Freebase caffeine

Factual Questions
1

Is it possible to smoke caffeine? Has this ever been done?
How would the 'feine be broken down into a freebase? Could this idea be a legal version of crack?

2

I have no idea, but am curious: why do you want to smoke it? Is drinking futile? In any amount?

Peace

3

I don’t want to smoke it. This is just a nutty question that popped in my head.

4

I’m not a chemist. You’re talking about putting tea leaves or coffee grounds in a pipe and smoking it? Be my guest. :rolleyes: The fact that AFAIK there aren’t any laws against smoking tea leaves tells me that there’s probably no particular point to it.

When you’re talking about “freebasing” caffeine, I assume you’re talking about dissolving No-Doz in something and then heating it and smoking it. What would you use as a solvent? And what makes you think that smoking caffeine would do anything to you? Again, AFAIK there’s no law against it. Shouldn’t that tell you something? I don’t seriously think you’re onto something here.

Is it just a long, dull Christmas Eve afternoon up there? :smiley: How much snow cover you got left up there? Been ice fishing yet? We’ve got folks out ice fishing down here who’ve never even seen the lake frozen over, let alone gone ice fishing. They keep asking, “Is something supposed to happen?” I think you have to be born to it. :smiley:

http://www.cs.unb.ca/~alopez-o/Coffee/caffaq.html#Chemically
http://www.angelfire.com/co/Cocaine/chemistry.html

5
6

You see, Duck, what WI winters can to to an otherwise normal people? No wonder they assigned it WI, as in WInter. They had a choice of WS, WC, WN, WO… but no! WI it is!

Peace

7

Well, PK, my WAG as to what would happen if you spent the whole day fooling around with No-Doz pills, making ersatz crack cocaine, would be that you would have spent $1.99 on No-Doz for nothing, and your loved ones would be giving you funny looks out of the corners of their eyes. There would be whispering in the living room. “What’s he doing?” “Making cocaine out of No-Doz pills.” “He’s what?”

Why am I flashing on the “banana peel” thing from the 60s? It seems to me that back in those wild and crazy days, somebody SOMEWHERE would have experimented with what you’re talking about, and it’d be firmly established in the Urban Folklore, “Yeah, man, didja know, you can smoke purified No-Doz in a crack pipe and get, like, totally wasted, man…” The fact that this druggie factoid isn’t floating around in the Culture ought to tell you something.

Also, the fact that AFAIK there’s no law against it. The Feds aren’t totally stupid (contrary to popular report :rolleyes: ). They don’t waste time and resources legislating and patrolling against things that aren’t harmful. There’s no law against smoking Swiss Miss powder, either.

But hey, go ahead and try it, let us know what happens. I’m betting–nothing. Kids still out of school, huh? Climbing the walls? Send them out ice fishing–that’s what it’s for, Cheesehead. :smiley: If their little feet freeze to the ice, so much the better–more peace and quiet for you and Mrs. PK to practice your Kama Sutra positions.

8

I know a guy in North Judson, Indiana who, when he hasn’t time to make or drink several cups of coffee, will simply munch ground coffee right from the can. He says it wakes him up just the same as the wet stuff, and it tastes better.

I’ll take mine wet, thanks.

9

LOL

I can just see the newbies casting the lure across the frozen pond and wondering “What’s the point of this?”

You just hate to spoil it and tell them to cut a hole and fish through the ice.

10

The “Ain’t no way to go” website has the story of a college kid who ate a whole bottle of No-doz (caffine tabs) on a dare and died of the irregular heartbeat that it caused.

As with many of the replies, I’m not sure HOW you’d go about “freebasing” caffine, but I know you can OD on it.

It’s time for another Diet Coke. Gotta go.

11

These will do the same thing, and taste even better.

12

Well PK because the effect of a massive smack of caffeine (assuming your airborne smoking uptake even works) is very unpleasant. It’s not a “whooo” rush it’s an “ACCCCKKK - Bleah!” (sounds like a Cathy strip) Caffeine is very bitter and astringent. You typically want to dilute and buffer it (ie tea and coffee beverages), taking it your way would be nasty and pointless.

13

Pure caffeine is a bitter, white, waxy solid that would probably make you very sick if you ate it. Humans need to dilute and flavor it somehow, if they are to consume it at all.

What is the caffeine percentage of the average coffee bean? Probably not very high, but I don’t know. A little caffeine, like a little cocaine, goes a long way.

Why are we bumping two-year-old threads now?

14

I’ve toked tea-leaves before (when I was young and stupid - as opposed to now when I’m 20 something and stupid.) All I got from it was a headache and burnt alveoli. (Coughing fit).

15

Caffeine AFAIK is used in a “free base” form. This site explains what a free base is using cocaine and methamphetamine as examples (the free base molecules are in the middle row, salts are on bottom).

I don’t see any reason why it could not be smoked, I also don’t see any reason why it would be smoked.
Another asked this question on Ask Erowid.

16

In my freshman chemistry class (college), one of our labs was to isolate caffeine from instant tea. I ended up with a few grams of white powder, which I carefully sealed up and took back to my dorm room. I kept it for years, just in case of emergency, you see. :smiley:

(Gawd, imagine if some snoopy official-like person had found it! Would have had some fun interrogation sessions, I suppose, until the lab tests came back.)