Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO 3, common baking soda) is a base used in the preparation of crack, although other weak bases may substitute for it. The spoon is held over the heat source to 'cook' the cocaine into crack. Pictured here are baking soda, a commonly used base in making crack, a metal spoon, a tealight, and a cigarette lighter. Synthesis For cocaine (in a plastic bag at bottom) to be converted to crack, several supplies are needed. Use of toxic adulterants such as levamisole, a drug used to treat parasitic worm infections, has been documented. Ĭrack cocaine sold on the streets may be adulterated (or 'cut') with other substances mimicking the appearance of crack to increase bulk. Purer forms of crack will sink in water or melt at the edges when near a flame (crack vaporizes at 90 ☌, 194 ☏). Like cocaine in other forms, crack rock acts as a local anesthetic, numbing the tongue or mouth only where directly placed. Purer forms of crack resemble off-white, jagged-edged 'rocks' of a hard, brittle plastic, with a slightly higher density than candle wax. The use of another highly addictive stimulant drug, crystal meth, ballooned between 19. Ĭrack cocaine first saw widespread use as a recreational drug in primarily impoverished neighborhoods in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami in late 19 this rapid increase in use and availability was named the ' crack epidemic', which began to wane in the 1990s. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked.

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