. Brazil now{{when|date=September 2015}} ranks as the second largest total consumer of cocaine in the world after the United States, per the United States Department of State.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}
Slang terms
=Argentina=
- Paco
- Basoco
- Pico
- Base
- Tubo
- Pasta Base
=Chile=
=Italy=
- Pasta di coca
- Base
- Boccia
- Cruda
=Morocco=
Oxi
Oxi (abbr. from Portuguese oxidado) is a stimulant drug based on cocaine paste originally developed in the Brazilian Amazon forest region.[http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/front-page/oxi-new-drug-terrifies-brazil/# Oxi: New Drug Terrifies Brazil | The Rio Times I Brazil News]. Riotimesonline.com (2011-04-26). Retrieved 2011-10-10. It is reportedly a mixture of cocaine paste, gasoline, kerosene and quicklime (calcium oxide).{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Phillips |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/30/oxi-crack-cocaine-south-america |title=Oxi: Twice as powerful as crack cocaine at just a fraction of the price |work=The Guardian |date=May 30, 2011 |accessdate=May 31, 2011 }} This description may be a garbled account of an acid-base extraction procedure. Its popularity has soared in the last decade, in part due to its strongly addictive effect and lower price than other common drugs. While in the 1980s it could be found mainly in the Amazon region, the police in major Brazilian cities have recently reported significant drug arrests.[http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/05/201151795043176476.html Inside Brazil's toxic drug culture – Features]. Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
See also
References
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
- [http://www.unodc.org/pdf/brazil/Paco%20Under%20Scrutiny-%20The%20cocaine%20base%20paste%20market%20in%20Argentina,%20Uruguay%20and%20Brazil.pdf Paco Under Scrutiny: The cocaine base paste market in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602061501/http://www.unodc.org/pdf/brazil/Paco%20Under%20Scrutiny-%20The%20cocaine%20base%20paste%20market%20in%20Argentina,%20Uruguay%20and%20Brazil.pdf |date=2 June 2010 }}
- [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0405/p04s01-woam.html A new scourge sweeps through Argentine ghettos: 'paco'] Christian Science Monitor
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/world/americas/30argentina.html Lost in an abyss of Drugs, and entangled by poverty] New York Times, July 30, 2009
- [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/21/buenos-aires-slum-drugs-paco The 10p cocaine by-product turning Argentina's slum children into the living dead] The Observer, February 21, 2010
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