From: (Samson)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard
Subject: Re: Fixin' A Shot
Date: 27 Oct 1999 16:11:10 GMT

(Kim67) wrote:

> So what's the purpose of heating the dope up?  To purify it, to
> dissolve it?  I don't know, watching the proceedure, I'll admit that
> Glenna was right in that it doesn't really take a rocket scientist to
> pull it off. 

Not rocket science, but understanding basic thermochemical 
principles is part of everyday life. The more you work
with chemicals, the more expert you become. I mean, you've
probably noticed how non-dairy creamer just sits on top
of your coffee when it's cold. Put it in the microwave,
it dissolves. This is an example of an endothermic process:
energy must be introduced to the system in order to overcome
the forces holding the chunks of creamer together, and to
push the water molecules apart so the creamer can get in
between them.

You wouldn't want to drink a cup of coffee with the 
creamer in dry lumps on top, so you learn the wonders 
of the microwave. Iced tea, on the other hand, you just
scoop into cold water, mix, and drink. (Notice, it's 
a little endothermic -- gotta' mix). But it will happen
faster if you heat it, as you've learned in the coffee
lab, and if you're really impatient, you might just do
that.

As we all know, impatience is the mother of innovation,
and junkies are some impatient mothers, as some impatient
mothers are junkies, so if it's required, anyone enough
in need of a fix may spontaneously derive the Arrhenius 
equation based on nothing more than a third grade-level 
understanding of mathematics and some really bad cramps.
Molecular chemists are still at a loss for how to 
account for this phenomenon. (Though they don't seem
terribly interested, since they get their dope wholesale.)

So what I'm saying is, heroin is a non-polar molecule which
will not spontaneously dissolve in water, unless (a) the
water is hot, energized, moving around too much for the
the dipoles to stay lined up to kick the dope out, or (b)
it is neutralized by an acid, forming a salt with water-
friendly electromagnetic properties that will let it 
get down with water, whether water likes it or not. 
Often (b) is done in a laboratory, and there's no need 
for any end-user modification -- but it's not a simple 
matter of pouring some acid in a vat and checking the pH.
Smack base will revert back to the morphine from which
it came just by being mixed with water, which is fine if
it's on its way to a vital organ where that's going to 
have to happen anyway, but not if it's going to be 
shipped. So it's got to be 'salted' in highly volatile
solvents which keep H2O away from its tender acyl 
apendages, lest all those protons in the solution beat
your blood to the merchandise. Thus the less well-equipped 
manufacturers don't bother, leave it as hydrophobic chunks, 
more or less preserved until someone pays for the opportunity 
to test their own innate knowledge of the second law of 
thermodydamics, ionic equilibria, and the various ways of 
burning holes in linen. 

> Definately something that can be done at work...not for
> me, but for others.  The fact that this sort of behavior was being
> carried out in my car, the one I do all my 'family' sort of things for
> makes me feel kind of funny.  But I had to watch.  While I was eatting
> a fresh pastry and sipping a cup of coffee nonetheless.

Creamer or real milk?

-- 

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