Synthesis of Pychidelic Drugs

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by Hemperor420, Apr 7, 2010.

  1. I was recently interested in two books on the synthesis of various pychidelic compouds. These books are PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin with detailed information on how to synthesis MDMA, MDA, 2-cB and many other phytheogens. The second book was TIHKAL: Tryptamines That I Have Known And Loved with detailed information on the synthesis of LSD, DMT, and many other tryptamines. These books are great and if theres anyone out there interested in sythesizing your own drugs or reading about the man who made MDMA famous and created 2-CB they are must reads.
    So I was talking to my friend about how difficult it would be to carry out the procedures and how expensive it would be. I have heard many people say that in order to get many of these chemicals one must have access to a labratory. But I checked online and there are many chemical suppliers who will ship you any chemical right to your house seemingly without restriction except on amount. My question is does anyone know how lagitimate this would be? Is it really that easy to get all the chemicals neccessary? Do you need some kind of liscence to handle any of these chemicals? Im not saying Im planning on doin it as it would be expensive and highly illegal but I do wonder if it is that easy for anyone to make these drugs. As long as they have to correct procedure, some kind of lab, and a simple background in chemisty, it seems dangerous but not extremely difficult.
     
  2. you have to order an expirement monkey first
     
  3. In all honesty if you want to make drugs just go to your community college and take a bunch of organic chemistry courses.

    A lot of chemicals for a lot of the processes can be purchased from obscure stores locally and online for various legal purposes. A lot of chemicals can also be synthesized from various other procedures and chemicals.

    Equipment is the biggest problem, really. I would love to learn how to make acid or something, but if you are talking about making something that is active on the microgram scale, you need some laboratory equipment.

    The family of chemicals which is hardest to acquire is the ergot alkaloids, if my memory serves. Trying to purchase these chemicals will probably not end well. They can however, be grown and extracted from ergot mold, which grows on rye.

    Mr. Hofmann, the first person to synthesize LSD, was actually trying to make medication out of the ergot alkaloids. He stumbled upon a greatly active drug, forgot about it, then came back to publish his findings on LSD-25.

    But anyways... yeah... the equipment would be a bitch. They send equipment to schools and stuff, but something tells me someone might knock on your door when you start ordering expensive laboratory equipment.

    I would just stick with drugs that require less chemistry. Extract some DMT from mimosa hostilis root bark or something. It is much cheaper and easier.
     
  4. well actually there reputable chemical suppliers but I don't know if you need any type of liscense to get these drugs
     
  5. #5 Carl Weathers, Apr 7, 2010
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2010
    Extremely difficult. Licence required along with an extensive background in chemistry, and a fully equipped lab with nitrogen lines and a variety of reagents.

    I agree that they are two essential reads for anyone even remotely interested in mind altering substances, also a great biography of a true genius. Alexander Shulgin only provides his personal laboratory notes on the catalogue of phenethylamines he synthesized up until publication. His notes are in no way a recipe for the average tripper to pop into the local Walmart for some chems and whip up his own 2C-B. Same goes for the tryptamines in TIHKAL.

    If you want to know an example... Just to get from precursor ---> intermediate using PIHKAL as a recipe for making 2C-B:
    A solution of 100 g of 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in 220 g nitromethane was treated with 10 g anhydrous ammonium acetate, and heated on a steam bath for 2.5 h with occasional swirling. The deep-red reaction mixture was stripped of the excess nitromethane under vacuum, and the residue crystallized spontaneously. This crude nitrostyrene was purified by grinding under IPA, filtering, and air-drying, to yield 85 g of 2,5-dimethoxy-beta-nitrostyrene as a yellow-orange product of adequate purity for the next step. Further purification can be achieved by recrystallization from boiling IPA.

    Shulgin uses 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde as a precursor - it's probably a lot easier to buy 2C-B itself from the type of manufacturer that delivers to an unlicenced door (and yes, most the 2C-B I've eaten in my day came from some Chinese factory that don't discriminate). Obtaining large enough quantities of nitromethane, anhydrous ammonium acetate would also prove more difficult than getting 2C-B. While they might not be illegal, they're going to raise a lot of eyebrows... Equipment required for this above reaction step include a vacuum filtration rig. There's not really any practical alternative to this in terms of household goods, the faucet jobs aren't going to be good enough. The only thing you could probably manage to organize for this reaction step would be a steam bath and isopropyl alcohol. However, knowing you probably don't have borosilicate flasks and what not lying around, finding an ideal reaction vessel is surprisingly tough in itself.

    I wont bother quoting the rest of the lab notes for 2C-B (I chose this particular synthesis as it's maybe the most popular, don't believe there are any easier options from the bunch). However I can tell you that for converting the above intermediate to the next intermediate, you'd also need to obtain a reaction vessel that has to be sealed under a nitrogen atmosphere (this requires specialized reaction flasks, a canister of nitrogen gas and a bunch of tubing), along with tetrahydrofuran and lithium aluminium hydride. All other chemicals can be obtained from hardware store, although I have found that shit like dichloromethane is usually sold in a gel type form, at about 33% concentration... I have no idea what it is diluted in, and you'd have to do separate purification of such reagents which would be pain in the ass. Again, obtaining all this stuff which would be expensive and you'd just as be able to order premade 2C-B.

    On to the final reaction step now, assuming you've actually managed to obtain pure intermediates (something that is a lot easier said than done for any chemistry), you'd then have to acquire elemental bromine, glacial acetic acid (you could potentially make this at yet another cost of time and money), and some diethyl ether (again you can make). Along with a bunch of the other typical chemicals you'd have already used in previous steps (hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, dichloromethane, methanol, pure water...). May I also quote Shulgin from the last step in the lab notes:

    "There are many complicated salt forms, both polymorphs and hydrates, that can make the isolation and characterization of 2C-B treacherous."

    The guy is a master of alchemy, and he is telling you that even with all his equipment that the isolation of 2C-B from this step is difficult. I think the take home message from this is, if you're not a qualified chemist with access to a laboratory then you should go home. Unfortunately taking a few chem papers at college isn't going to teach you a quarter of the skills you need to pull it off. Shulgin is not just any old chemist, the guy went to Harvard, got a job at NASA and was given a licence from the government to build his own home laboratory! Even skilled organic chemists would probably be sweating it out over this type of stuff.

    I've only really scraped the surface of the complications that face someone in the go home category. It's sad but it's true, these notes are not exactly tailored for the wider community of people. I think it's great that you want to get in on it, and I feel the same way. But it's just not a practical. All the power to you if you can obtain the necessary equipment to construct a laboratory and equip it with organic reagents that allow you to perform syntheses like 2C-B from 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde. But like another poster said, you should just stick to the old acid/base extractions because they teach you some very fundamental chemistry skills, are relatively safe and usually quite easy to obtain the chemicals required
    .

    tl:dr - Dont bother trying to make your own spices, if you have to ask "is it possible?" you're not going to do it. As my example shows, it's easier to buy 2C-B from a dodgy Chinese manufacturer than buy all the reagents and equipment from another dodgy manufacturer. Your willingness to make your own stuff is good, lucky for you there are a variety of acid/base extractions from plants that are possible with hardware store reagents and mason jars. Perhaps you should try pull off a DMT extraction like a poster above suggested, or buy a San Pedro and try pull mescaline HCl from it (see Erowid for step by step guides). Good luck.
     
  6. True these things would be easier, but how much less fun. I want many many many a fatty crystals of lsd to put in the drinking water and make everyone go mad!! lol I hope some government agerncies read this.
     
  7. #7 Buddy Dink, Apr 8, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 8, 2010
    I love these synthesized chemicals, too, but like Neurosis said it isn't really possible to DIY an acid factory unless you know what you are doing.

    If you really like the idea of your work going into the drugs you ingest you should look at growing various forms of mushrooms, cacti, weed, etc.

    Botany is something you can pick up; organic chemistry isn't.

    Shulgin even suggests some pretty crazy mushroom experiments.

    and

    4,5-HO-MeO-DMT is a synthesized tryptamine that could possibly be made "naturally."

    However I have seen many experienced mycologists suggest that this is not possible because of something that Shulgin overlooked. If I can find a link about this I'll show you, but here is the link to Ask Dr. Shulgin.

    Edit: found the link I was talking about: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/6369027#6369027
     

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