So I'm at break at work and just thought I'd do a quick copy paste from the very wiki pages you linked, lol:
I didn't say that Methylbenzoylecgonine is the chemical name for "free-base cocaine."
Crack is not chemically the same as powder cocaine. You chemically separate the cocaine and condense it to make crack, but in doing so, you significantly affect the physical and chemical properties of the substance.
"Crack cocaine is frequently purchased already in rock form,[2] although it is not uncommon for some users to "wash up" or "cook" powder cocaine into crack themselves. This process is frequently done with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), water, and a spoon. Once mixed and heated, the bicarbonate breaks down into carbon dioxide and sodium carbonate, which then reacts with the hydrochloride of the powder cocaine, leaving cocaine as an oily free base. Once separated from the hydrochloride, the cocaine alkaloid floats to the top of the now leftover liquid.
Different physical and chemical properties. They vaporize at radically different temperatures:
Crack vaporizes near temperature 90 °C (194 °F),[1] much lower than the cocaine hydrochloride melting point of 190 °C (374 °F).[1]
One can be smoked and one can't:
Whereas cocaine hydrochloride cannot be smoked (burns with no effect),[1] crack cocaine when smoked...
and absorb into our blood stream at different rates, thus altering thier affect on our sobriety:
allows for quick absorption into the blood stream, and reaches the brain in 8 seconds.[1] Crack cocaine can also be injected intravenously with the same effect as powder cocaine.
They're not the same thing, goddammit. They don't even dissolve in the same pH:
** However, whereas powder cocaine dissolves in water, crack must be dissolved in an acidic solution such as lemon juice or white vinegar, a process that effectively reverses the original conversion of powder cocaine to crack.**
Fuck, why I am on reddit at work responding to someone who taunted me and got overly angry at a simple discussion about crack, of all things?
I need to spend less time on the internet.