12 Replies to “Pharma Shrugs”

  3. Straight out of Soviet Russia.
    So if the DEA can produce amphetamine salts, why can’t they produce Aderall?

  4. Amphetamine is a very simple compound and the plethora of home meth labs shows how easy it is to produce. I’m not sure what precursors the DEA is talking about but, when I last looked, phenylacetone was restricted as one just has to convert the ketone to an amino group to get amphetamine. It’s been years since I’ve looked at the latest statist incursions into organic chemistry but I can’t imagine benzaldehyde being restricted and there’s a simple amphetamine synthesis via condensing benzaldehyde with nitroethane and then reducing the resultant nitrostyrene to amphetamine. Similarly nitroethane and LiAlH4 (needed for the reduction) are widely used chemicals and have thousands of other uses.
    Adderal is a drug that I very rarely prescribe as generic amphetamine works just as well and the cost of Adderal is prohibitive for most people. Atomoxetine is a great drug for ADD and the primary reason that it’s so popular in the US is that doctors don’t need a DEA license to prescribe it. Again, atomoxetine is so expensive in comparison to generic dexedrine or ritalin in Canada that very few people chose to stay on it. The US still has Pemoline available which is a nice, long half-life stimulant which is no longer available in Canada because of a single case of liver failure associated with it. More stupidity from the oxymoronically labeled “health protection branch”.
    Then, there’s the latest entry into the ADD market which is an amide consisting of dexedrine condensed with lysine (I think). It requires digestion to free up the amphetamine and thus snorting it has no effect. I’m sure that ADD kids will quickly figure out how to do a simple acid catalyzed hydrolysis of the amide and produce free dexedrine from the “non-abusable” amphetamine. Again, it’s so pricey that I’ve never prescribed it.

  5. I can’t believe that anything so stupid happens. What is the problem with letting major drug corporations produce whatever they want, whenever they want to as long as they have reasonable security which I’m sure they do. The kids with a couple chemistry courses and a recipe is the problem not the big drug companies. Personally I would trust the security of big pharma better than the DEA.

  6. I’m going to say the same thing I used to say to the Linux-addled computer science undergrads I used to mentor – stop reading Slashdot, you’ll rot your brain.

  8. Big Pharma isn’t really hoarding.
    All production has switched over to Preparation H.
    The demand for Preparation H has taken priority over other drugs ever since Barry got in.
    Every American needs it right now.

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