# If a drug is "cooked"...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 20, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040 "2015-06-20T23:14:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/1 "2015-06-20T23:14:43Z")

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…like in a spoon, does that automatically mean it is injected? Or could it be inhaled or something?

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**Author:** ![digitalskeeza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@digitalskeeza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digitalskeeza)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/2 "2015-06-21T05:41:10Z")

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Not necessarily. Without going into specifics, impure (cut) cocaine can be cooked with a few other ingredients to extract the pure cocaine. It is then smokable, no needles involved.

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/3 "2015-06-21T11:53:32Z")

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Thank you for replying to my thread.

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**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/4 "2015-06-21T12:49:39Z")

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As mentioned above, this is how cocaine powder is reduced down into crack or freebase, which is generally smoked. My high school chemistry knowledge tells me that the introduction of a base (baking powder) in the cooking neutralizes the acid (hydrochloride) in the original powder, but I am no chemist.

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/5 "2015-06-21T23:02:40Z")

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thank you **bobot** , I didn’t know that.

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**Author:** ![PlanetCharlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c37758/32.png) [@PlanetCharlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlanetCharlie)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-drug-is-cooked/723040/6 "2015-06-22T00:05:54Z")

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> [@bobot](#):
>
> As mentioned above, this is how cocaine powder is reduced down into crack or freebase, which is generally smoked. My high school chemistry knowledge tells me that the introduction of a base (baking powder) in the cooking neutralizes the acid (hydrochloride) in the original powder, but I am no chemist.

Yes, in that case, cocaine hydrochloride is neutralized with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, a base), to leave pure cocaine base, a term meaning its not attached to an acid, like many other drugs are. For example, Benadryl is diphenhydramine hydrochloride - this helps the drug to have a positive and a negative component, which makes it more soluble, stable, and has other benefits.

So with cocaine that has been “freebased,” as they say, it leaves you with a non-water soluble version of cocaine, or more importantly, one that will burn/smoke at the proper temperature (you can smoke cocaine HCl, its just wildly inefficient).

And to answer the main question, not including the cocaine -\> crack conversion, probably 99% of the time a drug is cooked up in a spoon (of which, 99% of the time, the drug will be heroin), it is for injection, though people also use this method when they have heroin that’s not a powder, but in tar form (which is what you commonly find in the west/southwest). People will “cook” it with some water, make it a liquid, then “snort” that liquid. Its mainly needlephobes that do this, and I tell you, it tastes and feels\* disgusting\*, and has a disgusting drip/aftertaste. So I’ve heard.