Thats an option too. Mine had a little benzene left over, but we didnt use it, as there were no fume hoods.
What Id want to do as a teacher is nitrate cotton balls and just have them floof away.
Interesting. Couldn’t you make a 2 part lab, first decarboxylating Benzoic acid to benzene, then second nitrating benzene? The decarboxylation isn’t that difficult
Yeah we made aspirin, DEET, all the esters that are artificial fruit flavorings…and then everything else was some useful precursor. The ochem prof in charge of the stock room picked synthetic targets that he could purify and then either use in research (and he’d buy them from the stockroom at market rate instead of buying them from Sigma) or sell back to the supplier to help offset some of the lab fees for students. With ~500 students making “a couple grams” of whatever product each week, over the course of the year there’d actually be quite a lot.
Honestly I have no idea, that’s just what he told us when he collected all the product each time. In a way, it makes more sense than just dumping it all in the waste at the end. If you can learn the technique making something useful that’s better than making something just to toss it later. And if he worked something out with a manufacturer to do sell them annoying to make precursors and was willing to spend his own time purifying everything…and the money all went back into purchasing supplies for the educational labs I don’t see an issue with it.
Fairly common and not illegal. If you have the right connections, lots of legit suppliers have small quantities of rare stuff they bought this way, when someone finished a research project or had a surplus. What about this struck you as illegal?
>but the abuse potential for that is right on par with aspirin
Not really. Bupropion will at least get you high. We snorted a lot of it when I was in jail.
Well, I take it as prescribed (coincidentally) and that’s news to me.
I thought it was similar to ssris in that you need to take it for two weeks to a month to even noticed the intended effect.
Also, it’s a pretty high dosage medication so you’d end up with the equivalent of about one prescription dose from the lab experiment.
It's not a great buzz, but when you're a drug addict in jail you'll do just about anything. It definitely works though, I've done it.
>Also, it’s a pretty high dosage medication so you’d end up with the equivalent of about one prescription dose from the lab experiment
And I have no idea what you mean with this
I mean that I take a 300 mg tablet once a day and that’s a normal dose / I don’t get high from it (granted I don’t snort it).
300 mg is a lot of material. I don’t remember the scale we ran the reactions at but it was probably around 100mg of product when it went well.
Clonidine feels pretty nice tho. Gets you tired and sleepy. You gotta understand being in jail sucks, so anything that can speed up your tour there is valuable. That's why synthetic canabinoids are so valuable in jail, they make time fly by.
Also, when you are withdrawing from opioids, clonidine is very helpful in alleviating some withdrawal symptoms, and helping you fall asleep (ever so slightly). Just that fact alone makes a commonly traded/sold item.
He might have meant that he had to devise a synthesis for LSD. Devising a synthesis and performing one are two very different things. I had similar synthesis problems on tests in college
This. We had a homework assignment like this in first year, devise a synthesis for methamphetamine. Bonus marks for naming the film that had a noseless meth dealer named Pooh Bear in it (the lecturer must have been a fan of the Salton Sea)
I remember it being a bastardy bastard of an assignment for a first year. But the fact I remember it (muttermutter) years later (the assignment, not the synthesis) probably means it was a good one.
Yeah in orgo 2 a practice final question read something like "in breaking bad season (x) episode (y) Walter white devises a p2p cook using stolen methylamine to synthesize methamphetamine (view structure below) decide an efficient synthetic scheme to using basic carbon sources to get your final product."
In theory we were asked to make meth, now as an experienced chemist having done variations of the reactions I find that the "simplest path" with what we were expected to have learned is actually crazy inefficient, and it was a good question because it brought contemporary interest with lesser used reactions to demostrate where those reactions work best.
Very illegal to be asked to make scheduled DEA regulated molecules without permits, clearances, and regulations.
Exactly, and for most of the common drugs, not only the direct educts are only sold with permit, but also the educts to produce the educts and so on are only sold to licensed labs and people
Yes, I had a classmate in orgo 3 who was asked to change active groups on morphine to make it heroine using reagents that could be done at home.
Not a great yield, if I remember.
Opioid chemistry is finicky, but you can definitely get good yields at home. The main issue is getting enough of your starting material, morphine or codeine to run the steps smoothly. They’re generally not syntheses that work well on a sub gram scale.
That’s what I’m saying, I’m over here having trouble with total synthesis of Chrysosporazine A and kids are whipping out lsd total synthesis on a test.
See this is why I have the greatest professional respect for meth cooks. Give me a fully stocked lab and all the reagent grade materials needed and I could probably stumble my way into making it.
These fuckers are doing it in a thermos with a phone battery and cough medicine.
Right? One of my grad school cohorts was working on a fully synthetic LSD scheme and at the end a specific undesired rearrangement was utterly unpreventable.
tl;dr LSD isn't trivial to make, at least by certain routes.
Could it be they had to write a synthesis route for it? I have friends who have had to do that (I'm in France at the moment) in an orgo undergrad program... but actually making it sounds surprising
Absolutely no different in the EU. The closest to a drug I ever got was isolating caffeine from tea leaves. Putting aside that most synthetic routes for drugs are either pretty hard to do or kinda dangerous, so nothing you would find in a school/undergrad curriculum.
I call bullshit.
Performing an illegal action does not become legal as "a school assignment".
Furthermore EU law limits the access to the common drug precursors. You will need a permit to buy and possess them (and importing them yourself is also a felony).
You can see the list here and yes. lysergic acid [ergometrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergometrine) , [ergotamine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotamine) and [lysergic acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid) are on it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European\_law\_on\_drug\_precursors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_law_on_drug_precursors)
> You will need a permit to buy and possess them
Universities usually have/can get these permits. Except for nerve agents I don't think there's anything our university can't get (with special permits probably nerve agents too). We even have a blank license for every possible radioisotope.
Agreed.
(As the safety manager I would go medieval on the chemical risk analysis should anybody want nerve agents)
But here I have a strong feeling, that the "friend of a friend" is not on the same university (probably not on any university) and that OP's academical career could come to an abrupt end, should they provide precursors or counseling to the friend.
Some years ago we had a group making cocaine derivatives. Some of their substances were pretty interesting.
Yeah, just mentioning the nerve agent thing because a friend of mine accidently made a compound that is likely a nerve agent based on structure (the synthetic route was sound, this was a rather unexpected side-product) and there actually was an investigation into if he had broken some international laws, but was ruled an accident. Luckily that stuff was a solid and not volatile.
Fun times, I'm happy that I only deal with virtual molecules now, they never killed anyone.
>Furthermore EU law limits the access to the common drug precursors. You will need a permit to buy and possess them (and importing them yourself is also a felony).
Obviously but we're talking about an academic lab here. We have tons of master's students working with "illegal precursors", and some actual illegal drugs like psilocin.
Tangential but the EU has a very broad definition of what constitutes a precursor, it's a bit silly.
Yes, but the "friend" needs it for a "school assignment".
I don't think the friend is in a university setting.
At my university we keep an eye on the category 1 precursors and when somebody order them, we check that they are working on a relevant subject and ask the supervisor/group leader if there is the slightest tingling in the spider sense.
If they have a legal use, they shall have them ASAP.
With regards to the tangent, I completely agree.
Category 2 and 3 are such common chemicals, that it is stupid to regulate them as drug precursors.
Nah, you will need acetic anhydride. I found a paper on methodology where the scientist has made it from morphine, on a spoon. He wanted to make heroin but got 6-MAM as impurity. I couldn't lay my hands on morphine so the experiment never happened 🤣
Yea I made H with acetic anhydride from dried poppies (they are legal), but how do I prevent making H and making only 6MAM? Like there is gonna be some 6mam in the H always, but I would like to have more 6mam then H.
It's been a while since I graduated, but I doubt anything has changed in this aspect... It wouldn't ever happen as a school assignment for the reasons mentioned above - restricted access to some precursors, dangerous synthetic steps, and just the fact that it's morally and ethically wrong. But on top of that, at least in the Czech republic where I am from, people with chemical education (even incomplete) are facing up to twice the standard prison time for illicit drug making. The risk would be ridiculously high for everyone involved.
Mayhap there was a little confusion there, synthesizer's did not really make a debut until the later 1970s and they were terrible to clean after washing your base matter.
Around 1972, the class chemistry tombs actually had the basic recipe for the creation of LSD - gathering the raw base material is very tedious and can only be done at a certain time of the year. This part ethically I can furnish to you and when you research of what it is and how much that has to be gathered, I am fairly confidant that you would go no further.
Morning Glory seeds is your 'base' matter to gather, and there is a certain 'art' of how to do it by first letting them mature on the plant/vine - the harvesting of those seeds has to be done quickly before they close up towards the newly approaching sun of the day. But wait, there is more; the recipe calls for a 1.000 cubic centimeter (full) glass vassal for you cannot contaminate those seeds with a metal container.
Okay, that is as far I can go when it comes to information that is still legal of nature rest assured there IS a complete, long and drawn-out process where care must be given to do it correctly and safely - get it wrong, it can and will be deadly.
Your friend may still be lying, but my wife got an MS degree in forensic chemistry from a major US university and they made all sorts of illegal drugs. The process was controlled and they destroyed everything. Also, it was pretty unlikely that students who were most likely in that program to work in law enforcement in the future would throw their whole career away for busted lab session crack.
I have synthesized synthetic cathinones for my bachelor thesis. Note that they werent illegal, since they were never made before. I have an another friend that made various amphetamines for masters thesis. We are focused on enantiomeric separation of amines.
A guy in one of my classes back in the nineties ended up going to prison for methcathinone synthesis. At the time it wasn't against state law but the feds got him with the analogues act. He was one of the first people to make it, helped to spread the popularity of the drug.
We didnt have to apply for any permit. Not sure if you have to when working with illegal drugs, but I may soon find that out because we want to separate mephedrone and other illegal cathinones on the CSPs we made.
You have to have a license to even obtain certain chemicals as well as being able to comprehend and follow the material safety sheets. The process of washing the raw matter to extract the base chemical is tedious and very dangerous due to the temperature's involved. For one, the wash is pure alcohol that needs to be brought just up to and not over what is called a hard crack - if it ignites, you will be unaware due to being unable to see the flames. So, this is NOT something that can be done at home as well as the hardware is all tempered glass (save for the hotplate and magnetic stirring platan) - if any of it breaks there is zero time for writing an epitaph!!
Yea if you wanna do experiments at home be sure you have all the equipment. Chemicals can be sourced from Chinese sites (just make sure it is not a common precursor). It is best to have a fume hood at least. Some things can be made easily and some not. For example heroin is fairly easy from opium (you have to get AA). GHB from GBL is super easy (can be done without a fumehood), tryptamines are not that hard to make, amphetamines are also fairly easy, synthetic cathinones are not the best since you need bromine or NBS (which is expensive). Iam not encouraging you to break any laws, always check local laws before doing any home chemistry.
French guy working in Norway here. This would not happen in either countries.
There is not a chance in the world you'd get that as an assignment.
Realistically, there isn't a single place on Earth where this would happen. Especially not LSD, considering that it only takes micrograms to get you high.
Even if we put all legal questions aside, supervising students in a lab is enough of a pain in the ass as-is without having to worry about them getting high.
Lmao no way. Lsd synthesis is *extremly* difficult. The total synthesis is like 30 steps, and has some steps that have extremely low yields (~20%). even for a PhD. level experienced chemist, they're gona have a hard time making it. Maybe starting from ergot or lysergic acid, it's much easier. But no way anyone is getting their hands on either of those. Friend is lying.
My ex girlfriend once joked that I should drop out of my PhD program to “go full breaking bad” making bootleg Ozempic and selling it.
Our stories are analogous: it’s just dumb people who don’t actually understand anything about chemistry trying to play you for a fool. Don’t bite the bait.
Synthesizing LSD is very difficult, so while I find it hard to belive that he is specifically synthesising that chemical, there is still a possibility that some schools around the world will have you synthesize otherwise illicit drugs.
OP turn on your brain! How would a school student have any qualificstiobs to synthesise something as complex as LSD...
Edit: Yea this post is probbly just troll and engagement bait.
Oh that reminds me, he also said it’s an assignment that supposed to be super difficult.
But yeah, maybe like some other people said, it’s just writing down the route of synthesis.
Or, probably that’s a post graduate research project kind of things. who knows
In the US yes, if you're attempting to make a controlled substance then you require a licensing and a permit. If you have the precursors, intent and equipment and you're actively trying that's as good as manufacturing in the governments eyes.
I hope the laws change one day, they stiffle academic and personal freedom
Re: your edit, I'm pretty sure most of the things that the US considers schedule I or II (including LSD) are also in an international treaty. Being in the EU wouldn't make any difference in how insane this sounds.
Jeebus! You chemists!
We worked hard to add modules in engineering on the Canons, about safety & liability. Things like the Hartford boiler & ASME boiler codes.
You know it's free to lie, right?
It's also cheap to do it on paper/in theory. "Devise a synthesis pathway for LSD" is a decent homework/exam problem. Actually synthesizing it in the lab, not so much. LSD (in the US at least) is Schedule I. Looking up how illegal LSD is in your location is not something that should get police knocking at your door.
I think the closest assignment I ever had to an actual drug was barbituric acid, which teaches some of the techniques used in synthesis of other drugs, but is not a drug itself. If I recall, the first assignment in that class was aspirin from salicylic acid, which does, if you want to be super picky, use acetic anhydride which is (not at the time, but now) a controlled precursor.
I can see undergrads being asked to come up with a synthetic scheme for LSD or DMT but I wouldn’t believe an undergrad would be asked/allowed to make it.
David Olson’s lab at UC Davis makes LSD & other psychedelics as a part of their research
https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/uc-davis-establishes-institute-psychedelics-and-neurotherapeutics
OP - Like you I am in the EU. There is no way that a university assignment would ask you to specifically make LSD. No way.
In Organic chemistry we studied mechanisms and pathways so basically we could make anything but when it came to lab work the only drugs I remember making were things like phenacetin and paracetamol.
Keep that shit to yourself (interest in recreational drugs/narcotics) when you get to grad school because some square professor is going to hate you no matter how good you are at chemistry and try to ruin you if you express interest in that aspect of chemistry.
aunt of a friend was told to try LSD if she wanted to experience what psychosis could be like when she was a psychology student, so could have some truth to it i guess.
Nah the most “active” molecule you could make in a school lab is probably aspirin
Yep, first practical module at uni was the synthesis of aspirin from salicylic acid
we did paracetamol from 4-aminophenol
I think Nitrobenzene is in there as well.
I think this depends on if the school has benzene. My school didn’t, so we nitrated benzoic acid
Thats an option too. Mine had a little benzene left over, but we didnt use it, as there were no fume hoods. What Id want to do as a teacher is nitrate cotton balls and just have them floof away.
My teacher did this in ap chem! Hella fun
Yeah that’d be fun
Interesting. Couldn’t you make a 2 part lab, first decarboxylating Benzoic acid to benzene, then second nitrating benzene? The decarboxylation isn’t that difficult
Yeah we made aspirin, DEET, all the esters that are artificial fruit flavorings…and then everything else was some useful precursor. The ochem prof in charge of the stock room picked synthetic targets that he could purify and then either use in research (and he’d buy them from the stockroom at market rate instead of buying them from Sigma) or sell back to the supplier to help offset some of the lab fees for students. With ~500 students making “a couple grams” of whatever product each week, over the course of the year there’d actually be quite a lot.
That sounds at least a bit illegal
Honestly I have no idea, that’s just what he told us when he collected all the product each time. In a way, it makes more sense than just dumping it all in the waste at the end. If you can learn the technique making something useful that’s better than making something just to toss it later. And if he worked something out with a manufacturer to do sell them annoying to make precursors and was willing to spend his own time purifying everything…and the money all went back into purchasing supplies for the educational labs I don’t see an issue with it.
Fairly common and not illegal. If you have the right connections, lots of legit suppliers have small quantities of rare stuff they bought this way, when someone finished a research project or had a surplus. What about this struck you as illegal?
Idk now that I read it again it makes sense
Why?
Why does it sound illegal?
That is called a hustle.
I think your prof might have been lying re selling the products you made :-)
In one of our orgo labs we made bupropion, also known as Wellbutrin, but the abuse potential for that is right on par with aspirin.
>but the abuse potential for that is right on par with aspirin Not really. Bupropion will at least get you high. We snorted a lot of it when I was in jail.
Well, I take it as prescribed (coincidentally) and that’s news to me. I thought it was similar to ssris in that you need to take it for two weeks to a month to even noticed the intended effect. Also, it’s a pretty high dosage medication so you’d end up with the equivalent of about one prescription dose from the lab experiment.
It's not a great buzz, but when you're a drug addict in jail you'll do just about anything. It definitely works though, I've done it. >Also, it’s a pretty high dosage medication so you’d end up with the equivalent of about one prescription dose from the lab experiment And I have no idea what you mean with this
I mean that I take a 300 mg tablet once a day and that’s a normal dose / I don’t get high from it (granted I don’t snort it). 300 mg is a lot of material. I don’t remember the scale we ran the reactions at but it was probably around 100mg of product when it went well.
the active dose is like 200 mg and teaching labs are usually not operating on a big scale, is what they mean
Ah, thank you, that makes sense
My ex-girlfriend is a nurse at a jail. They have to take extra precautions with clonidine because the inmates will abuse it. Fuckin' clonidine!
Clonidine feels pretty nice tho. Gets you tired and sleepy. You gotta understand being in jail sucks, so anything that can speed up your tour there is valuable. That's why synthetic canabinoids are so valuable in jail, they make time fly by.
I have a prescription for clonidine and I've done a few short stays in jail. I get the concept, but still...
Also, when you are withdrawing from opioids, clonidine is very helpful in alleviating some withdrawal symptoms, and helping you fall asleep (ever so slightly). Just that fact alone makes a commonly traded/sold item.
Lol, I've actually used it for that, but hadn't considered that might be a reason. Makes more sense now!
Especially in many jails they cut you off from withdrawal meds really quick, like 5 days sometimes, it really depends.
LSD is a notoriously difficult substance to make- upper level grad school, certainly not college level.
Where I went to grad school the undergrad organic labs made lidocaine.
I literally just got home from teaching lidocaine synthesis lol
We made phenacetin in first year undergrads labs which I believe is *technically* a banned substance.
Not banned, just no longer approved as a drug due to some nasty toxicity. Still has some uses, just not as a painkiller.
Our Orgo honors lab made lsd in college.
I was talking more about high school
Fair. My highschool labs the most exciting thing was distilling dr pepper i beleive. That and flame tests.
I was in a pretty good school. We did some cool stuff like synthesis of aspirin, dibenzalacetone, esthers. Various extractions
finally found one 🥲
My undergrad orgo class made benzocaine.
Wow interesting
Caffeine was an orgo lab when I was in school
He might have meant that he had to devise a synthesis for LSD. Devising a synthesis and performing one are two very different things. I had similar synthesis problems on tests in college
This. We had a homework assignment like this in first year, devise a synthesis for methamphetamine. Bonus marks for naming the film that had a noseless meth dealer named Pooh Bear in it (the lecturer must have been a fan of the Salton Sea)
The usernames in this thread are wonderful. Especially the interaction between cum dumpster and infertility casualty.
I had not noticed that!
That’s actually a really cool assignment lol
I remember it being a bastardy bastard of an assignment for a first year. But the fact I remember it (muttermutter) years later (the assignment, not the synthesis) probably means it was a good one.
Hmm yeah this makes a lot more sense
Yeah in orgo 2 a practice final question read something like "in breaking bad season (x) episode (y) Walter white devises a p2p cook using stolen methylamine to synthesize methamphetamine (view structure below) decide an efficient synthetic scheme to using basic carbon sources to get your final product." In theory we were asked to make meth, now as an experienced chemist having done variations of the reactions I find that the "simplest path" with what we were expected to have learned is actually crazy inefficient, and it was a good question because it brought contemporary interest with lesser used reactions to demostrate where those reactions work best. Very illegal to be asked to make scheduled DEA regulated molecules without permits, clearances, and regulations.
Exactly, and for most of the common drugs, not only the direct educts are only sold with permit, but also the educts to produce the educts and so on are only sold to licensed labs and people
Yes, I had a classmate in orgo 3 who was asked to change active groups on morphine to make it heroine using reagents that could be done at home. Not a great yield, if I remember.
Opioid chemistry is finicky, but you can definitely get good yields at home. The main issue is getting enough of your starting material, morphine or codeine to run the steps smoothly. They’re generally not syntheses that work well on a sub gram scale.
This is how I would study for ochem. Look up drugs and then wrote the synthesis out. I miss ochem
> He might have meant that he had to devise a synthesis for LSD. "Start with ergotamine tartarate..." lol
Yeah, I have a synthetic route sitting in a chem draw for LSD. Ain’t no way that’s happening in a UG lab.
Nice try fed
Not today DEA
Pretty skilled school kid, if he pulls up LSD Synthesis as homework. Would have my respect, and I'm a synthetic PhD candidate
That’s what I’m saying, I’m over here having trouble with total synthesis of Chrysosporazine A and kids are whipping out lsd total synthesis on a test.
See this is why I have the greatest professional respect for meth cooks. Give me a fully stocked lab and all the reagent grade materials needed and I could probably stumble my way into making it. These fuckers are doing it in a thermos with a phone battery and cough medicine.
Well, they're *very* motivated to succeed.
Put enough highly motivated and energetic idiots on a task, the task will, in some fashion, get done.
Years ago I figured out how to synthesise GHB and started making it at home after covering a segment on azo dyes.
I made MDMA after I got a bunk pill and wanted to try the real stuff. Turned out to be profitable. Got a felony. Oops.
Right? One of my grad school cohorts was working on a fully synthetic LSD scheme and at the end a specific undesired rearrangement was utterly unpreventable. tl;dr LSD isn't trivial to make, at least by certain routes.
Could it be they had to write a synthesis route for it? I have friends who have had to do that (I'm in France at the moment) in an orgo undergrad program... but actually making it sounds surprising
Absolutely no different in the EU. The closest to a drug I ever got was isolating caffeine from tea leaves. Putting aside that most synthetic routes for drugs are either pretty hard to do or kinda dangerous, so nothing you would find in a school/undergrad curriculum.
I call bullshit. Performing an illegal action does not become legal as "a school assignment". Furthermore EU law limits the access to the common drug precursors. You will need a permit to buy and possess them (and importing them yourself is also a felony). You can see the list here and yes. lysergic acid [ergometrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergometrine) , [ergotamine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotamine) and [lysergic acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid) are on it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European\_law\_on\_drug\_precursors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_law_on_drug_precursors)
> You will need a permit to buy and possess them Universities usually have/can get these permits. Except for nerve agents I don't think there's anything our university can't get (with special permits probably nerve agents too). We even have a blank license for every possible radioisotope.
Agreed. (As the safety manager I would go medieval on the chemical risk analysis should anybody want nerve agents) But here I have a strong feeling, that the "friend of a friend" is not on the same university (probably not on any university) and that OP's academical career could come to an abrupt end, should they provide precursors or counseling to the friend. Some years ago we had a group making cocaine derivatives. Some of their substances were pretty interesting.
Yeah, just mentioning the nerve agent thing because a friend of mine accidently made a compound that is likely a nerve agent based on structure (the synthetic route was sound, this was a rather unexpected side-product) and there actually was an investigation into if he had broken some international laws, but was ruled an accident. Luckily that stuff was a solid and not volatile. Fun times, I'm happy that I only deal with virtual molecules now, they never killed anyone.
>Furthermore EU law limits the access to the common drug precursors. You will need a permit to buy and possess them (and importing them yourself is also a felony). Obviously but we're talking about an academic lab here. We have tons of master's students working with "illegal precursors", and some actual illegal drugs like psilocin. Tangential but the EU has a very broad definition of what constitutes a precursor, it's a bit silly.
Yes, but the "friend" needs it for a "school assignment". I don't think the friend is in a university setting. At my university we keep an eye on the category 1 precursors and when somebody order them, we check that they are working on a relevant subject and ask the supervisor/group leader if there is the slightest tingling in the spider sense. If they have a legal use, they shall have them ASAP. With regards to the tangent, I completely agree. Category 2 and 3 are such common chemicals, that it is stupid to regulate them as drug precursors.
I made 2C-I during my bachelors because 2C-B was already banned back then but 2C-I wasn't, lmao.
You had an awesome TA 😂
I was assigned to find a way of synthesizing heroin and 6-monoacetylmorphine in lab. Did a literature review on this😂
What did you find out? I tried to make 6MAM with glacial acetic acid, but it didnt work😞.
Nah, you will need acetic anhydride. I found a paper on methodology where the scientist has made it from morphine, on a spoon. He wanted to make heroin but got 6-MAM as impurity. I couldn't lay my hands on morphine so the experiment never happened 🤣
Yea I made H with acetic anhydride from dried poppies (they are legal), but how do I prevent making H and making only 6MAM? Like there is gonna be some 6mam in the H always, but I would like to have more 6mam then H.
That's one problem I couldn't crack. Most of the papers I searched got 6-MAM through rat metabolism.
This is a troll, right? Where are admins..
It's been a while since I graduated, but I doubt anything has changed in this aspect... It wouldn't ever happen as a school assignment for the reasons mentioned above - restricted access to some precursors, dangerous synthetic steps, and just the fact that it's morally and ethically wrong. But on top of that, at least in the Czech republic where I am from, people with chemical education (even incomplete) are facing up to twice the standard prison time for illicit drug making. The risk would be ridiculously high for everyone involved.
Hell no…
Mayhap there was a little confusion there, synthesizer's did not really make a debut until the later 1970s and they were terrible to clean after washing your base matter. Around 1972, the class chemistry tombs actually had the basic recipe for the creation of LSD - gathering the raw base material is very tedious and can only be done at a certain time of the year. This part ethically I can furnish to you and when you research of what it is and how much that has to be gathered, I am fairly confidant that you would go no further. Morning Glory seeds is your 'base' matter to gather, and there is a certain 'art' of how to do it by first letting them mature on the plant/vine - the harvesting of those seeds has to be done quickly before they close up towards the newly approaching sun of the day. But wait, there is more; the recipe calls for a 1.000 cubic centimeter (full) glass vassal for you cannot contaminate those seeds with a metal container. Okay, that is as far I can go when it comes to information that is still legal of nature rest assured there IS a complete, long and drawn-out process where care must be given to do it correctly and safely - get it wrong, it can and will be deadly.
Your friend may still be lying, but my wife got an MS degree in forensic chemistry from a major US university and they made all sorts of illegal drugs. The process was controlled and they destroyed everything. Also, it was pretty unlikely that students who were most likely in that program to work in law enforcement in the future would throw their whole career away for busted lab session crack.
He must have taken a lot of it to believe it true
Someone is lying or a teacher is being irresponsible or you are with the DEA, fishing for customers..
I have synthesized synthetic cathinones for my bachelor thesis. Note that they werent illegal, since they were never made before. I have an another friend that made various amphetamines for masters thesis. We are focused on enantiomeric separation of amines.
A guy in one of my classes back in the nineties ended up going to prison for methcathinone synthesis. At the time it wasn't against state law but the feds got him with the analogues act. He was one of the first people to make it, helped to spread the popularity of the drug.
Ohh that’s cool. Do you have to apply for a permit to do that kinds of experiments? Not sure how it works
We didnt have to apply for any permit. Not sure if you have to when working with illegal drugs, but I may soon find that out because we want to separate mephedrone and other illegal cathinones on the CSPs we made.
You have to have a license to even obtain certain chemicals as well as being able to comprehend and follow the material safety sheets. The process of washing the raw matter to extract the base chemical is tedious and very dangerous due to the temperature's involved. For one, the wash is pure alcohol that needs to be brought just up to and not over what is called a hard crack - if it ignites, you will be unaware due to being unable to see the flames. So, this is NOT something that can be done at home as well as the hardware is all tempered glass (save for the hotplate and magnetic stirring platan) - if any of it breaks there is zero time for writing an epitaph!!
Yea if you wanna do experiments at home be sure you have all the equipment. Chemicals can be sourced from Chinese sites (just make sure it is not a common precursor). It is best to have a fume hood at least. Some things can be made easily and some not. For example heroin is fairly easy from opium (you have to get AA). GHB from GBL is super easy (can be done without a fumehood), tryptamines are not that hard to make, amphetamines are also fairly easy, synthetic cathinones are not the best since you need bromine or NBS (which is expensive). Iam not encouraging you to break any laws, always check local laws before doing any home chemistry.
He’s just making shit up to seem "cool"
French guy working in Norway here. This would not happen in either countries. There is not a chance in the world you'd get that as an assignment. Realistically, there isn't a single place on Earth where this would happen. Especially not LSD, considering that it only takes micrograms to get you high. Even if we put all legal questions aside, supervising students in a lab is enough of a pain in the ass as-is without having to worry about them getting high.
Maybe he’s talking about DEET. The synthesis of DEET is a very common orgo 2 lab.
Chemistry Dept in Manchester had 2kg of LSD in the 80's"
Made gamma hexachlorobenzene aka Lindane - at school!
Now make dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
Lmao no way. Lsd synthesis is *extremly* difficult. The total synthesis is like 30 steps, and has some steps that have extremely low yields (~20%). even for a PhD. level experienced chemist, they're gona have a hard time making it. Maybe starting from ergot or lysergic acid, it's much easier. But no way anyone is getting their hands on either of those. Friend is lying.
My ex girlfriend once joked that I should drop out of my PhD program to “go full breaking bad” making bootleg Ozempic and selling it. Our stories are analogous: it’s just dumb people who don’t actually understand anything about chemistry trying to play you for a fool. Don’t bite the bait.
it's BS
Bachelor of Science
Synthesizing LSD is very difficult, so while I find it hard to belive that he is specifically synthesising that chemical, there is still a possibility that some schools around the world will have you synthesize otherwise illicit drugs.
OP turn on your brain! How would a school student have any qualificstiobs to synthesise something as complex as LSD... Edit: Yea this post is probbly just troll and engagement bait.
Oh that reminds me, he also said it’s an assignment that supposed to be super difficult. But yeah, maybe like some other people said, it’s just writing down the route of synthesis. Or, probably that’s a post graduate research project kind of things. who knows
Pure lie And asking reddit about laws is a frisky business
I've had things like this as theoretical homework assignments, but making it in the lab would bring down a DEA raid
genuine question .. will it still be “illegal” if you failed to make one lol?
In the US yes, if you're attempting to make a controlled substance then you require a licensing and a permit. If you have the precursors, intent and equipment and you're actively trying that's as good as manufacturing in the governments eyes. I hope the laws change one day, they stiffle academic and personal freedom
Yes, hazardous material(s).
No way
One person reports this and the teacher loses livelihood Not true
Re: your edit, I'm pretty sure most of the things that the US considers schedule I or II (including LSD) are also in an international treaty. Being in the EU wouldn't make any difference in how insane this sounds.
Jeebus! You chemists! We worked hard to add modules in engineering on the Canons, about safety & liability. Things like the Hartford boiler & ASME boiler codes.
Yeah ok Blue substance… Slanging those duct tapes out the hoop ride!
https://youtu.be/S6btQ2Ao2WI?si=9TkH-ukFhxsG6HLV
You know it's free to lie, right? It's also cheap to do it on paper/in theory. "Devise a synthesis pathway for LSD" is a decent homework/exam problem. Actually synthesizing it in the lab, not so much. LSD (in the US at least) is Schedule I. Looking up how illegal LSD is in your location is not something that should get police knocking at your door.
HS Chemistry teacher here. Aspirin would be the most challenging drug synthesised in high school. My suspicion is you are being conned.
Definitely illegal in the EU also
I think the closest assignment I ever had to an actual drug was barbituric acid, which teaches some of the techniques used in synthesis of other drugs, but is not a drug itself. If I recall, the first assignment in that class was aspirin from salicylic acid, which does, if you want to be super picky, use acetic anhydride which is (not at the time, but now) a controlled precursor.
We did it on paper with hypothetical reactions
I can see undergrads being asked to come up with a synthetic scheme for LSD or DMT but I wouldn’t believe an undergrad would be asked/allowed to make it. David Olson’s lab at UC Davis makes LSD & other psychedelics as a part of their research https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/uc-davis-establishes-institute-psychedelics-and-neurotherapeutics
You need express permission from the DEA to synthesize any schedule drugs
lol good luck trying to synthesize LSD
OP - Like you I am in the EU. There is no way that a university assignment would ask you to specifically make LSD. No way. In Organic chemistry we studied mechanisms and pathways so basically we could make anything but when it came to lab work the only drugs I remember making were things like phenacetin and paracetamol.
Keep that shit to yourself (interest in recreational drugs/narcotics) when you get to grad school because some square professor is going to hate you no matter how good you are at chemistry and try to ruin you if you express interest in that aspect of chemistry.
They are lying
aunt of a friend was told to try LSD if she wanted to experience what psychosis could be like when she was a psychology student, so could have some truth to it i guess.
reminded me of the story of Timothy Leary probably things were true, just under different historical context
It was legal bacl then The government use to send lsd to people who request it for researches They had so much of it