Just in time for the depths of cold and flu season

[commodorified]

A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From
N-Methylamphetamine

O. Hai,*a and I. B. Hakkenshita,b

Received 12th December 2011, Accepted 21st January 2012
First published on the web 23rd February 2012
DOI: 1F.1BC9/b00000F00A

A novel and straightforward synthesis of pseudoephidrine from readily available N-methylamphetamine is presented. This practical synthesis is expected to be a disruptive technology replacing the need to find an open pharmacy.

Via nancylebov. PDF. I have not tried this. I do not intend to try this. I do not recommend that YOU try this. I am not encouraging you to associate with meth dealers or manufacture medications in your home and will not be held responsible for the outcome of either. Do not read while drinking due to risk of aspiration. Read with caution if afflicted with a nasty painful hacking cough that feels as if your chest were being ripped asunder by vicious starving mutant weasels and makes your headache even worse and ... um. Sorry. ANYWAY.

Comments

[sara]

Bwahahaha.

Yeah, chances are good I could wander down into the Whit and have meth faster than I could get a scrip for sudafed. Although at this point I, like many other Oregonians with health insurance, have a standing order in at the local pharm.

(Mostly what this means is that now, instead of having rednecks brewing up meth in trailers in the woods, we have Mexican drug gangs running it up and down I-5. Whether or not this is an improvement depends on whether you like your drug dealers to be locals or out-of-towners. The out-of-towners seem to be somewhat more violent, but less prone to property crime.)

[commodorified]

The out-of-towners seem to be somewhat more violent, but less prone to property crime.)

So the Republicans are happy, then?

[sara]

Ayep! They feel it's a resounding success.

Oh, and we now don't have local kids getting pulled out of meth houses. We still have local kids getting taken away from their tweaker parents, but now the kids who're getting poisoned by the meth-manufacturing byproducts are in faraway exotic Mexico, so we don't have to worry about them.

(If you're thinking I'd rather have seen more energy put into explaining to everyone exactly why it's a really, really terrible idea to start doing meth, rather than confiscating everyone's cold pills, you're not wrong. But heaven knows we can't treat potential addicts like rational actors. Because addicts are all wicked. /bitterness)

[ironphoenix]

Very nice... one wonders whether the experiment was actually conducted.

[azurelunatic]

My friend's wife the chemist with access to Large Quantities of Confiscated Chemistry was totally excited until she saw that one of the reagents was more chromium than her facility will let her order on account of then having to get rid of the shit.

[ironphoenix]

*nods* Whatever the book title may lead one to think, one can't simply burn it off.

[automaticdoor]

I feel like I could definitely get meth a lot easier than I could get sudafed. We can buy it in teeny tiny doses OTC in both DC and Florida (not sure about other places/states/provinces/etc.) but not without the pharmacist questioning you, logging your drivers license, blah blah blah, and even still, when they run out of their tiny supplies, they're out until the company randomly ships them more. That's right: the majority of the regional/national chains are now getting shipped random quantities at random times so that people won't be able to plan ahead to get sudafed from them. I had a pharmacist actually tell me that. *sigh*

[0jack]

Hey, someone found a use for meth. AWESOME.