Different forms of narcotics: Opiates, cocaine, marihuana and hashish

The dictionary defines a 'narcotic' as a substance that induces sleep, dulls the senses, or relieves pain. In law however, it has been given an artificial meaning and applies to a number of different classes of drugs that have been grouped together for purposes of legal control. These include opiates, cocaine, marihuana and hashish.Neatly labeled drugs in a forensic laboratory: The process is normally simpleThe opiates include opium and its derivatives morphine, heroin and codeine. Both morphine and heroin are derived from poppy, papaver somniferum, which is cultivated around the world. Today the main supply of illicit opium is from Thailand, Burma and Laos, the areas referred to as the 'Golden Triangle', and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, referred to as the 'Golden Crescent'. Licit opium is cultivated in India and Turkey.The milky fluid that oozes from incisions in the unripe poppy seedpod has since ancient times been scraped by hand and air-dried to produce opium gum. A more modern method of harvesting is the industrial poppy straw process of extracting alkaloids from the mature dried plant. The extract may be in either liquid, solid or powder form. Most poppy straw available commercially is a fine brownish powder with a distinct odour. Morphine is odourless, tastes bitter and darkens with age and is one of the principal derivatives in the illicit market.Morphine: "The conversion from opium into morphine is a relatively simple process," says Dr H.L. Bami, director of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. "Even a housewife with no background of chemistry can do so. That is why so many illicit labs are found all over the world. All you need is a small place, a shabby hole, or a kitchen sink and a pot. Once you have that just mix opium gum with lime water and certain organic solvents available at any chemist, in a large cistern. The mixture derived is then treated with charcoal arid filtered, the morphine separated from the clear liquid. You have morphine in a semi pure form." Once the illicit drug reaches the street, it is known under various slang names - Cube, First Line, Goma, Morf, Morfina, Morpho, Morphy, and Mud.Heroin: First synthesised from morphine in 1874, heroin was not extensively used in medicine until the beginning of the 20th century. Commercial production first started in 1898. Pure heroin is a white powder of bitter taste and is rarely sold in the streets. The illicit heroin may vary in colour from white to dark brown because of impurities left from the manufacturing process. A 'bag', slang for a single dosage unit of heroin, may weigh about 100 mg, and usually contains less than 5 per cent heroin. To increase the bulk of the material sold to the addict, diluents are mixed with heroin in ratios ranging from 9 to 1 to as much as 99 to 1. Sugars, starch, powdered milk and quinine are among the diluents used.To convert morphine into impure heroin requires only a crude lab, which would be capable of turning out half-a-kilo of the drug in one shift. But, says Dr Bami, to get pure heroin you would require pure morphine and a more sophisticated lab, which is an expensive proposition. Heroin is produced when morphine is treated with acetylene anhydride (AC20), a widely used industrial chemical which is readily available in India. The slang terms used for heroin are many: Big H, Boy, Brown, Brown Sugar, Crap, H, Heroin, Horse, Junk, Mexican Mud, Smack, Stuff and Thing.Marihuana: Known as 'ganja' in India, this is a preparation made from the flowering tops of the female cannabis or hemp plant which can either be found growing wild or cultivated in semi-tropical climates. In India bhang is made from cannabis leaves. Marihuana is commonly converted into cigarettes, and Mexico by and large feeds the American markets.Hashish: This is also a part of the same plant. Called 'charas' in India, it consists of the drug-rich resinous secretions of the cannabis plant, which are collected, dried and then compressed into various forms, such as balls, cakes, or cookie-like sheets.Cocaine: The most potent stimulant of natural origin, is extracted from the leaves of the coco plant which has been cultivated in the Andean highlands of South America since prehistoric times. It is unknown in India in natural form. The leaves of the plant are chewed for relief from fatigue. Illicit cocaine is distributed as a white crystalline powder, often adulterated and is most commonly administered by being 'snorted' through the nasal passages. It is wrongly believed to be relatively safe from undesirable side effects. Like the other narcotic drugs in the illicit channel, cocaine too has its own glossary: it is variously called Blow, C, Coco, Coke, Flake, Girl, Heaven Dust, Lady, Rock, and Snow. Psychotropic Drugs: In addition to natural drugs, a number of synthetic drugs have been synthesised in recent years which induce a state of excitation of the central nervous system, manifested by alternations of mood, usually euphoric, but sometimes depressive. The best-known is ISD - an abbreviation of the German expression for lysergic acid amide-a substance derived from the fungus which grows on rye or from a chemical compound found in morning glory seeds. ISD is usually sold in the form of tablets, thin squares of gelatin {window panes) or impregnated paper (blotter acid). It was first synthesised in 1938, and its hallucinogenic effects were discovered in 1943 when a chemist accidentally took some.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Feb 28, 2014 11:31 IST--- ENDS ---

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Different forms of narcotics: Opiates, cocaine, marihuana and hashish

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