Why Can't Oxycodone Be Produced Illegally?

I know that a lot more goes into making Oxycodone than I will ever know but considering the amount of money someone could make if they could just produce pure Oxycodone why hasn't it been done?

It seems to be the only illegally made opiate is Heroin right? Is there no way to take the raw chemicals and make Oxycodone?

This goes for all opiates actually. Oxy, Hydro, Dilaudid, Opana, Fentanyl....

Why isn't there a chemist somewhere that works for a drug cartel in Mexico or something making these opiates?

I also want to add that I know absolutely nothing about making drugs so there may be a very good reason this is not done. I have no idea how Heroin is even made. I assume making Heroin is a lot easier than making pure Oxy.

I'm also surprised there are no chemists out there producing oxycodone. They could be making a lot of money. Maybe nobody can obtain the chemicals to make it. It can't be made with checmicals just laying around the house or at stores.

allecw said:

...I assume making Heroin is a lot easier than making pure Oxy.

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Exactly...

^^^exactly exactly

Maybe nobody can obtain the chemicals to make it. It can't be made with checmicals just laying around the house or at stores.

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No it can be, it's just not economically viable and depends on your starting drug. Morphine is the main constituent of opium so if you want to get oxycodone you need to methylate to codeine, oxidize to codeinon, then some steps through 14-hydroxycodeinone and finally to oxycodone.

To get heroin from Morphine involves one step with cheap acetic anhydride to quadruple the strength.

Likewise if starting with codiene, hydrocodone is ridiculously easy one step if you have the dough to spend.

If you're making oxycodone chances are you're going to start from some sort of poppy derivative, and then selling morphine/heroin/opium is cheaper and easier and everyone will buy it anyway. Plus not everyone has the ability to do catalytic hydrogenations, but any old fool can dump acetic anhydride on morphine and bake it.

A better question would be why can't heroin be produced cheaply and distributed by drug companies instead of charging you hundreds of times more to take oxycodone?

amapola said:

A better question would be why can't heroin be produced cheaply and distributed by drug companies instead of charging you hundreds of times more to take oxycodone?

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Simple answer: because Heroin is illegal.

I think somebody could make money selling oxycodone. Just about nobody else makes it so you'd have no competition sell it 50cents/mg and many people would come jumping for that shit. There are so many oxycodone users, most likely more than heroin. Prescription drugs are the second most used substances. Marijuana still first. But anyway, heroin isn't even in the top 5. And when they sy "prescription drugs" that basically means oxycodone and Xanax. You know how awesome it would be if people actually did make it. I'd never have to worry about running out.

Why oxycodone? Anyone can make it could almost certainly make oxymorphone or hydromorphone.

I think somebody could make money selling oxycodone

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True, but you could make more money selling heroin. It really depends what you are looking for...some money or more money?

heroin gets you much higher than oxycodone and is much cheaper to produce illegaly. ive been doing black tar for two years and i cant get high off of (at least not ridiculous doses) of pills like oxycodone, hydrocodone, loritabs etc. oxycottons/roxys( only IV ) compare but most all other pills are a complete waste of time. id rather take tylenol then buy a loritab. so not worth it.

i think people also like the comfort of pills being exactly what they wanted and being harder to rip people off with, and when you make your own its just another random powder

yeah, heroin ruins your tolerance, I maintained a 40mg/day oxy habit for months without needing to up the dose at all, then a three day H binge happened and suddenly those little bumps weren't working anymore.

I'm sure if one had the knowledge and the equipment, extracting codeine phosphate from Canadian OTC pills and using it to synthesize a more powerful derivative seems pretty feasable.

n y m u s said:

heroin gets you much higher than oxycodone and is much cheaper to produce illegaly. ive been doing black tar for two years and i cant get high off of (at least not ridiculous doses) of pills like oxycodone, hydrocodone, loritabs etc. oxycottons/roxys( only IV ) compare but most all other pills are a complete waste of time. id rather take tylenol then buy a loritab. so not worth it.

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Sure heroin gets you much higher but not everybody wants to use heroin. Pure oxycodone powder would be readily availability for those who don't want to go that far. Heroin use is down. Prescription drugs are the second highest abused drugs in America. Oxycodone is probably number 1 on that list. Oxycodone users could care less if its in pure powder form or in tablet form. Someone who is joensing for oxy would care less if powder or tablet. Just as long as they had it. OxyContin and Roxicodone is not easy for everyone to obtain so now they'd have a hook up. Sure people would prefer pills but pure powder would do just fine. When someone is addicted to oxy they could care less if it were pill or powder.

...took awhile to type that, I'm on K

K'd-OUT-in-AZ said:

Sure heroin gets you much higher but not everybody wants to use heroin. Pure oxycodone powder would be readily availability for those who don't want to go that far. Heroin use is down. Prescription drugs are the second highest abused drugs in America. Oxycodone is probably number 1 on that list. Oxycodone users could care less if its in pure powder form or in tablet form. Someone who is joensing for oxy would care less if powder or tablet. Just as long as they had it. OxyContin and Roxicodone is not easy for everyone to obtain so now they'd have a hook up. Sure people would prefer pills but pure powder would do just fine. When someone is addicted to oxy they could care less if it were pill or powder.

...took awhile to type that, I'm on K

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I dunno, I think a lot of the appeal of the pills is that you know they're coming from an ultra-clean, non contaminated lab and you're getting the exact same thing every time. If it was just powder being manufactured illegally, it'd probably be pretty stepped on by the time most of us got it... considering that OG Oxy is now basically GONE (in the USA, at least), I'd still buy it though!!

Anyway - if anyone actually wants to try making Oxy, there is a book out there that provides pretty much all the information you need -- Oxy by Otto Snow (selling new on Amazon.com for the retarded price of $149.95 US) which is very thorough. Chemistry is not really my strong suit, but the big problem will always come back to the fact that you need to have access to a shitload of opium poppy... and no one does this because in the process of making Oxycodone you effectively HAVE to turn Thebaine into heroin first, so why go the extra steps for something that isn't even as strong?

PS - Not suggesting it, but there is also a torrent out there of this and several of this author's books...

Heroin is easier to make from morphine, which is easier to get from opium poppies.

Oxycodone is harder to make from thebaine, whcih is harder to get from opium poppies, as stated above.

Heroin is downright illegal (in most countries, at least) making it a 100% captive market for illicit chemists. If these chemists produced oxycodone, they would be competing with the (legal) pharm companies who have the advantage of, well, being legal. Even though oxycodone and heroin (and other strong opiates) have a huge markup value on the black market, its still cheaper to illicitly produce heroin. It is also easier to transport, cut, and distribute it, as the networks already exist within the illegal drug trade.

Not every opiate user has a lustful love affair with oxycodone, in fact, some have it with heroin.

Finally, some chemists do make oxycodone, but they're usually limited to smaller-scale operations who have access to all the needed equipment and expertise. (Think university level stuff) and these guys more often then not would be making more potent opiates anyway (think fentanyl). Don't expect your average chemistry grad student to cook you up up some OC80s either, I'm talking a very small amount of isolated cases here.

Maybe it's different everywhere.

I know where I live if I had an unlimited amount of Oxy powder to sell I would be filthy rich! More money then if I had an unlimited amount of Heroin. Like I said maybe it's my area.

I understand that Heroin is stronger and easier to make but I think the demand for Oxy is being underestimated. I also understand that one of the biggest positives of buying Oxy now is you know what your getting. I just think if you find someone who is already addicted to Oxy and tell them this is cheaper and the same thing they would definitely buy it. Especially now with op-oc issues.

Imagine a situation kind of like the scenario in Breaking Bad. A high level chemist who really knows what he's doing and sees an opportunity to make an enormous amount of money. I think someone will do this on a mass scale one day and movies and books will be written about them!

Quite the scenario to imagine, my friend.

I too believe it depends on the area. Where I live has an opiate problem in general, the city loves all drugs, heroin, OCs, OPs, all kinds of opiates. Also crack.

The redneck areas outside the city have a serious oxycodone problem. I guess its just a matter of finding your market. Although I'm happy to leave that to the cartels

chemistry nerd fuckface friend of mine made morphine from half a kilo of opium. wasn't that good was a bit of waste of ope. but it was his attempt at making heroin. (he lives in mexico owns a load of guest houses and deals drugs so the ope was cheap) the point is i guess he managed to illegaly make an opiate. dunno if you are interested. just feel like rambling cuz i'm on the ritz. should probably just post

btw he tried shifting the morphine as heroin got fucked over by some big mexican mafia fam now he's moving back to britain. so i will hopefully be able to start experimenting with his chemistry skills to make some quality personal use stuff.