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Questions about opiate synthesis

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red22

Bluelighter
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Nov 23, 2009
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Correct me if I'm mistaken, but every semisynthetic opiate can be synthesized from any alkaloid in opium; and the alkaloid which is the de facto standard for use a precursor is thebaine because that is the most dominant alkaloid in opium. So even though morphine is more closely related to oxycodone, being an opioid agonist, using thebaine as a precursor for oxycodone is more economical...

Now, here's something that really bugs me. Does the black market still use opium harvested using labor as a precursor for heroin? Because from what I understand, pharmaceutical companies no longer use actual opium. They're able to isolate the necessary ingredients (thebaine is the only one used, right?) simply by processing the entire opium poppy plant. I saw a little news video online where some Turkish farmer was like "we used to slit the sides." "No more." "Now we just cut head off."

OK, so batch processing a bunch of poppy straw is far more economical than harvesting opium. You're telling me that these rich heroin king pins aren't using the most efficient, cutting edge, economical method to make heroin? I mean I know there's videos of makeshift heroin labs in afghanistan set up in the middle of the desert processing opium, but I'm wondering if that's just fringe nowadays. Small time afghanis trying to get into the "industry." I would think that the big time dealers would have processing plants akin to the ones owned by pharmaceutical companies. Are you seriously telling me that heroin is not made from thebaine extracted from poppy straw? Heroin is made from opium? That just sounds so primitive.
 
Mmm, my guess is that most Opium Warlord Kingpin types in Southeast Asia or Afghanistan type places don't give too much of a shit about efficiency. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I remember reading that they buy kilos of raw opium for peanuts. Like literally buy kilos of opium for $200 or something. I think usually the people making all the money are just middlemen who buy up kilos of opium for pennies from people who work their fingers to the bone and eke out a subsistence living, then probably pay a separate group of poor assholes to boil and cook it into morphine base and process it into heroin.

If it were me i'd much rather buy kilos for peanuts over trying to maintain a plantation and harvest it all etc. It probably is more efficient to process the straw at a certain (really high) volume, if you're running the whole op yourself from seed to stamp, but it's infinitely less work to just pay a bunch of people a dollar a day to handle all the grunt work.
 
Most morphine in medical use is actually extracted from 'legitimately harvested' poppies. Thebaine, however, is a more direct precursor to those semi-synthetics in use, with the key exception of heroin, which is a one-step reaction (but a multi-step extraction) from morphine.

ebola
 
see I actually thought that they converted thebaine to morphine and actually come out with more morphine per raw materials in the end.
 
A former soviet bloc country used to produce their opiate analgesics from "poppy straw".
I guess if you type poppy straw into Google you'll get the story - you need an industrial size set up to do it economically I am led to understand. Slitting poppy heads is a practice for teenagers & poverty stricken tribes folk, talk about watching paint dry. 8)


http://www.poppies.org/news/99501931090804.shtml I'm feeling unnaturally helpful tonight :)
 
Most narcotic opiates are extracted from poppy straw nowadays. Opium is still produced for the "classical" manufacture of heroin etc in some poorer countries, however (as is evident from the presence of black tar heroin on markets). Qualitatively, poppy latex is a nicer drug than pure isolated heroin/morphine.

Processing thebaine to other narcotic alkaloids is not something that can be done in a home lab. I have yet to see e.g. clandestine oxycodone production or large scale thefts of catalytic hydrogenation equipment...
 
I think they all have a lot going for them - given the choice I'd have heroin morphine & opium. I'm surprised that no one has bothered to set up manufacturing heroin illicitly using this method though, I guess the third world is poorer than I imagine it to be
 
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