Black tar heroin

Black tar heroin

Black Tar "Heroin" is a mixture of Opiates, (predominantly 6MAM), containing a proportionately less amount of Heroin, it being 3,6MAM or diacetylmorphine (INN). Both aceto-esters of morphine. Tar heroin is produced in Latin America, and is found most commonly found in the western, and southern parts of The United States, while also being occasionally found in western Canada and Europe. Black Tar has a varying consistency depending on manufacturing methods, cutting agents, and moisture levels. Ranging from unmanageable, black-brown, sticky goo, to a light brown powder, which comes from cutting it with lactose. When in powder form, it is easy to distinguish from heroin, due to it's lighter color, and finer of grain, in comparison.

Users of "Black tar heroin" do not typically refer to it as such, it rather has an abundance of street names, that differ from region to scene; in which most are shared with heroin, due to ignorance of the chemistry of these substances common with most of its users.

Common colloquialisms of Black Tar "Heroin":

• Brown
• The letter "B" or "H".
• Tar
• Dope

History

6-MAM was discovered through the joint works of C. R. A. Wright & G. H. Beckett during the year of 1874, while trying to synthesize gamma-monoacetylmorphine, which both believed to have succeeded with their goal. They soon find that morphine only two replaceable hydroxyls, and that the original substance was theoretically impossible to synthesize under the conditions. Now knowing all of this, it was easy for the two men to unravel that they had stumbled into the first recorded synthesis of Heroin (Diacetylmorphine), the two monoacetylmorphines, 6-MAM and 3-MAM. It was then first published in Journal of the Chemical Society, the following year of 1875. By 1935 the pharmacological work of Eddy & Howes finds that heroin, is quickly hydrolyzed by the body into 6-MAM, an easier to prepare and more stable substance, now has reason for deliberate synthesis. It was between then, and 1943 that 6-MAM started being used for recreation, the effects of unsanitary intradermal, intramuscular, and intravenous use to make it's way into American medical literature in 1943, with Wound Botulism being related to these methods.

Pure morphine and heroin are both fine white and odorless powders. Tar's unique appearance and texture is due to its acetylation without benefit of the usual reflux apparatus. It should also be noted that the percent of the remainder of black tar heroin is often other psychoactive opiate substances, like monoacetylmorphine in the form of 3- and 6-monoacetylmorphine (3-MAM and 6-MAM) in addition to the usual adulterants and dilutents found in other forms of heroin.

The abnormally high 3-MAM content is due to the less than optimum acetylating agent combined with a different reaction time for the acetylation procedure. Varying levels of 6-MAM are due to the process of hydrolysis (or from the process of using a catalyst in the creation of the product from the beginning (see above)), a natural decomposition of heroin, which is accelerated when the heroin comes into contact with moisture. In 2006, ten year old samples of black tar heroin held as evidence were found to contain 51% and 63% of hydrochlorides of 6-MAM by the Vista, California U.S. DEA laboratory.

The assumption that Tar has less adulterants and dilutents is a misconception. The most common adulterant is lactose which is added to Tar via dissolution of both substances in a liquid medium, reheating and filtering, and then recrystallizing. This process is very simple and can be accomplished in any kitchen with no level of expertise needed.

The price per kilogram of black tar heroin has increased from one-tenth that of South American powder heroin in the mid-1990s to between one-half and three-quarters in 2003 due to increased distributional acumen combined with increased demand in Tar's traditional realm of distribution. Black tar's distribution has been steadily on the rise in the following years as simultaneously, the output of U.S. east coast powder varieties have dropped; heroin production in Columbia has decreased as U.S. funded efforts to eradicate Colombian poppy fields continue.

Health matters specific to black tar heroin

Users who intravenously inject black tar heroin are at higher risk of venous sclerosis (a condition where the veins narrow and harden, making injection there nearly impossible) than users of powder heroin. Researchers at UC-San Francisco have found that the rapidity with which black tar heroin destroys veins (forcing users to inject subcutaneously), along with its gummier consistency (requiring that needles be thoroughly rinsed between use), may put users at a lower risk of HIV infection.

Users of black tar heroin are at increased risk of life-threatening bacterial infections, in particular necrotizing soft tissue infection. The practice of "skin-popping" or subcutaneous injection predisposes to necrotizing fasciitis or necrotizing cellulitis from Clostridium perfringens while deep intramuscular injection predisposes to necrotizing myositis.

Documentary

The lifestyles of users are captured on the 1999 documentary Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street.

References

• National Drug Threat Assessment 2005, National Drug Intelligence Center. Accessed 15 December 2005
• Heroin, Interpol Drugs Sub-Directorate. Accessed 15 December 2005