

Breaking Good: How to synthesize Sudafed from crystal meth - brianl
http://boingboing.net/2012/02/27/scientific-paper-of-the-day-h.html

======
derrida
It's a political hack, it's making the point that it is easier to synthesise
pseudoephedrine by buying crystal meth (the reason pseudoephedrine is so
heavily restricted) than it is to go out and buy pseudoephedrine. It's an
effort to change the law. That's the 'hack'. Chemistry enthusiasts will have
to judge if it has been successful on its claims about the method outlined or,
rather, if the hack is in fact exploiting our expectations that journals
generally say intelligent and correct stuff, so the claims made in this
journal article are correct. If we are either deceived by it being correct and
cheap chemistry, or if we believe the claims within the article, the hack
works (it's intent being to change absurd legal controls surrounding
pseudoephidrine, not necessarily to show how to synthesise pseudoephidrine).
It's necessary for the hack to work, to change our beliefs. If it does this
with the truth, all the nicer.

This is a classic - even if the claims in the paper are bullshit. :-)

~~~
DanBC
Aren't there clear links between availability the of ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine, and the availability of meth on the street?

There's some greta charts somewhere showing drops in purity of meth (along
with increased prices) against time, compared to measures taken to reduce the
supply of pseudo-ephedrine. There's also some correlation with increased
numbers of people seeking treatment.

I'm carefully trying to avoid traditional drug arguments, but to make clear: I
am generally in favour of legalisation of drugs.

~~~
Terretta
There are clear links with availability of ephedrine, yes, but the links are
counter-correlated with the availability of the cold pills.

Keep in mind that most any doctor or nurse will tell you for sinus congestion,
pseudoephedrine works while phenylephrine is essentially no better than
placebo.

From the timeline linked in other comments, it's clear the media and
government are indulging in "drug war theater". Every time you hand over a
driver's license for decongestant, you are supposed to thank your government
for keeping you safe.

From the timeline:

1990s:

 _The Amezcua cartel in Mexico develops an additional source for ephedrine,
buying bulk ephedrine powder overseas from some of the same nine factories (in
Germany, Czech Republic, China, and India) from which the American
pharmaceutical industry buys their supply of ephedrine/pseudoephedrine for
cold medicines. Meth's purity doubles, and a flood of meth spreads eastward
from the West Coast. The number of people entering rehab for meth skyrockets._

 _Robert Pennal, head of the Fresno (Calif.) Methamphetamine Task Force,
starts seeing large meth labs in California's Central Valley. Four out of
every five hits of meth consumed in the United States are coming from these
industrial-scale labs._

 _"The Amezcua brothers revolutionized the meth trade. They turned it from a
small mom-and-pop backyard operation to an industrial-scale production line.
They made possible the super lab, which is capable of producing 1,500 times
what an ordinary user can make for himself." - Steve Suo, investigative
reporter for The Oregonian_

This is followed by a bunch of misleading stats, such as "blister packs of
pseudoephedrine will be found in 47 percent of seized meth labs". They're
calling every mom and pop a lab, and failing to seize the mega labs, but by
juking the definitions, they can claim they're closing so many labs. Of the 3
guys in a condo "labs" they find, less than half have any Sudafed in the
house.

Meanwhile, as the timeline notes for 2004:

 _Mexico legally imports 224 tons of pseudoephedrine -- twice as much as they
need to make cold medicine. The extra 100 tons is cooked into meth, then
smuggled, like other drugs, across the border into the United States. As a
result, meth on American streets is as pure as it's ever been._

2005:

 _The Mexican government admits that drug cartels artificially inflated demand
for pseudoephedrine and agrees to reduce imports to a level legitimately
needed for cold medicine._

2009:

 _The Mexican government recognizes there is a huge oversupply of
pseudoephedrine coming into the country, and most of it is being diverted to
the U.S meth trade._

Then they talk about how that realization turned the mega labs into small
labs, and how much less meth there is. But now it's...

2011:

 _Other states struggling with the problem begin using electronic tracking
systems to monitor behind-the-counter sales. Kentucky is the first to use the
system and more than two years in, officials say it’s failing to bring rates
down._

Imagine that. Despite the best efforts of media sales driven hysteria and
government drug war theater, it turns out that preventing Americans from
readily purchasing inexpensive sinus medication doesn't stop professionally
imported meth.

If the US government can't keep meth out of an ultra max prison, how much
freedom do you think you'd have to give up before they can keep it out of your
state?

------
frisco
I realize it's meant to be funny and the journal title is fake, but is the
synthesis valid? I'd be curious to know if this is good organic chemistry in
service of the joke or not.

~~~
InclinedPlane
I can't say whether the synthesis is actually valid, but I did see a few
rather exotic reagents were required, making this not even remotely something
an amateur would be capable of doing. Butyl Lithium and "MoOPH" especially are
rather specialized and rather dangerous materials, for example.

------
cypherpunks01
Please use direct link instead:
<http://heterodoxy.cc/meowdocs/pseudo/pseudosynth.pdf>

------
aaronbrethorst
(parody)

Edit: You'd have to ask the folks at Boing Boing.

From the end of the article on BB: "* Note the name of the authors, and that
of the journal. It's parody, folks."

~~~
peteretep
What's it a parody of?

~~~
JonnieCache
Real synthesis documents. Which, by the way, you should be _really_ careful
going looking for.

~~~
frisco
I don't think that's what it's parodying...

Also, why would one need to be "really careful" looking up an organic
synthesis of Sudafed?

~~~
JonnieCache
There are a lot of... unusual chemistry papers out there which could lead to
difficult questions being asked at certain borders I imagine.

Although to be fair I guess every chemistry student goes though a phase of
looking these things up when they find out they exist.

~~~
dlss
What an odd sentiment. There's nothing illegal about looking that up, or
knowing how people do it. Honestly, I don't think I've ever met a good chemist
that _hasn't_ looked it up -- the kind of ingenuity in synthesis that is born
from not having access to a laboratory (or good precursors / solvents) is
fascinating. Very MacGyver.

Out of curiosity, what do you think happens if you look it up? How did you
come by this information without having similar concerns?

(Although I have heard of room 641A, I honestly don't know very much about
this)

Thanks

edit: for the curious... <http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/meth/meth_faq.shtml>

~~~
JonnieCache
They find the pdf on your computer at the border, lock you in a room, shout at
you for hours, tickle your prostate just for fun and then send you home?

There have been multiple cases of licensed MDMA researchers being denied entry
to the US for having such materials, or for having admitted that they took the
drugs once. I wish I could find the link, maybe I'll be back with it later.

Then there's this stuff: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810312>

Obviously not exactly the same, but who can say where it's going next?

~~~
dlss
Hmm. So while I admit you can find examples of people receiving such
harassment, I don't think you can make the case that such events are common or
likely the experience you will have. People generally get angry when they hear
about stuff like your link. It's newsworthy for a reason (rare + outrageous).
Government employees are people too, it's not like anyone acts _deliberately_
oppressive.

Besides, that cost benefit ratio sounds worth it. (very rare chance of
harassment and molestation) vs (very real chance of learning something
awesome)

I guess I'm curious how much money you'd charge to store such pdfs on your
hard drive forever -- more than $100? more than $1000?

I'll do it for $10 :p

BTW it sounds like you really should look up Room 641A -- this conversation
and your IP were logged. Talking about evading security is probably _way_
worse than taking about meth.

