Morphine Sulfate & Acetic Anhydride

[More Feen]

Here's a thought experiment I'd like to share with some of my on-line cohorts.

Its chemistry-related, organic chemistry, specifically.

Let's say there's this dumb-ass doctor scooting aroung the halls of a hospital somewhere in Britain.

This doctor has procured himself some morphine sulfate, pharmaceutically-pure, from some of the dark recesses of the hospital. It is in an injectable format (aqueous).


The other day, this doctor stumbles into the research facilities and comes across some acetic anhydride.


This doctor knows that morphine base, or morphine hydrochloride will convert to tasty diacetylmorphine if he were to heat it in the presence of the acetic anhydride.


What he doesn't know, is what would happen if morphine sulfate was heated with AA.


Would you like to offer suggestions, ideas, or techniques for all of us to consider, or ponder, as to the best way to make use of these chemicals???

It is a simple thought experiment to occupy a few mintues of our lives.

My gut tells me that the doctor will have to free the morphine base from the sulfate salt and perform the ether/water extraction, dry the resulting morphine base, and then go at it with acetic anhydride--a big pain in the ASS!!

But maybe someone out there knows a few tricks to making a successful conversion--just for the sake of argument :)

Thanks everyone,

MF

[SpecialGuy69]

your doc needs to go back to chem class.

Its very easy to convert a sulfate salt to a hcl salt and vice versa

Basify with caoh (Naoh will work but you'll have to watch the pH closely). That makes morphine free BASE. Then bubble HCl gas through it, to create morphine hcl salt.

BUT- afaik, aa is reactive enough to esterify the base, or any ordinary salt (including sulfate and hcl).

[More Feen]

your doc needs to go back to chem class.

Its very easy to convert a sulfate salt to a hcl salt and vice versa

Basify with caoh (Naoh will work but you'll have to watch the pH closely). That makes morphine free BASE. Then bubble HCl gas through it, to create morphine hcl salt.

BUT- afaik, aa is reactive enough to esterify the base, or any ordinary salt (including sulfate and hcl).

Well, before starting this thread, that Dumb-ass Doctor scoured the available sources on this subject.

Almost all sources said: Acetic Anhydride will react directly with Morphine Base, or Morphine Hydrochloride to yield diacetyl morphine (DAM) and various monoacetyl morphine (MAM) forms.

One source distinctly mentioned that the morphine sulfate cannot be directly converted to DAM, that it required the base be freed (and possible made into the HCl salt).

Thanks for your input. I'm sure the doctor doesn't want to risk wasting any of these precious chemicals until he's sure he can recover at least 75% of the initial reactants.

He truly hopes that it would be as simple as you suggest !

Thanks,

MF

This is only a "think-through" experiment--a mental exercise. No real chemicals, or reactions are planning to be used at any time!

[More Feen]

A proposed summary of Reactions:

1. Morphine-SO4 + Ca(OH)2 (aq) pH = 11.0

2. Morphine (base) + SO4 + Ca + OH + H

3. Could we simply add HCl (aq) until pH = 7.0 -> Morphine-HCl ??, or

3. Add Ammonium Chloride to pH = 9.0, morphine base precipitates ??

Main problem with your suggestion is that dumb-ass doctor wouldn't know how to bubble hydrochloric gas thru solution, or even how to generate HCl gas.


Does anyone have a suggestion for step 3?

MF

[HowLongIsTooLong]

There is a thread somewhere (here or SDP) that describes the construction of a bubble column, and I am sure that the net holds the plans as well, you can beat it out of him too. It seemed pretty elementary. I wish you the best and I am sure you will meet with DAM success!!

D

PS where the hell did this hypothetical bumbling doc get AA?!?!

[nick]

Woods? Woods? Are you out there?

If this doctor has any sense he'll just shoot the morphine.

[Seedy]

maybe tui's homebake recipe will help you out, check out this thread (http://forum.opiophile.org/showthread.php?t=10814&highlight=eslon)this is how the kiwis do it.

[More Feen]

Well, well, well....

HowLongIsTooLong : DAM-success, or not, I think its an interesting subject. It would be nice if our half-witted, half-baked, healthcare provider had a larger source of chemicals, as I'm sure he would be much more willing to take some chances and possibly even waste a few milligrams of MS. But supply is tight, and even in ideal circumstances, there is a loss of MS when converting to DAM--including intermediates like MAM.

One can imagine that at a medical institute laboratories are created, run and then sometimes those labs close down. When they do close down, someone like me goes in to renovate, clear-out the old lab's supplies.

Incredible ! the things that have been found on old shelves: Most proudly, were 60 Quaaludes from the 1970's. What is so remarkable is that the drug companies stopped making 'ludes in the 70's, so any dumb-ass punter who wanted to experiment and see what Quaaludes were like is shit-outa-luck.

But then sometimes Providence smiles upon you when you least expect it. Even though they were ~ancient, they were still mellowly-strong. Taking 1 will make you feel like you're floating for four hours, or so. Nice & peaceful. Taking 2 will knock you flat on your face. I only took 2 one time: Popped them, took a shower, then woke up 4 hours later, laying flat on my face, naked in my living room. Very glad I took a shower and did not try to drive right after taking them!

Providence also supplied the acetic anhydride. Old bottle, old chemical, still potent. Maybe bumbling doctor should forget about DAM and use the AA to make buffered aspirin instead. Anyone gots any salicylic acid they wish acetylated?

Nick asked "why the dip-shit doctor don't just shoot the friggin morphine?" I'm quite sure this medical misfit has taken his fair-share of morphine, and then some. The "rush" that morphine provides is tainted by the release of histamine.

Morphine's rush is often described as "pins & needles" and "tingly" which can be accounted for by histamine's actions on blood vessels. There is some euphoria to be found in morphine, you just have to weed-through the histamine side-effects.

Conversion of morphine to DAM would negate the histamine-component so one would likely experience a more-pure euphoria. Also, since DAM is more lipophilic, it will cross the blood-brain-barrier much quicker--again yielding more euphoria.

Seedy, the homeback recipe is very interesting, this information will be passed-along. I've read accouts lately of SE Asian "hill people" making a crude form of heroin. These people dissolve opium in boiling water, then add aspirin and acetaminophen, then they boil the shit out of it for a few hours.

These people make this compound to treat back pain. When chemists analyzed this concoction, it did contain ~10% heroin.

I guess this makes sense. The Bayer Pharmaceutical Company used acetic anhydride to acetylate salicylic acid to make buffered aspirin. This was such a big hit, that they acetylated morphine and changed the world.

Anyway, if you don't have AA, there is obviously some reactant acetyl-groups available/ left-over from buffered aspirin. I'm not sure about the acetaminophen though--if it contributes anything at all, or just helps with the back pain. It does have "acet" in its name though.

My 14 pence,

MF

[nick]

Interesting MF,but I must say that I prefer M to diamorphine for the initial buzz.Diamorphine's too damn clean.
However M seems much worse for the veins-then again it may just be cumulative damage.

and if you don't mind me asking where are you in Scotland?

[SpecialGuy69]

acetametaphin doesnt contribute acetyl groups to Morphine. It doesn't have the right leaving groups. In AA, the acetyl-groups break off from an oxygen, which is an easier bond to break (plus the 2h's get broken off the bottom of morphine at the same time- reactions that have water as a product tend to proceed in that direction).

Acetone, ethyl acetate, acetic acid, peroxyacetone, etc all have acetyl groups, but only acetic anhydride and propionic anhydride will contribute acetyl- groups to morphine.

BUT... acetylizing morphine (turning it into H) makes it about 3 times stronger (and 50x more fun) so, even if you lose 50%, you still come out ahead. Think about it: start with 2 grams of morphine- lose 50% so now you have 1 gram. Now make it 3 times stronger- leaving 3 grams equivalent- so, even doing a sloppy reaction, you aren't going to come out behind. This isn't based on exact molar ratios or anything but it all still holds true. You should be able to yield 50% no problem.

DON'T SHOOT ACETIC ANHYDRIDE YOU WILL DIE!!!

[HowLongIsTooLong]

...fockin luudes, maan....fooockin luuuudes

what a score.

D

[SpecialGuy69]

look up "esterification reactions" -

[More Feen]

DON'T SHOOT ACETIC ANHYDRIDE YOU WILL DIE!!!


I'm glad you put that nugget o'wisdom out there about acetic anhydride. In the morphine-->DAM process, you need to neutralize that crap with enough sodium carbonate "until the fizzing stops".

I stupidly placed a small drop of acetic anhydride on my tongue once. I think I thought I had netralized it enough, I guess, but what happened was, was that the Na-carbonate and the AA formed two distinct layers, so the Na-Carb was neither mixing, nor neutralizing. Since there was "no more fizzing" I assumed the solution was neutralized at pH 7, and so, I tried a drop....

There was no permanent damage, but fuck.... I'm glad I was 3 feet away from a sink to lavage my tongue. I think the mucus lining of my mouth also help prevent any serious loss of tissue.


USE pH Meters, or pH Papers to accurately determine the pH of any solution.

For the person asking about my location, I don't want to be too specific for obvious reasons, but in the Greater Gourock-Dunoon Metropolitan Area.


MF

[More Feen]

Yeah Nick,

I like to go IM with MS. You by-pass the gut issues of oral meds and it comes on in less than 10 minutes.

Occasionally when giving an IM jab, I'll accidently hit a vessel (I stopped pulling the plunger back to check). I can honestly say that I don't find the IV rush of MS very pleasurable. IM is good.

The IV rush, especially when you're not expecting it, can be a bit overwhelming. You know that of all the people that have OD'd & died from IV morphine felt something very simular to that rush, only for them it went much furrther.

Maybe I am morphine-spoiled, but I think it is just that I have not experienced a decent DAM rush. I might agree with you about the benefits of morphine over heroin. But I need that experience before I will be able to compare the two.

MF

[More Feen]

...fockin luudes, maan....fooockin luuuudes

what a score.

D

Yeah that was a very interesting month I don't remember.

Man, I grew up hearing about 'luudes and how wonderful they were etc.... But like, that whole scene dried up and was gone by the time I was a teen and into smoking & swallowing shit to get high.

I figured: "Why even worry about trying 'luudes man, there gone, deal with it."

Truthfully, when I found those 'luudes in a jar in a dusty rack, I had no idea what the hell they were. I knew my luck, and figured it was probably estrogen or something equally worthless to me.

For the hell of it, I tracked down the ID number on the capsules to Park-Davis Pharmaceuticals. When I called them, and gave them the number, the lady said: "That product is no-longer available sir."

So I asked her again what was in the freaking capsules.

She finally told me that it contained the Park-Davis pharmaceutical--Parest, but she would tell me no more.

Luckily the same lab that had the Quaaludes also had a Merke Index that cross-referenced Trade-names of drugs, with their standard name, etc....

Parest = methaqualone = L U U D E S

[More Feen]

Success !!

Either it was a successful conversion to diacetylmorphine, or there was enough morphine left-over in the concoction to register at the mu receptors.

Cannot say if swim will try this again, but its nice to know it can be done.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

MF