Cutting drugs to form homogeneous mixture.

[TheChief]

Every time I see a post about people cutting a drug with powder, it seems to get a lot of responses saying that it will only result in hot spots. But I looked further into pill manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry and they use a V shaped rotating cone-like device to homogenize powders. And people who press their own pills often mix the active ingredient with binders and what not while keeping dosage fairly accurate, so why is it deemed so unreasonable on forums?

 

[Kittycat5]

I think because most people do a very sloppy job of it basically mixing the drug with lactose or whatever like you would mix flour and sugar when baking a cake.

In small batches, it isnt a hard procedure. Grind the ingredients separately in a mortar and pestle to reduce particle size to around the same and then do a geometric dilution. You take the amount of active drug needed (should be at least 120mg) and add equal amount of cutting agent and mix. Then add an equal amount of cutting agent to that and do the same. Repeat until you have desired amount.

 

[TheChief]

I think because most people do a very sloppy job of it basically mixing the drug with lactose or whatever like you would mix flour and sugar when baking a cake.

In small batches, it isnt a hard procedure. Grind the ingredients separately in a mortar and pestle to reduce particle size to around the same and then do a geometric dilution. You take the amount of active drug needed (should be at least 120mg) and add equal amount of cutting agent and mix. Then add an equal amount of cutting agent to that and do the same. Repeat until you have desired amount.

Thanks for the great info!
Is any specific cutting agent recommend? And also would a micro planar in addition to the mortar and pestle be beneficial or is it just overkill?

 

[Kittycat5]

Depends on the drug. Tbh, I would have to look up compatabilities as compounding in pharmacy is rare these days but lactose and talc are pretty common and relatively inert (not without problems but probably wont fuck up your concoction). A microplane? Like a cheese grater type thing?

 

[Pilll_head]

I might add a few drops of food coloring. Then it should be obvious if the stuff is getting fully mixed or not

 

[Ligaturd]

What about putting it into solution in a volatile solvent and evaporating the solvent? It should be a homogenous mixture if one doesn't precipitate out before it is all evaporated. An anhydrous solution should help with this. Both substances would have to have similar solubility levels in said solvent.

Pharmaceutical companies use very expensive equipment to accomplish this with powders. If the solvent is right for the substances then this is an easy way to get the job done.