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by ceejayoz 1208 days ago
There’s a pretty vast gap between coca tea and refined cocaine, isn’t there?
2 comments

Sort of. It's analogous to Beer vs Whiskey: Same psychoactive, but one substance has been chemically concentrated. Both are bad for you but one can be consumed in much lower quantities and concentrations so the health risks are a bit attenuated. Drinking a beer a lunch on a Friday is generally acceptable, but whisky at lunch any day would raise some eyebrows. That said if you start drinking 5 beers a night every night your friends and family might intervene.
Not really analogous. A whiskey beverage is usually served at one alcohol unit of strength and has the same alcohol as a beer.

In fact, someone who has a whiskey neat for lunch is likely going to get less alcohol than someone who has a pint from a microbrew. 16 ounces at 10% abv vs 1.5 ounces at 40%.

In both cases the psychoactive is the same but the concentration is different. It is a fair nuance you bring up that an unregulated refining and cutting process has a lot of variability in its amount which can mean taking a rather large amount. While drinking a beer can have more total alcohol than a shot of whiskey, the social stigma is there for reasons. Concentrated consumption is on a different level in terms of behavior and results. I frequently see people have a single beer over a meal, but I don't usually see people have just one shot of whisky...
I frequently see people have a whisky neat or something like a martini and that’s it. It’s a low carb substitution for drinking beer.
> Not really analogous. A whiskey beverage is usually served at one alcohol unit of strength and has the same alcohol as a beer.

The only place I’ve ever gone to a bar where this is actually true is in Utah. Not to mention with the rise of craft beer even a beer isn’t a standard drink often as not.

You crush it and mix with water, add lime to turn it into a paste. The only other thing you need is a little potassium permanganate which is commonly used for lots of things.

Wouldn't say the gap is vast, it isn't a very involved process.

Maybe you mean there is a vast gap between Peru and Canada. Few thousand miles that.

A vast gap in potency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_tea

> Owing to the presence of these alkaloids, coca tea is a mild stimulant; its consumption may be compared to consumption of a moderately strong cup of coffee or tea.