Dr. Pooch

When it comes to the chemistry behind Bolivian Marching Powder, few in the world know more than Pooch. To prove my point, I've pasted a sample chat room exchange below:

[3:09 PM]<nicfit> watch this:
            http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2006/11/how_cocaine_is_.html
[3:22 PM]<rynök düo> what's the cement for?
[3:22 PM]<nickönöv> Neato: binding agent?
[3:23 PM]<nicfit> yea, I think it attracts either the good stuff or
            the bad stuff as a way to seperate the two
[3:23 PM]<nicfit> dunno though
[3:23 PM]<nicfit> maybe the chemist knows
[3:23 PM]<rynök düo> iaco?
[3:23 PM]<nicfit> yah
[3:25 PM]<iaco> alkaloids are more soluble by organic compounds than
            water, so it's just an extraction method, non-polar
            compounds dissolve non-polar compounds more efficiently
            than polar compounds do
[3:25 PM]<rynök düo> i have no idea what you just said.
[3:25 PM]<rynök düo> but it gave me wood.
[3:26 PM]<iaco> the cement is probably a catalyst to pull out the good
            stuff from the leaf pulp.  it's alkaline in nature so
            probably reacts and then you get the reacting bits with the
            gasoline
[3:26 PM]<iaco> cement is very caustic; therefore, basic on the whole
            acid/base scale
[3:29 PM]<rynök düo> damn this shit is complicated. how did people
            figure this out?
[3:30 PM]<iaco> i'm sure the first extraction methods weren't this
            complex. and then some guy who paid attention in chemistry
            class figured out the rest of it

Click here to see the video that started it all.