What Really is Cocaine?

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It can be a white powder, a very strong stimulant that can be abused to create euphoria, confidence, alertness, and energy. In its powder form, it can be snorted or it can be dissolved and injected. If you mix it with a flammable solvent, you can separate out the intoxicating elements from the impurities and inhale the vapors. This is referred to as “freebasing” cocaine.

Cocaine can also be found in the form of small off-white rocks, which is called crack. This is cocaine when it has been processed with ammonia or baking soda to remove some impurities. The remaining mixture will dry to rocks that can be broken into small pieces, sold in tiny baggies and smoked. Crack cocaine is quickly addictive as well but is not as expensive per dose as powdered cocaine.

Where Does Cocaine Come From?

Cocaine is a processed result from the coca plant that is primarily grown in mountainous areas of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. For a thousand years, coca leaves were chewed by laborers working at high altitudes to give them more energy. In more modern days, small farmers are paid to grow the crop, strip the leaves and then mash them with ammonia and lime. Further processing with gasoline and sulfuric acid results in a thick off-white paste that is then sold by the farmer to a cocaine processor.

In 2010, 251 cocaine processing labs were found in Colombian jungles and destroyed. But in April 2011, the first large processing lab was found in Honduras, possibly indicating a shift in processing patterns further north where they could be controlled by Mexican drug cartels rather than Colombia manufacturers.

Alternatively, the raw cocaine paste is sometimes shipped to Argentina where it is called “paco.” In Colombia and Peru, it is known as “basuco.” It is highly toxic to users and rapidly strips health and productivity away from addicts.

Once the coca paste is purified into a white powder, it begins its long trip to consumer markets.

The "Consumers"

From South America, shipments move north, coming into the US by small plane, truck, car or boat. Along the US-Mexico border, Mexican drug cartels are largely responsible for moving the drugs, but in large Eastern cities, a wide variety of ethnic groups transport these drugs. Once the drugs hit US soil, they are usually distributed to gangs and criminal groups that break the large shipments into smaller packages. From there, these small packages find customers with cravings and addictions.

Some quantity of cocaine is used everywhere in the US, but rates of use are higher in metropolitan areas from Florida through Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the Great Lakes cities and in between.

Much of it travels north to the US, but large shipments also travel by plane or boat to West Africa. From here, a share is given to those government officials and individuals who expedite the transfer of these cocaine shipments to Spain or other countries. The bulk of the cocaine shipments are then broken into smaller packages which are then distributed across Europe.

Increasing amounts of cocaine have recently been making their way across the Pacific as well, to supply appetites for stimulants in Australia.

Cocaine: What You Need to Know

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Other Forms of Cocaine

Powder cocaine is often diluted or “cut” with white powders that have a similar consistency. Cornstarch, flour, talc, procaine (a local anesthetic), levamisole (a veterinary de-worming medication), powdered sugars, even coffee creamers, vitamin B12 and baby formula may be used.

To make crack cocaine, the powder form of the drug is dissolved in hot water and baking soda is added. It is boiled until the water is nearly gone, and then the solids are filtered out. What remains after drying is a hard rock of concentrated cocaine that is then smokable.

Nicknames for Cocaine

Cocaine comes in many forms, has numerous nicknames, and is often mixed with other drugs. The following lists include some of the more common names for cocaine, crack cocaine and their various combinations.

• Aunt, Aunt Nora
• Baseball
• Bazulco
• Beam
• Bernice
• Bernie, Bernie’s flakes, Bernie’s gold dust
• Big C
• Big flake
• Blanca
• Blow
• Bump
• C, C-dust, C-game, Candy C, Candy Cane
• Coke, Coca
• Line Rail
• Snow, Snow White
• Nose candy
• White pony

For crack cocaine:

• Badrock, Black rock
• Beat
• Blotter, Blopper
• Candy, Cookies
• Chemical
• Dice
• Electric kool-aid
• Glo
• Gravel
• Grit
• Hail
• Hardball, Hard rock
• Ice cube
• Jelly beans
• Nuggets
• Rocks
• Sleet
• Tornado
• Trey
• Yam, Yao

Common Nicknames for Cocaine Mixed With Other Drugs

Cocaine and marijuana:

• Banano
• Blunt
• Pimos
• Bazooka
• P-Dogs
• 51
• Sherman Stick
• Tio, Splitting
• Woo-Woo
• Woo Blunt
• Woolies
• Woolas

Cocaine and meth:

• Shabu
• Snow Seals

Cocaine and PCP:

• Spaceball
• Dusty Road Cocaine
• PCP and marijuana:
• Wicky

Cocaine and heroin:

• Speedball
• Belushi
• Boy-Girl
• H & C
• Murder One
• One and One
• Smoking Gun
• Snowball
• Whiz Bang

Cocaine and Ecstasy:

• Bumping up

Cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy:

• Candy Flipping Flamethrowers
• Cocaine

Heroin and Tobacco:

• Flamethrowers

Cocaine Addiction

Whether unrefined cocaine is smoked in a barren hovel in Colombia or it is distributed out of a posh fraternity in Southern California, the result is often the same: addiction. No one plans to become an addict when they start out using drugs. They are an escape from problems, a desperate lifestyle or a high-stress environment or they may just be used for recreation. Cocaine and other drugs cause cravings that are hard to resist. These cravings spur a second use, then a third and then use becomes regular. When drug abuse becomes frequent and regular, then it can turn into an addiction that is very hard to walk away from without competent help. A lifestyle free from addiction is best achieved by avoiding drug use entirely.