"Making" morphine from opium isn't very difficult. Morphine is one of several constituents present in opium, and technically you're not making anything at all. Your friend was just extracting the morphine out of the opium, or purifying the morphine if you will.
Making heroin from morphine, on the other hand, requires an actual chemical reaction to take place. It's a very simple synthesis, and even your mom could easily do it if it weren't for the limited availability of morphine and a certain key chemical reagent.
By comparison, the synthesis of oxycodone form thebaine or codeine is relatively complicated and requires several reaction steps. It's by no means an advanced or convoluted synthesis, but it's not for your mom or your average kitchen chemist. Anyone with the skills and equipment to make oxycodone might just as well make a cheaper, more potent opioid and turn a bigger profit. That's the main reason why we're not seeing a lot of homebake oxycodone.
Making heroin from morphine, on the other hand, requires an actual chemical reaction to take place. It's a very simple synthesis, and even your mom could easily do it if it weren't for the limited availability of morphine and a certain key chemical reagent.
By comparison, the synthesis of oxycodone form thebaine or codeine is relatively complicated and requires several reaction steps. It's by no means an advanced or convoluted synthesis, but it's not for your mom or your average kitchen chemist. Anyone with the skills and equipment to make oxycodone might just as well make a cheaper, more potent opioid and turn a bigger profit. That's the main reason why we're not seeing a lot of homebake oxycodone.