Jet arrives at Brazil

[brfritos]

Who needs an apocalypse to produce a powerfull drug that addict the user in the first use?

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – It looks like crack, but it is much cheaper, four times more lethal and called “oxi” or “oxidado” (rust). It’s a cocaine derivative, just like crack, but it contains kerosene or gasoline, acetone, battery fluid and other chemicals. The highly addictive drug is smoked, but there are also cases of oxi being grounded up in cigarettes or snorted as powder, and has been showing up in Brazil in alarming rates.

Oxi is known as ‘the drug of death’ because it’s extremely harmful to the body and addictive right after the first try. “You use oxi once, and you want to use it two, five, ten, twenty times,” a 25-year-old oxi-addict told Brazilian TV.

Users take on a yellowish skin color, lose weight very quickly and develop liver problems. They start to look like emaciated living corpses in just a few weeks time. The drug causes stomach aches, vomiting and constant diarrhea, but perhaps the most alarming fact is that most users die within a year.

Oxi was first spotted in Brazil in 2004 in border city Rio Branco, in the Amazon state Acre. The drug was smuggled into the country via neighboring Bolivia and Peru. Users were mostly poor, jobless people between the ages of 18 and 35.

Full stoty at the The Rio Times.

I understand the desire to drug yourserlf or use drugs like tobacco, alcohol or marijuana for relaxing, but kerosene or gasoline + chalk + cocaine powder???
Creepy...

 

[SkuLL]

Wow, sounds like Crack++

I sincerely hope people will think twice before smoking shit like that. It's a shame that the initial users usually have no idea what the drug does to their body... And after a few trips, it's already too late.

Just a hypothetical - would people be smoking battery acid if marijuana were legal?

 

[clercqer]

Just a hypothetical - would people be smoking battery acid if marijuana were legal?

It would start with marijuana but they would soon find their way to more powerful drugs such as oxi.

 

[SkuLL]

It would start with marijuana but they would soon find their way to more powerful drugs such as oxi.

'Cause it's a gateway drug, rite?

 

[clercqer]

It's been proven! Steppingstone theory is not just a theory!

 

[SkuLL]

Aw shucks. Best go tell all my smoker/drinker friends that they're gonna end up withered old junkies, sucking on the negative end of a car battery, because plain old weed/alcohol just won't cut it in the future.

 

[Yoshi525]

Whilst the list of additives is most likely media scaremongering, it is true that incredibly powerful and addictive cocaine analogues are appearing. The scary thing is they are currently legal in all parts of the world that lack analogue drug laws (most).

They are probably LESS harmful than cocaine though, at least in terms of mortality. Cocaine acts as both a stimulant and an anesthetic on the heart, putting a lot of strain on it - most of these analogues lack the anesthetic aspect.

 

[SkuLL]

They are probably LESS harmful than cocaine though, at least in terms of mortality. Cocaine acts as both a stimulant and an anesthetic on the heart, putting a lot of strain on it - most of these analogues lack the anesthetic aspect.

Doesn't the article claim the opposite - that this derivative is MORE harmful than cocaine, specifically in terms of mortality?

Dunno, I'm just using common sense - there is a number of additional toxic chemicals, normally not present in cocaine. Perhaps the threat of heart attack is lower than that of cocaine, but it seems like there are more than enough other threats to justify the higher mortality rate.

Not to mention faces of crack - people do seem to wither away a lot faster when they're smoking crack (or other dirty cocaine derivative) as opposed to snorting 'cleaner' cocaine.

I guess that it's like that with most hard drugs - the biggest danger in the lack of control and public awareness. As the dealers get to mix their drugs with whatever they please, the same drug might have different chemical composition (thus effects/risks) from person to person. Couple that with general public ignorance ("Yeah, you just smoke it and feel all hyper, it's great, only lasts a couple of hours!") and you've got a killer.

 

[Yoshi525]

Dunno, I'm just using common sense - there is a number of additional toxic chemicals, normally not present in cocaine. Perhaps the threat of heart attack is lower than that of cocaine, but it seems like there are more than enough other threats to justify the higher mortality rate.

To be blunt I don't believe that list of chemical adulterants, not a single one of them. I know a fair bit about the various new chemical compounds that are appearing, more than I feel safe divulging on a public forum if you get my gist. Cocaine analogues are not my area of interest, psychedelic phenethylamines and tryptamines are, however I have followed the cocaine analogues creation and as a chemist can surmise more than I've read with regards to their synthesis and purification.

Firstly, these analogues are not made in black market street labs, they are made in fully licensed labs in China and sold legally and in bulk on the internet. I could order 10 grams of this stuff to my house with in a week, and I probably would if it weren't for the fact that I hate the effects of coke.

Secondly, the synthesis of these chemicals would not require any of that crap - the chemicals required are easy and cheap for a licensed lab to acquire.

Thirdly, If the synthesis did require any of that stuff, or the lab equivalent of it, then it would be very easy once the synthesis step is complete, to remove the trace contaminants. Those things are mostly polar solvents, I could remove them in my kitchen so I doubt a Chinese lab would struggle.

Fourthly, the media frequently srpouts crap when it comes to drugs.

In conclusion, I'll believe it when I see laboratory GC:MS and H1-NMR printouts.

If it is true then it's because people have tried to crudely convert it to the freebase so it can be smoke, like the cocaine to crack conversion. The problem here is that most of these analogues are sold as freebase rather than the hcl salt street cocaine comes as, so if people are doing this then they are morons. Which, reflectively I suppose is entirely possible

 

[SkuLL]

Secondly, the synthesis of these chemicals would not require any of that crap - the chemicals required are easy and cheap for a licensed lab to acquire.

Indeed. I think a lot of this 'battery acid' and 'window cleaner' talk is just the public being ignorant. They're trying to scare the potential user by giving them a real-life example of the severity of some of the chemicals present in the compound. Most people don't know much about chemistry and a journalist who wants their article to be comprehensible has to dumb it down to the point where it's actually no longer scientifically correct.

If it is true then it's because people have tried to crudely convert it to the freebase so it can be smoke, like the cocaine to crack conversion.

This. I think most of the added danger happens when an unskilled end-user attempts to make freebase. When talking about how bad crack is, people often imagine some secret government lab where mad scientists pour toxic chemicals into the drug just for laughs. While the truth is, most bad crack is made at home, by idiots who got themselves a bunch of bad coke and decided to make it smokable.

Can't say much about this Oxi though, no idea what's in it. Sounds bad enough for me to never wanna try, haha.

 

[Yoshi525]

It's impossible for me to speculate what the actual drug is without an NMR spectra. Mmmm NMA spectra, how I love thee.

 

[mobucks]

Users were mostly poor, jobless people between the ages of 18 and 35.

Nice form of population control i say.

 

[valcik]

Nice form of population control i say.

..yes, but at price of a raised criminality. They must pay for that addictive shit somehow.

 

[Ah-Teen]

Nice form of population control i say.

..yes, but at price of a raised criminality. They must pay for that addictive shit somehow.

Government incentives. Keep things under cost of production!

Sounds like some nasty ass shit. I think I'll stick to the occasional hit of caffeine.

 

[Squall]

Natural selection at it's finest.

 

[Walpknut]

I think anyone stupid enough to be snorting kerosene or gasoline + chalk + cocaine just deserves whatever happens to them.

 

[Squall]

Jet = Fallout Jet?

 

[archont]

I know a fair bit about the various new chemical compounds that are appearing, more than I feel safe divulging on a public forum if you get my gist.

words

Not to bother you, but you just did. I'm too lazy to use my google-fu but I'm insanely curious where that'd get me. It's a small world.

battery acid

Neglecting that I could use most organic acids for wet cells.

more bullshit

Nothing new here

acetone, kerosene or gasoline

It's not like any of those are volatile compounds that would evaporate from a paste in a matter of minutes.

While you are correct that the analogues that go out from the lab are of high purity, the average user has no idea about all this. Before the RC arrives in the junkie's nose it passes several hands, each stupider than the last. The sky's the limit on what creative and toxic additives are mixed in. Knowing what adulterants are added is the best argument against street drugs ever.

Secondly, the synthesis of these chemicals would not require any of that crap - the chemicals required are easy and cheap for a licensed lab to acquire.

I'm amazed by your ability to tell how difficult synthesis is without knowing as much as the IUPAC name.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Natural selection at it's finest.

I think anyone stupid enough to be snorting kerosene or gasoline + chalk + cocaine just deserves whatever happens to them.

A bit close-minded you both are no.


*Edit
This now is not directed at the quotes above. Just in general.
To say this I find it somewhat worrisome how drug addicts are seen in general in the US. As we here or most of us (not just Germany) see drug addicts as a form of sickness while in the US they are seen as criminals. While many addicts do perform crimes the act of using a drug is seen in a different light. It is much more effective to cure the addiction then to throw people in jail for it. Many European nations have made very good progress dealing with addicts that way instead of demonise them and simply paint them as criminals.

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

Natural selection at it's finest.

I think anyone stupid enough to be snorting kerosene or gasoline + chalk + cocaine just deserves whatever happens to them.

A bit close-minded you both are no.


*Edit
This now is not directed at the quotes above. Just in general.
To say this I find it somewhat worrisome how drug addicts are seen in general in the US. As we here or most of us (not just Germany) see drug addicts as a form of sickness while in the US they are seen as criminals. While many addicts do perform crimes the act of using a drug is seen in a different light. It is much more effective to cure the addiction then to throw people in jail for it. Many European nations have made very good progress dealing with addicts that way instead of demonise them and simply paint them as criminals.

I don't think it's closed minded at all. Addicts are worthless scum, and should be treated as such. I agree that throwing them in jail for the act is moronic, as it does nothing but overcrowd prisons and drain taxpayer's money

Treating it like a sickness is just as idiotic as treating obesity as a sickness. Nobody forces those fat fucks to eat several 5000+ calorie meals a day just like nobody forces addicts to stick that needle in their arm. They do it to themselves.

It's not my problem. It's not your problem. It's theirs, and they should be made to deal with the consequences of their hilariously stupid actions.