Talk:Cocaine paste

In case anyone's worried about a copyvio, I've been in negotiations with the publisher to release ALL of World&I content as free-licensed. This little bit shouldn't be a problem. --Uncle Ed 21:15, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

The story told in the World & I article, while having the facts right, is obviously a fictionalized one, the names sound unlikely, there's no province named Patagonia, and has poor use of spanish. Majoria 15:47, 24 March 2007 (UTC)


 * -- Patagonia is a region, not a province. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia

The NY TIMES just published an article online, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/world/americas/23argentina.html?hp —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.211.190.171 (talk) 22:38, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

This page seems to have several passages lifted directly from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/world/americas/23argentina.html?hp —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.126.208.20 (talk) 01:09, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I noticed this as well. Not only are those passages obvious copyright violations, they are of very dubious accuracy. The claim that paco "is made mostly of solvents and chemicals like kerosene" is ridiculous. Obviously paco is not actually *composed* of solvents such as kerosene -- they are used in the extraction process to produce it from coca leaves and then evaporated. Harmful chemicals may very well appear in paco, but it is not "made of solvents". That New York Times article is full of alarmist, poorly researched claims like this, so it should be taken with a grain of salt as a source of information. Anyway, I removed all the passages which were directly copied over. --- bethenco (talk) 23:58, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

"Brazil, a country with a historically permissive attitude toward drug use and illicit sex, now ranks as the second largest total consumer of cocaine in the world after the United States, the State Department says." What does sex have to do with it? Audiosqueegee (talk) 21:07, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Vice has an article up on paco/oxi: http://www.vice.com/read/smoke-paco-and-become-one-of-the-walking-dead — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.106.87.208 (talk) 19:04, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Newspaper references
(Discussion moved here from User_talk:Cacycle. Cacycle (talk) 01:13, 5 April 2009 (UTC))

Hi, regarding your last comment on the Cocaine paste article. I can understand why you wouldn't believe it, however I lived in Argentina, and somebody who actually live in Ciudad Occulta told me the exact same thing that was written in Le Monde. So, sadly, it's certainly not newspaper poetry and this drug does damage the brain badly and quickly. Laurent (talk) 20:47, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Sensationalist newspaper and hearsay reports do not meet the requirements of a reliable source on Wikipedia. When you read Paco Under Scrutiny: The cocaine base paste market in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil it is explicitly stated that there are strong misconceptions (including and especially by users) about the nature of the drug. But in essence, it is just less pure cocaine and you would not expect any major differences in toxicity (and the statement that "it quickly destroys the neurones, usually in less than six months" is obvious nonsense. I kindly ask you to either find reliable (preferably scientific) sources or to undo your reversion. Thanks, Cacycle (talk) 23:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, actually it doesn't really matter that I've heard it from someonelse or, for that matter, that you think it's not true, since it's not Wikipedia's job to challenge well established newspapers (Le Monde is certainly not a "sensationalist" newspaper, and is comparable to The Times in francophone countries). That being said, I agree that the "six months" period sounds like what "people would say" rather than some scientific truth, so let me check if I can find some more information about that. Laurent (talk) 09:52, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay I've clarified the passage and integrated the reservations mentioned by the Transnational Institute about the nature of the drug. I didn't remove the "six months" claim as I could find it in plenty of reliable sources, however I mentioned that it is what "doctors say" (as written in the sources) rather than a scientifically proven fact. Laurent (talk) 15:02, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your efforts to improve this article. But Wikipedia is not the place to propagate misconceptions and urban legends, please read Notability, Reliable sources, and What Wikipedia is not. It is irrelevant if the poorly researched articles appeared in big newspapers. Paco is NOT a "mix of "cocaine, crushed glass, kerosene, chemical product and even rat poison" as the intro section clearly states. It commonly contains traces of kerosene because this is used in the purification procedure but that does not make it a mix or kerosene a major ingredient. Glass is not a regular ingredient and this is just another version of the drug urban legend that cocaine is adulterated with crushed glass. The same is true for the even older and even more absurd legend that drugs are adulterated with "rat poison". Find reliable sources such as law enforcement analyses or scientific articles for these claims including proof that this is common practice. As for "Doctors in Argentina say that the brain can be irreversibly damaged after six months of intense use.": we do not care about the personal opinions of these doctors if there are no reliable scientific sources to back this up. Both sentences have to go. Cacycle (talk) 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I've just read some more articles and I would tend to agree with you in that it's very unclear whether the drug is more toxic than cocaine or not, and what it is made of. Different sources say different things and there do not seem to be any clear consensus. The "six months" story comes from a TV documentary that was showing a kid who went downhill and died within six months (see ), however it certainly doesn't make it a scientific truth. So I agree that the two sentences can be removed. I suggest that instead we mention that there seems to be misconceptions on the exact nature and effects of the drug. I'm actually going to slightly reorganize the last part of the article, as it's becoming a bit messy, and add a "Paco in Argentina" section. Laurent (talk) 19:42, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Good idea to start a misconceptions section, I had thought about it myself. I will probably move this conversation to the talk page of the article. Cacycle (talk) 20:04, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Oxi
The phrase that Oxi was "originally developed in the Brazilian Amazon forest region.[9]" is incorrect, and in disagreement with the source cited! In fact the Rio Times article states that "The drug was smuggled into the country [Brazil] via neighboring Bolivia and Peru." Surely this should be corrected. Jim Skea 02:51, 30 April 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimskea (talk • contribs)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Cocaine paste. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071102061634/http://ar.news.yahoo.com:80/s/31102007/43/n-argentina-nuevo-precio-paco.html to http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/31102007/43/n-argentina-nuevo-precio-paco.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 10:55, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Content deletion
, why do you keep deleting sourced content? While this article is admittedly in bad shape, I don't think wholesale deletion is an improvement. I think the situation calls for judicious editing, not axing most of the article body. Sizeofint (talk) 10:37, 4 May 2016 (UTC)