Homemaking Benzedrine Inhalers

[leungkachong]

After approx 750 mg of Dexedrine spansules manifested themselves, it appeared like a good chance to try something fun with them. No-one likes congestion, so why not form the free amine and find a way to volatilize it.

Would anyone know anything about the formulation used in the old benzedrine inhalers, or have any ideas on how to make something that achieves the same end?

 

[Jamshyd]

Hiya stranger

Having been prescribed an entire bottle of those, I agree with you that they are totally useless (unless you're in the bead-crushing business) in their spansule form. The absorption is radically variable to say the least, and the kinetics are skewed like no other. Amphetamine, IMO, is one of those drugs that aren't designed for shit like constant plasma concentration. One of the biggest failures in medicine.

Anyway. I think you're up for a chalange. First you'll need to neutralize the time-release chemically (I'll leave that to the chem-buffs to figure out), then standardise your ammount, and then dissolve it in water and perhaps a sophisticated preservative if you have/need one.

Whenever I have enough Ketamine for medicinal use, I create an inhaler. I get an old saline nasal spray bottle, and to that I add just enough Ketamine to be able to get around 10-ish mg / spray, totalling 20mg/dose - perfect for twice/day therapeutic use. It worked like a charm. The problem is that I do not remember mg/spray for my last bottle. The idea is that you need a LOT of drug in order to fill the inhaler to the point where you get an effective dose, since a squirt doesnt relese much.

With 750mg dex, I assume you'd want at least 5mg/spray. So after you've defeated the time-release, all you have to do is to find how much water (or whatever solvent you're using) you need to have in the inhaler to dissolve the 750mg and at the same time have it to equal roughly 5mg for every spray....

Not too helpful I know, but I'm intrigued too...

 

[kidamnesiac]

I dont know if this is true for the spansules as I know nothing aboot them, but most time release formulations are a mixture of proteins that coat the molecule. To denature the proteins and remove the coating, a strong acid bath would probably work. After that you can acid/base the target out and get rid of your protein.

 

[nuke]

^^ Yup...leave them in a solution with H2O and acetic or hydrochloric acid for a few hours and the spansules will all dissolve into solution. then add a non-polar solvent and basify with something like naoh until about a ph of 8 or 9, separate, rinse with H2O a few times, then acidify with HCl a little bit and evaporate and you should be left with mostly pure dexedrine crystals, which you should be able to utilize intranasally, in a solution, like what jam was talking about.

or if you have enough if the freebase you could mix with with a more volatile non-toxic oil and use a fillable aerosol sprayer. they sell them online in many places for about $6-10 (eg this one).

 

[Jamshyd]

Oh, I like the aersol idea.. IF one knows how to do it nasally without getting their face full of dexedrine . Another problem with these is figuring out dosage, I guess. Otherwise, I'd totally convert to using those for anything that works that way, much more convenient...

Although judging by vintage ads (like the one attached here), it does seem like the benzedrine inhalers of yore were not the simple hydraulic squirters. I assume they are either high-pressure aerosol based as per nuke's suggestion (and like those cortisone inhalers if I remember correctly), or maybe they are like today's benzedrex - with that cotton thing.

 

[leungkachong]

The extraction process is no problem whatsoever, I would probably use solvent extraction and then basify to isolate the free amine. What I was hoping to get at was a no-heat dose-consistent inhalation (ie - through lungs/alveoli). Nuke's closer on the track of what I had in mind with the aerosol, but I was hoping for some ideas for something that isn't pressurized. Intranasal is a little to easy to be a fun experiment anyways :D. Was the benzedrine inhaler pressurized (I was hoping to avoid having to do this). If not, what volatilized the amphetamine on the cotton, or what could be used to mimic this wonderful ancient technology?

 

[Jamshyd]

I do not know about benzedrine inhalers, but I must say the one in the pic above looks suspiciously similar to this "Symbicort" cortiscosteroid inhaler that my mother uses sometimes.

Curious device, I can't figure out exactly how it works since I don't feel like enhaling cortisone, but it seems that it is just a politically-correct version of a snorter-retainer-thingy they use mostly for coke. The thing only contains powder but releases a fixed ammount/inhalation (you need to twist the bottom prior to inhaling, so I suppose the twisting thing releases a set ammount of powder into a separate open compartment).

I assume the idea is to get a fixed dose of the very fine, air-bourne powder to go directly into the lungs upon inhalation.

That reminds me of certain incidents where people chop Ketamine powder way to fine and then quickly move and the powder disperses in the air

Not sure if this is helpful or not.

EDIT: oooh, it gets more interesting. Whoever made this thing MUST have been on drugs. There are TWO twisting areas, and halfway between there is somekind of rotating counter - I assume this indicates the doses left?

 

[Transcendence]

^ Yeah, it's the doses left. I'm using one of those inhalers right now actually.