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| General | |
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| Chemical formula | 17}} H } N O } |
| Molecular weight | 303.35 amu |
| CAS number | 50-36-2 |
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Cocaine is a crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant, creating a euphoric sense of happiness and hyperthermia. Though most often used recreationally for this effect, cocaine is also a topical anesthetic that is used in eye and nasal surgery.
Cocaine was a popular recreational drug of the 1960s and 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, which experienced a peak of use in the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends due to the introduction of "crack" cocaine. Use of the powder form has stayed relatively constant, experiencing a new height of use during the late 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn and early 2000sThis article is about the decade starting at the beginning of 2000 and ending at the end of 2009. For the century or millennium starting in 2000, see the links below. Millennia: 2nd millennium 3rd millennium 4th millennium Centuries: 20th century 21st cen.
The stereotypical powder cocaine user is a frequenter of bars and clubs in his or her 20s or 30s, often employed in an office or professional environment. Average users of "crack" cocaine are 30 years or older inner-city residents of a lower income bracket. Exceptions to both rules exist in large numbers due to the immense popularity of the drug. Cocaine in its various forms comes in second only to cannabissee text Cannabis is a genus of dioecious, annual herbs that belong to the family Cannabaceae, which was formerly placed with the nettles in the order Urticales, but is now in the order Rosales. There is phylogenetic controversy as to whether the cultivat as the USA's most popular illegal recreational drug.
The estimated USA cocaine habit exceeded $35 billion in street value for the year 2003, exceeding revenues by corporate giants such as Microsoft and General Motors. There is a tremendous demand for cocaine in the US market, particularly among those who are making incomes affording luxury spending, such as single adults and various professionals. Cocaine's status as a club drugClub Drugs are a category of recreational drugs which are popular at dance clubs, parties, and rock concerts. In particular, these drugs are associated with techno and punk music. Notable club drugs Ecstasy (Popularized by "rave" party attendees, also cal shows its immense popularity among the "party crowd." Cocaine may bring higher annual revenues than cannabissee text Cannabis is a genus of dioecious, annual herbs that belong to the family Cannabaceae, which was formerly placed with the nettles in the order Urticales, but is now in the order Rosales. There is phylogenetic controversy as to whether the cultivat because the user must spend US$20 or more each time he or she uses.
For thousands of years, South American Indians chewed the coca leaf, a plant which contains vital nutrients as well as the cocaine alkaloid. The leaf was chewed almost universally in some tribes, but there is no evidence that its habitual use ever led to any of the negative consequences generally associated with habitual cocaine use today. It was an important source of nutrition and energy in a region that was lacking in other food sources and oxygen; the vitamins and protein present in the leaves, as much as the cocaine alkaloid, helped provide the energy and strength necessary for steep walks in this mountainous area.
When the Spaniards conquered South America, they at first ignored Indian claims that the leaf gave them strength and energy, and declared the practice of chewing it the work of the Devil. But after discovering that these claims were true, they legalized and taxed the leaf, taking 10% of the value of each crop. These taxes were for a time the main source of support for the Catholic Church in the region.
Although the stimulant and hunger-supressant properties of coca had been known for many centuries, the isolation of the cocaine alkaloid was not achieved until the summer of 1859. Although many scientists had attempted to isolate cocaine, no one had been successful for two reasons: the knowledge of chemistry required was insufficient at the time, and coca does not grow in Europe and is easily ruined during travel.
In 1856 Friederich Wöhler asked Dr. Carl Scherzer , a scientist aboard the Novara (an Austrian frigate sent by Emperor Franz Joseph to circle the globe), to bring him back a large amount of coca leaves from South America. In 1859 the ship finished its travels and Wöhler received a trunk full of coca. Wöhler passed on the leaves to Albert Niemann , a Ph.D. student at the University of Göttingen in Germany, who became the first person known to isolate cocaine. Niemann describes every step he took to isolate cocaine in a small work entitled On a New Organic Base , which earned him his Ph.D. and is now in the British Library. As with other alkaloids its name carried the "-ine" suffix.
In 1859 an Italian doctor Paolo Mantegazza returned from Peru, where he had witnessed first-hand the use of coca by the natives. He proceeded to experiment on himself and upon his return to Milan he wrote a paper in which he described the effects. In this paper he declared coca and cocaine (at the time they were assumed to be the same) as being useful medicinally, in the treatment of "a furred tongue in the morning, flatulence, [and] whitening of the teeth."
A chemist named Angelo Mariani who read Mantegazza's paper became immediately intrigued with coca, and its economic potential. In 1863 Mariani started marketing a wine called Vin Mariani which had been treated with coca leaves. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves, altering the drink's effect. It contained 6 mg cocaine per ounce of wine, but Vin Mariani which was to be exported contained 7.2 mg per ounce in order to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the United States. Later when Coca Cola was invented, cocaine was included in its ingredients. The only known measure of the amount of cocaine in Coca Cola was determined in 1902 as being as little as 1/400 of a grain per ounce of syrup. The actual amount of cocaine that Coca Cola contained is impossible to determine. (Coca Cola discontinued the use of cocaine in the drink in 1929.)
Cocaine use became very popular in the late 19th century, with many prominent figures praising its therapeutic and even recreational usage. Satisfied consumers of Mariani's cocaine-wine products included Ulysses S. Grant (whom Mariani claimed drank the elixir daily), Pope Leo XII, and "physicians to all the royal households of Europe."
In 1879 cocaine began to be used to treat morphine addiction. Cocaine was introduced into clinical use as a local anaesthetic in Germany in 1884, about the same time as Sigmund Freud published his work On Coca . Although synthetic local anaesthetics are much more widely used today, cocaine is, to some degree, still in use in dentistry and ophthalmology.
In 1885 the U.S. manufacturer Parke Davis and Co. sold cocaine in various forms, including cigarettes, powder, and even a cocaine mixture that could be injected directly into the user's veins with the included needle. The company promised that its cocaine products would "supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and ... render the sufferer insensitive to pain."
By late Victorian times cocaine use had appeared as a vice in literature, for example as the cucaine injected by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional Sherlock Holmes.
By the turn of the twentieth century, the addictive properties of cocaine had become clear to many, and the problem of cocaine abuse began to capture public attention in the United States. The dangers of cocaine abuse became part of a moral panic that was tied to the dominant racial and social anxieties of the day. In 1903 the American Journal of Pharmacy stressed that most cocaine abusers were "bohemians, gamblers, high- and low- class prostitutes, night porters, bell boys, burglars, racketeers, pimps, and casual laborers." In 1914 Dr. Christopher Koch of Pennsylvania's State Pharmacy Board made the racial innuendo explicit, testifying that "Most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain." In the same year, the Harrison Narcotics Act heavily regulated cocaine, and it was officially outlawed as a narcotic in 1922.
Cocaine in its purest form is an off-white or pink chunky product. Cocaine appearing in powder is a salt, typically cocaine hydrochloride. Cocaine is frequently adulterated or "cut" with various powdery fillers to increase its volume; the substances most commonly used in this process are baking soda, sugars, such as lactose, inositol, and mannitol, and local anesthetics, such as lidocaine. Adulterated cocaine is often a white or off-white powder.
The colour of "crack" cocaine depends upon several factors including the origin of the cocaine used, the method of preparation — with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate, and the presence of impurities, but will generally range from a light brown to a pale brown. Its texture will also depend on the factors which affect color, but will range from a crumbly texture, which is usually the lighter variety, to hard, almost crystalline nature, which is usually the darker variety.
As the name implies, "freebase" is the base form of cocaine, as opposed to the salt form of cocaine hydrochloride. Whereas cocaine hydrochloride is extremely soluble in water, cocaine base is insoluble in water and is therefore not suitable for drinking, snorting or injecting. Cocaine hydrochloride is not well-suited for smoking because the temperature at which it vaporizes is very hot and close to the temperature at which it burns; however, cocaine base vaporizes at a low temperature making it suitable for smoking.
Smoking freebase is preferred by many users because the cocaine is absorbed immediately into blood via the lungs, where it reaches the brain in about five seconds. The rush is much more intense than sniffing the same amount of cocaine nasally, but the effects do not last as long. The peak of the freebase rush is over almost as soon as the user exhales the vapor, but the high typically lasts 5–10 minutes afterwards. What makes freebase a particularly dangerous drug is that users typically don't wait that long for their next hit and will continue to smoke freebase until none is left. These effects are similar to those that can be achieved by injecting or "slamming" cocaine hydrochloride, but without the risks associated with intravenous drug use (although there are other serious risks associated with smoking freebase).
Freebase cocaine is produced by first dissolving cocaine hydrochloride in water. Once dissolved in water, cocaine hydrochloride (Coc HCl) disassociates into protonated cocaine ion (HCoc+) and chloride ion (Cl-). Any solids that remain in the solution are not cocaine (they are part of the cut) and are removed by filtering. A base, typically ammonia (NH3), is added to the solution to remove the extra proton from the cocaine. The following net chemical reaction takes place:
As freebase cocaine (Coc) is insoluble in water, it precipitates out and the solution becomes cloudy. To recover the freebase, ether is added to the solution: Since freebase is highly soluble in ether, a vigorous shaking of the mixture results in the freebase being dissolved in the ether. As ether is insoluble in water, it can be siphoned off. The ether is then left to evaporate, leaving behind the nearly pure freebase.
This procedure is dangerous because of the hazards of handling ether: it is extremely flammable, its vapors are heavier than air and can "creep" from an open bottle, and in the presence of oxygen, it can form peroxides which can spontaneously combust.
Because of the dangers of using ether to produce pure freebase cocaine, cocaine producers began to omit the step of removing the freebase cocaine precipitate from the ammonia mixture. Typically, filtration processes are also omitted. The end result of this process is that the cut, in addition to the ammonium salt (NH4Cl), remains in the freebase cocaine after the mixture is evaporated. The "rock" which is thus formed also contains a small amount of water. When the rock is heated this water boils, making a crackling sound (hence the name "crack"). Baking soda is now most often used as a base rather than ammonia for reasons of lowered stench and toxicity, however any base can be used to make crack cocaine.
The net reaction when using baking soda (also called sodium bicarbonate, with a chemical formula of NaHC03) is:
Crack is unique because it offers a strong cocaine experience in small, low priced packages. In the United States, crack cocaine is often sold in small, inexpensive dosage units frequently known as "nickels" or "nickel rocks" (referring to the price of $5.00), and also "dimes" or "dime rocks" ($10.00) and sometimes as "twenties" or "forties". The quantity provided by such a purchase varies depending upon many factors, such as local availability, which is affected by geographic location. A twenty may yield a quarter gram or half gram on average, yielding 30 minutes to an hour of effect if hits are taken every few minutes. After the 20 or 40 dollar mark, crack and powder cocaine are sold in grams or fractions of ounces. Many inner-city addicts with a regular dealer will "work a corner," taking money from anyone who wants crack, making a buy from the dealer, then delivering part of the product while keeping some for themselves.
Absorption is approximately 80% through the nasal membranes when cocaine powder is "snorted". The blood vessels limit absorption. Chronic use results in ongoing rhinitis and necrosis of the nasal membranes. Cellulose granulomas from adulterants have also been found in the lungs of recreational "sniffers".
The intravenous route of administration provides the highest blood levels of drug in the shortest time. Injection of cocaine produces an exhilarating rush, although the euphoria passes quickly as the liver rapidly metabolizes the drug. Besides the toxic effects of cocaine, there is also danger of circulatory emboli from the insoluble substances that may be used to cut the drug. Obviously, there is also a risk of serious infection associated with the use of contaminated needles.
Smoking freebase or crack cocaine is most often accomplished using a pipe made from a small glass tube about one-quarter inch in diameter and up to several inches long. These are sometimes called "straight shooters"; readily available in convenience stores or smoke shops. They will sometimes contain a small paper flower and are promoted as a romantic gift. Buyers usually ask for a "rose" or a "flower".
A small piece of steel or copper scouring pad — often called a "brillo" or "chore", from the scouring pads of the same name — is placed into one end of the tube after having the bad-smelling coating burned off the metal. It then serves as a crude filter in which the "rock" can melt and boil to vapor.
The "rock" is placed at the end of the pipe closest to the filter and the other end of the pipe is placed in the mouth. A flame from a cigarette lighter or handheld torch is then held under the rock. As the rock is heated, it melts and burns away to vapor which the user inhales as smoke.
The effects are felt almost immediately after smoking, are very intense, and do not last long — usually five to fifteen minutes. Most users will want more after this time, especially if a frequent user. "Crack houses" depend on these cravings by providing users a place to smoke, and a ready supply of small bags for sale. Crack users will purchase a quantity and smoke it at the house, often buying and smoking more and more until they are out of money.
A heavily used crack-pipe tends to break at the ends as the user "pushes" the pipe. "Pushing" is a technique used to partially recover crack which hardens on the inside wall of the pipe as the pipe cools. The user pushes the metal wool filter through the pipe from one end to the other to collect the build-up inside the pipe. The ends of the pipe can be broken by the object used to push the filter, frequently a small screwdriver or stiff piece of wire. The user will often remove the most jagged edges and continue using the pipe until it becomes so short that it burns the lips and fingers.
The tell-tale signs of a used crack pipe are a glass tube with burn marks at one or both ends and a clump of metal wool inside.
When smoked, cocaine is sometimes combined with other drugs, such as cannabis; often rolled into a joint or blunt. This combination is known as " primo". Cocaine and heroin combined is known as "moonrock" and has caused many deaths, particularly in and around Los Angeles. Crack smokers who are being drug tested may also make their "primo" with cigarette tobacco instead of cannabis, since a crack smoker can test clean within 2 to 3 days of use.
Cocaine is a potent blocker of the dopamine transporter (DAT) and a less potent blocker of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) and serotonin transporter ( SERT). Cocaine also blocks sodium channels, thereby interfering with the propagation of action potentials; thus, like lidocaine and novocaine, it acts as a local anaesthetic. The locomotor enhancing properties of cocaine may be attributable to its enhancement of dopaminergic transmission from the substantia nigra.
After cocaine is introduced to the body it travels to reward areas of the brain: the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. These areas are saturated with dopamine synapses. Normally, after dopamine is released in the synaptic cleft, it binds to the dopamine receptors; reuptake sites (protein transported structures) will utilize the rest of the neurotransmitter (dopamine). In the presence of cocaine the normal process of reuptaking is breached. Cocaine binds to the uptake sites, which leaves a higher concentration of dopamine in the synaptic cleft. The higher activation of dopamine receptors in the post-synaptic cell causes various intracellular changes, which ultimately lead to changes in firing patterns.
Cocaine is almost completely metabolized, primarily in the liver, with only about 1% excreted unchanged in the urine. It is mostly eliminated as benzoylecgonine , the major metabolite of cocaine, and is also excreted in lesser amounts as ecgonine methyl ester and ecgonine.
Cocaine metabolites are detectable in urine for up to two days after cocaine is used. Benzoylecgonine can be detected in urine within four hours after cocaine inhalation and remains detectable in concentrations greater than 1000 ng/ml for as long as 48 hours.
Cocaine is a potent central nervous system stimulant. Its effects last from 20 minutes to several hours, dependent upon the dosage of cocaine taken and its purity.
The initial signs of stimulation are hyperactivity, restlessness, tachycardia, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate and euphoria. The euphoria is quickly followed by feelings of discomfort and depression and a craving to re-experience the drug. Side effects can include twitching and paranoia, which usually increase with frequent usage.
With excessive dosage the drug can produce hallucinations, paranoid delusions, itching, and formication.
Overdose causes tachy-arythmias and a marked elevation of blood pressure. These can be life threatening, especially if the user has existing cardiac problems.
Toxicity results in seizures, followed by respiratory and circulatory depression of medullar origin. This may lead to death from respiratory failure, stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, or heart-failure. Cocaine is also highly pyrogenic because the stimulation and increased muscular activity cause greater heat production. Heat loss is inhibited by the intense vasoconstriction. Cocaine-induced hyperthermia may cause muscle cell destruction and myoglobinuria resulting in renal failure. There is no specific antidote for cocaine overdose.
Cocaine abuse is associated with a lifetime risk of heart attack that is seven times that of non-users. During the hour after cocaine is used, heart attack risk rises twenty-four times. It accounts for 25% of the heart attacks in the 18–45 year-old age group.
Side effects from chronic smoking of cocaine include chest pain, lung trauma, shortness of breath, sore throat, hoarse voice, dyspnea, and an aching, flu-like syndrome. The smoking of cocaine also breaks down tooth enamel and causes tooth decay.
Chronic intranasal usage can degrade the cartilage separating the nostrils (the septum), leading eventually to its complete disappearance.
Cocaine is used as a topical anesthetic in eye and nasal surgery. The major disadvantage of this use cocaine's intense vasoconstrictor activity and potential for cardiovascular system toxicity. Although the vasoconstriction is sometimes an advantage as it reduces bleeding, cocaine has now been largely replaced in medicine by local anaesthetics that are simply combined with a vasoconstrictor such as phenylephrine or epinephrine.
Cocaine addiction is obsessive or uncontrollable abuse of cocaine. Twelve Step Cocaine Anonymous groups modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous exist to combat this problem. A cocaine vaccine is also being tested which may prevent the recipient from feeling the desirable effects of the drug, although it only works when given to young children.
Cocaine has positive reinforcement effects, which refers to the effect that certain stimuli have on behavior. Good feelings become associated with the drug, causing a frequent user to take the drug as a response to bad news or mild depression. This activation strengthens the response that was just made. If the drug was taken by a fast acting route such as injection or inhalation, the response will be the act of taking more cocaine, so the response will be reinforced. Powder cocaine, being a club drug is most commonly available in the evening and night hours. Since cocaine is a stimulant, a user will often drink large amounts of alcohol during and after usage in order to sleep. These several hours of temporary relief and pleasure will further reinforce the positive response. Other downers such as heroin and various pharmaceuticals are often used for the same purpose, further increasing addiction potential and harmfulness.
It is speculated that cocaine's addicting properties stem from its DAT-blocking effects (in particular, blocking the dopaminergic transmission from ventral tegmental area neurons). However, Ichiro Sora et al. published a paper in 1998 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showing that mice with no dopamine transporters still exhibited rewarding effects of cocaine administration. Sora's later work demonstrated that a combined DAT/5HTT knockout eliminated the rewarding effects.
A result of cocaine being in the reward section of the brain is that it produces higher frequencies of impulses which activate the reward system. Chronic use of cocaine creates a pathological pathway, which substitutes the natural reward function. In order to maintain this pathway, users must increase cocaine dosage (this phenomenon is called tolerance). Natural reinforcers such as food, water, or sex are no longer able to perform this function.
Besides the activation of the reward system, cocaine affects the metabolic activity of the brain. The brain of chronic cocaine users can not utilize glucose — the main energy source for the brain — which results in violation of many brain functions; it can also explain the craving for confectionery in cocaine users.
The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) reported in 1999 that cocaine was used by 3.7 million Americans, or 1.7% of the household population aged 12 and over. Estimates of the current number of those who use cocaine regularly (at least once per month) vary, but 1.5 million is a widely accepted figure within the research community.
Although cocaine use had not significantly changed over the six years prior to 1999, the number of first-time users went from 574,000 in 1991, to 934,000 in 1998 — an increase of 63%. While these numbers indicated that cocaine is still widely present in the United States, cocaine use was significantly less prevalent than it was during the early 1980s. Cocaine use peaked in 1982 when 10.4 million Americans (5.6% of the population) reportedly used cocaine.
The 1999 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey found the proportion of American students reporting use of powder cocaine rose during the 1990s. In 1991, 2.3% of eighth-graders stated that they had used cocaine in their lifetime. This figure rose to 4.7% in 1999. For the older grades, increases began in 1992 and continued through the beginning of 1999. Between those years, lifetime use of cocaine went from 3.3% to 7.7% for tenth-graders and from 6.1% to 9.8% for twelfth-graders. Lifetime use of crack cocaine, according to MTF, also increased among eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-graders, from an average of 2.0% in 1991 to 3.9% in 1999.
Perceived risk and disapproval of cocaine and crack use both decreased during the 1990s at all three grade levels. The 1999 NHSDA found the highest rate of monthly cocaine use was for those aged 18–25 at 1.7%, an increase from 1.2% in 1997. Rates declined between 1996 and 1998 for ages 26–34, while rates slightly increased for the 12–17 and 35+ age groups. Studies also show people are experimenting with cocaine at younger ages. NHSDA found a steady decline in the mean age of first use from 23.6 years in 1992 to 20.6 years in 1998.
Cocaine is readily available in all major US metropolitan areas. According to the Summer 1998 Pulse Check, which is published by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, cocaine use had stabilized across the country, with a few increases reported in San Diego, Bridgeport, Miami, and Boston. In the West, cocaine usage was lower, which was thought to be because some users were switching to methamphetamine, which was cheaper and provides a longer-lasting high. Numbers of cocaine users are still very large, with a concentration among city-dwelling youth.
In 1999, Colombia was the world's leading producer of cocaine. Three-quarters of the world's annual yield of cocaine was produced there, both from cocaine base imported from Peru and Bolivia, and from locally grown coca. There was a 28% increase in the amount of potentially harvestable coca plants in Colombia in 1998. This, combined with crop reductions in Bolivia and Peru, made Colombia the nation with the largest area of coca under cultivation.
Cocaine shipments from South America transported through Mexico or Central America are generally moved over land or by air to staging sites in northern Mexico. The cocaine is then broken down into smaller loads for smuggling across the U.S.–Mexico border. The primary cocaine importation points in the United States are in Arizona, southern California, southern Florida, and Texas. Typically, land vehicles are driven across the Southwest Border.
Cocaine is also carried in small, concealed, kilogram quantities across the border by couriers known as "mules", who enter the United States either legally through ports of entry or illegally through undesignated points along the border. Colombian traffickers have also started using a new concealment method whereby they add chemical compounds to cocaine hydrochloride to produce "black cocaine." The cocaine in this substance is not detected by standard chemical tests or drug-sniffing canines.
Cocaine traffickers from Colombia, and recently Mexico, have also established a labyrinth of smuggling routes throughout the Caribbean, the Bahama Island chain, and South Florida. They often hire traffickers from Mexico or the Dominican Republic to transport the drug. The traffickers use a variety of smuggling techniques to transfer their drug to U.S. markets. These include airdrops of 500–700 kg in the Bahama Islands or off the coast of Puerto Rico, mid-ocean boat-to-boat transfers of 500–2,000 kg, and the commercial shipment of tonnes of cocaine through the port of Miami.
Bulk cargo ships are also used to smuggle cocaine to staging sites in the western Caribbean– Gulf of Mexico area. These vessels are typically 150–250 foot (50–80 m) coastal freighters that carry an average cocaine load of approximately 2.5 metric tonnes. Commercial fishing vessels are also used for smuggling operations. In areas with a high volume of recreational traffic, smugglers use the same types of vessels, such as go-fast boats, as those used by the local populations.
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