Black tar heroin is a type of illicit opiate narcotic drug formed from the incomplete acetylation of morphine. It is also called brown.
Black tar can contain a variable percentage of heroin, but despite the name, what makes Black Tar specific as a type is not actually its heroin (diacetylmorphine) content, but rather the greater mixture of lesser acetylated morphine derivatives—predominantly 6-MAM (6-monoacetylmorphine) and 3-MAM (3-monoacetylmorphine). This is caused by the use of the antiquated Wright-Beckett process (c. 1874), which produces a relatively crude and unrefined opiate product but does not require the complex lab equipment, high-purity acetylating chemicals or lengthy reflux steps necessary to produce pure heroin, making it attractive to clandestine drug producers.
Black tar heroin is produced in Latin America, and is most commonly found in the western and southern parts of the United States, while also being occasionally found in western Canada and Europe. It has a varying consistency depending on manufacturing methods, cutting agents, and moisture levels, ranging in quality from a black-brown, tarry goo in unrefined form to a uniform, light-brown powder when further processed and cut with lactose.
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The process for synthesizing black tar heroin was discovered through the joint works of C. R. A. Wright & G. H. Beckett in 1874,[1] while trying to synthesize gamma-monoacetylmorphine. Both believed they had succeeded in achieving their goal, but soon found that morphine has only two replaceable hydroxyls and that the original substance was theoretically impossible to synthesize under the conditions. Having learned this, the two men realized that they had stumbled upon the first successful synthesis of Heroin (Diacetylmorphine), as well as the two monoacetylmorphines, 6-MAM and 3-MAM. The following year, Wright and Beckett published their results in Journal of the Chemical Society.[1]
By 1935, the pharmacological work of Eddy & Howes[2] revealed that heroin is quickly hydrolyzed by the human body into 6-MAM, an easier to prepare and more stable substance. These results provided the impetus for attempts at deliberate synthesis of 6-MAM. It was between then and 1943 that 6-MAM started being used for recreation. The effects of unsanitary intradermal, intramuscular, and intravenous use made their way into American medical literature in 1943, with Wound Botulism being related to these methods.[3]
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: the Wright-Beckett process substitutes common acetic acid for high-purity acetic anhydride in the acetylating process and omits the refluxing steps, making black tar cruder but cheaper and faster to produce than true heroin. 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 diluents 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 (6-MAM being more potent by weight than 3,6-DAM or "heroin" proper), 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% 6-MAM by the Vista, California, U.S. DEA laboratory.[4]
The assumption that Tar has less adulterants and diluents 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 black tar's traditional realm of distribution. Black tar heroin distribution has steadily risen in recent years, while that of U.S. east coast powder varieties has dropped; heroin production in Colombia has decreased[5] as U.S.-funded efforts to eradicate Colombian poppy fields continue.[6]
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, in case new, sterilized ones are not available during usage), may put users at a lower risk of HIV infection.[7]
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. It can also be associated with Clostridium botulinum.[8]
Conversely, at least one study has drawn attention to lower rates of HIV infection among injecting drug users in areas in which black tar heroin is the major form of street-available heroin, suggesting that this may be due to the need to heat black tar heroin to dissolve it (which also inactivates any HIV present in the solution).[9]
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; most other names used for other varieties of heroin are also shared for black tar among its users, regardless of whatever differing chemistry there is between the substances.
Common colloquialisms for Black Tar Heroin:
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The lifestyles of users are captured on the 1999 documentary Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street.