Freebases and HCL salts

[thunderfvck]

Hi.

Certain drugs need to be freebased, can someone explain this (the meaning of freebaing)? Why would you want to freebase?
I believe that when they are freebased they form a salt of HCL or something, what's with that? Is it analogous to hydrated salt, where a compound can hold like 2 moles of water within its structure? Why HCl?

[thunderfvck]

A lot of drugs have an amine group that acts like a base. The base reacts with an acid (HCl) to form a salt, the salt is the freebase. THis is advantageous because then you'll have a solid chemical as opposed to the oilly garbage that is the base form.