Cocaine and Amphetamines
Case Study:
Patient 1 was a 37-year-old, distraught, anxious, and tearful white woman who reported a 3-month history of red spots that initially involved her arms and subsequently spread to the legs and truncal region. She had received a number of dental fillings recently because of worsening dental caries since the onset of the skin eruption.
The patient also described an inexplicable 40-lb weight loss during the 3-month period of her skin problems. During the examination the patient did not appear frankly delusional but did comment on “bugs” as a possible cause of her rash and described “white things” that would emerge from the skin that she would brush off. The physical examination showed numerous discrete skin lesions with some overlying crust on the lower front tibial areas, thighs, and forearms. The patient's urine test was positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite. All other laboratory test results were within normal limits. She was referred to psychiatry for evaluation. During that evaluation, she was confronted with the positive results of the urine screen for cocaine. At that point, she adamantly denied any use of cocaine or other substances.
How to make Methamphetamine
Things you need: RED WHITE AND BLUE METHOD
Ephedrine- Sudafed
Iodine- horse medicine, deadly to humans in more than trace quantities
Phosphorous- from match books, extremely poisonous, flammable, used in nerve gases, terrible skin burns
Ether- cold-weather starter fluid for engines: highly flammable, explosive
Hydrochloric acid- muriatic acid for swimming pools: dissolves skin tissue, destroys lung tissue, if reacted with bleach gives chlorine gas AKA Mustard gas a WWI chemical weapon
Sodium hydroxide- from oven cleaner or drain opener; dissolves skin, if comes in contact with lithium gives hydrogen gas which is explosive if in contact with sugar produces carbon monoxide
Methanol- wood alcohol which burns with invisible flame and then is metabolized into formaldehyde
Uber Coca
The psychic effect… consists of exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which dos not differ in any way from the normal euphoria of a healthy person… One senses an increase of self-control and feels more vigorous and more capable of work…Long-lasting, intensive mental or physical work can be performed without fatigue; it is as though the need for food and sleep, which otherwise makes itself felt at certain times of the day, were completely banished…Opinion is unanimous that the euphoria…is not followed by any feeling of lassitude or other state of depression/
-Sigmund Freud
How rewarding is cocaine?
In one study, monkeys would push a lever almost 13,000 times to get a single hit of cocaine; they avoided all food, working only for cocaine, and eventually developed seizures. In this same study it was found that if monkeys were given the choice between a small amount of cocaine and no shock, and a large amount of cocaine and a painful electrical shock, they took the big hit of cocaine. But if you raise rats or monkeys in an enriched environment aka rat parks reared by attentive mothers… they don’t use cocaine .