What is pseudoephedrine made from

When methamphetamine is smuggled into the United States in powder or liquid form, domestic conversion laboratories transform it into crystal methamphetamine. These laboratories do not require a significant amount of equipment, so they can be small in size and thus easily concealed, which presents challenges to law enforcement agencies.

Methamphetamine production is also an environmental concern; it involves many easily obtained chemicals that are hazardous, such as acetone, anhydrous ammonia fertilizer , ether, red phosphorus, and lithium. Toxicity from these chemicals can remain in the environment around a methamphetamine production lab long after the lab has been shut down, causing a wide range of damaging effects to health. Because of these dangers, the U. Environmental Protection Agency has provided guidance on cleanup and remediation of methamphetamine labs.

National Institutes of Health. It is called a reductive amination, and, unlike the phosphorous iodine mess, it is clean and very easy. The problem is that it requires different starting materials, phenylacetone aka, phenylpropanone, P2P and methylamine, a gas that smells like ammonia and is sold as a water solution in glass bottles or gallon drums.

Methylamine is the chemical in the large drum that they stole from the chemical warehouse. Chemists don't need to steal it. It is a very common reagent, and a bottle or two can be found in most organic chemistry labs. When we order it we get on a list somewhere. P2P is also easy for chemists in a lab to come by.

We just order it. There is nothing stopping any organic chemist from making meth and waltzing out of the building with a kilo of it.

It would take about an hour to synthesize. The problem is what to do next. How do you get rid of it? A DuPont chemist named Michael Hovey tried something similar in It did not end well.

A minor problem that "modern" meth makers had to overcome was the difficulty in obtaining phenylacetone P2P if you were not in a research lab. So, chemists went back one step made it from something else, another chemical called phenylacetic acid, which is used in the perfume industry, and can be bought in huge quantities.

So, the government took Sudafed off the shelves, meth synthesis became even more efficient, and people sneeze more. View the discussion thread. Josh Bloom, the Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, comes from the world of drug discovery, where he did research for more than 20 years. Only the products below are found at the pharmacy counter. Our other products can be found in the cold and allergy aisle.

If you have trouble locating a product, talk to your pharmacist. Pseudoephedrine, an active ingredient in some cold, allergy, and sinus products, can be chemically processed into methamphetamine commonly known as meth.