LETHAL EXCHANGE: SYNTHETIC DRUG NETWORKS IN THE DIGITAL ERA

[Fertile]

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/566ef8b4d8af107232d5358a/t/5fb3077189409576d229502a/1605568376184/Lethal_Exchange_S

I found this interesting paper. I find it fascinating that 'plain vanilla' fentanyl has become the de facto standard opioid sold on the black market in the USA. In spite of the direct precursors being controlled, it remains the standard. [snip] It it reasonable to suggest that with the cost of fentanyl production having been telescoped down to JUST the amidation of ANPP, it's the most profitable. Below is a PBS article on the outdoor production of 'black goat'. Now 4-ANPP is supposed to be controlled, but I notice that the Chinese suppliers often use India as the off\icial starting point for shipments and MANY other nations would work.

A secret look at a Mexican cartel's low-tech, multimillion-dollar fentanyl operation

Tonight, we begin a three-part look at the production — and devastating effects — of the drug fentanyl. Illicit use of the synthetic opioid painkiller has ravaged the United States, with Mexican drug cartels now seeing huge profits. With the support of the Pulitzer Center, from Sinaloa State, in...

www.pbs.org

As I pointed out, the 4-phenyl derivative of phenapromide is almost as potent as fentanyl (x60 M), [snip]. If the precursor is optically resolved (or synthesized from chiral precursors) then it's more potent (x120M). If 'cooks' are used to amide formation using an anhydride, this will be a more or less identical synthesis. I haven't looked into the prices but it seems it's structure and activity is so similar that I doubt anyone would know it had arrived until samples uncovered the fact.

Lastly I would point out that while acetic anhydride is controlled because it's (mostly) used for heroin manufacture & propanoic anhydride is controlled because it's mostly used in fentanyl synthesis. [snip] AA is still used in vast amounts commercially with 2.8 million tonnes produced last year, so hard to control.

BTW most of the Chinese suppliers that have been identified are in the 河北 (Hebei) region or just over the regionS boarders. So it's not like the source is a mystery. I'm generally against the onerous legal control of drugs but fake pills and cutting fentanyl into compounds with totally different effect is, I presume, to expand the 'addict base' That concerns me .

 

[paracelsius]

I've seen somewhere the Russians used aspirin in lieu of Ac2O to acetylate M. Russian clandestine chemists never cease to amaze me. They always come up with a way (hopefully not the one they use -> Krokodil type!!!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Acetic anhydride is still openly sold in Mexico. One company stopped selling it in 2020 after political pressure from the US, but many other smaller companies still do. The bulk of heroin, and almost all fentalogs in the US come from Mexico. The exception is around Detroit and New York where a lot of it comes from Canada.

Also I just had a nice chuckle, if I google acetic anhydride the very first google result is a huge 55 gallon drum for sale, a la Breaking Bad.

 

[Fertile]

Yes - but acetic propanoic anhydride isn't controlled, propanoic butyrlic anhydride (or indeed ANY mixed anhydride) and neither is the (mixed) diyls of acetic anhydride & propanoic anhydride.

So in practice, their is NO practical control of acetylating and propanylating reagents.

FYI you can use AA to make other anhydrides to the diyls are without a doubt the MOST useful.

If I know this and the people who make H know this, I'm quite sure that the people making fentanyl know this as well.

I'm not sure how Mexican law deals with the possession of, say, propanoic anhydride. OK, if you are caught selling, TROUBLE. But somebody somewhere is likely importing something like 1-(propanoyloxy)propyl benzoate. Add an appropriate amount of water (or maybe Ca(OH)2 and you wind up with PA and benzoic acid. Given that benzoic acid is a solid at RT, I think simply cooling would result in the PA floating above OR you wind up with calcium acetate... which will just crash out.

At the scale these people work at, if someone is making $30/L profit on PA, they have a good income for limited risk.

BUT the fact that the immediate precursors to fentanyl are now controlled, the Chinese are now supplying pre-precursors. I wonder if the gangs are working with these pre-precursors or if their are people who just make the precursors? I am just amazed that they haven't moved on to something as potent but whose precursors are not watched... Certainly not an area of commerce I would ever wish to be involved in. It isn't as if the alternatives are rare and unknown. I conclude that they have a product, they have a market and they will stick to it.