The chemical process
Chipped morphine
Manufacture of No. 3 Heroin
The basic material for the manufacture of heroin is morphine. If this is in the form of the compressed block, the first stage is to reduce the block to chips or to a powder. Considerable force is re- quired to disintegrate the compressed blocks, which is frequently achieved by first breaking the block into small chips using a hammer and, on occa- sions, reducing the chips to a powder using a pestle and mortar. Alternative- ly, the block may be powdered by grating it on the surface of an inverted carpenter's plane. The careful chemist will then heat the powder (or chips) to ensure that no moisture is present which may interfere with the acetyla- tion in the next stage.
The morphine hydrochloride or the crude morphine is converted to diace- tylmorphine by treatment with acetic anhydride. This process consists of heating the morphine with a slightly more than equal weight of acetic anhydride in a stainless steel drum. The drum will be fitted with a lid, very often with a moist towel over the top to prevent or minimise the escape of the pungent fumes given off during heating. In a heroin factory discovered in 1972 it was found that a large pres- sure cooker (autoclave) was used for the acetylation process. This had the advantage not only of reducing the heating time but it was also easier to control the escape of the acetic vapour with its characteristic odour. More recently, a factory was detected where the vapour above the heated reaction
drum was being controlled by the use of a crude but effective reflux con- denser.
This heroin factory was raided prior to the acetylation of morphine. The stainless steel drums are of the type normally used to carry out this process. (KC/CR/3252-3/1975)
After heating, the solution in the drum will contain diacetylmorphine, a num- ber of impurities and unchanged acetic anhydride. After being allowed to cool, water is added to convert any excess acetic anhydride to acetic acid. Chloro- form is then added and the mixture thoroughly stirred. The chloroform will dissolve a high proportion of im- purities and, after standing, will form a separate layer on the bottom of the drum. This treatment with chloroform is only essential if the starting material is crude morphine. (This stage may be by-passed if morphine blocks are used.)
The top aqueous layer is then separated from the chloroform by decanting or siphoning into another container, usually a basin. To this liquid is added sodium carbonate
either as a powder or in a concentrated solution. Sodium carbonate is added until all the acetic acid is neutralised and the solution is alkaline. Litmus paper may be found in heroin factories, and is used to determine whether the solution is acid or alkaline. Ammonia has been used on occasions in place of sodium carbonate but it has the dis- advantage of being more expensive and less readily available than common sodium carbonate. The main disad- vantage of sodium carbonate on the other hand, is the effervescence which occurs when it is added to the acid solution, and initially it can only be added very slowly.
Diacetylmorphine in solution prior to the addition of sodium carbonate, bags of which can be seen in the bottom left- hand corner. (NTK/CCB/1593/1975)
After the sodium carbonate has been added the liquid is allowed to stand and heroin (diacetylmorphine) will slowly precipitate. The precipitate is separated by filtration either by using a Buchner funnel to which is attached a vacuum pump or by pouring into a conical shaped cloth bag or other suitable filtering device which will retain the precipitate of heroin and permit the unwanted liquid to drop through.
The diacetylmorphine is then trans- ferred to another basin and sufficient hydrochloric acid is added to convert the diacetylmorphine to its salt, dia- cetylmorphine hydrochloride. The amount of hydrochloric acid used is
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