Berliner Tinke

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Berliner Tinke or Berliner Tinktur was the name of a heroin predecessor in the German drug scene in the early 1970s.

The tincture was an injectable mixture of morphine carbonate and acetic acid that was boiled (usually with a lighter under a teaspoon) before consumption. One milliliter of the brown liquid was enough for an injection and cost between ten and 15 marks . The strength or the morphine content of the Berlin Tinke varied greatly, as it could be diluted with water at any time by the dealer or distributor. The color of the Berlin Tinke served as an indicator of the morphine content. It was said, the darker, the stronger. It was most focused when it was the color of Coca-Cola .

In the late summer of 1969, pure morphine base imported from Istanbul appeared on the Berlin black market, from which the drug, soon to be known as Berliner Tinke , was made by young chemists by boiling with acetic acid . Initially, the drink was sold directly by the producers. They ran through trendy bars with medicine bottles and pipettes and put the drug directly on the spoon. It was billed drop by drop. Interested parties soon came from West Germany and bought Tinke in bottles. When Sven Reichardt this development is called the "beginning of the Berlin junkie scene."

With the advent of hard drugs such as medical morphine and Berliner Tinke , according to Martin Schmid, many users (who had previously taken cannabis , LSD and amphetamines ) broke away from the youth and protest movement, stopped expressing alternative political claims and gathered in scenes that were all about the drug.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Thomas Geschwinde: Drugs. Market forms and modes of action , 7th edition, Springer, Berlin; Heidelberg; New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-642-30162-9 , p. 394, paragraph 1841.
  2. ^ Sven Reichhardt: Authenticity and Community. Left alternative life in the seventies and early eighties , Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29675-2 , pp. 856f.
  3. ↑ Often procured through pharmacy break-ins . In 1971 there were 2,700 such burglaries nationwide. As a result, the safety regulations for pharmacies were tightened, as early as 1973 the number of pharmacy break-ins had fallen by more than half. See: Martin Schmid, Drug Aid in Germany. Origin and development 1970-2000 , Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-593-37375-0 , p. 103.
  4. ^ Martin Schmid: Drug Aid in Germany. Origin and development 1970-2000 , Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-593-37375-0 , p. 101.