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In addition to what the others have said, black tar is essentially heroin that is made by skipping a few of the steps in the "standard" heroin synthesis process. Whichever cartel controls West Coast distribution decided that was good enough for them, and customers would buy it regardless. I'm actually curious as to why the other cartels bother producing powder heroin at all.

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Presumably because it packs to a higher density and is purer, and since sentencing is done by weight irrespective of how much active drug it actually contains, it winds up being essentially a forcing function toward making the strongest substance you can. Such laws therefore are almost entirely responsible for why drugs have gotten stronger and stronger over the years, with the increased risk this brings.

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