A lot of opioids are fairly related, Oxycodone and Oxymorphone can be used as precursors to make Nalaxone and vice versa. I recall Four Thieves Vinegar Collective doing a similar trick though I don’t remember what the actual precursor was.
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Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
You can actually use Nalaxone as a base to make an opioid, I think Oxymorphone if I remember right.
SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 6 days ago
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
And for the last 80 years, pharma has been making versions of opioids that are “less addictive”, and MDs fall for it every time like rubes.
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 6 days ago
Walter White here. Organic chemistry can turn pretty much any molecule into a related molecule if you have enough time and patience. You want to purchase a precursor that’s nearly the same as your desired product but also one that takes the fewest reactions to get there. I don’t know how many reactions you would need to turn this into this but it’s definitely possible. Image
dickalan@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Historical myth: The rumor started in the 1990s–2000s on drug forums (and later persisted on places like Reddit) because people noticed the close structural relationship and assumed “just swap the side chain.” In reality, pharmaceutical companies start from opium-derived precursors (thebaine → oxycodone → etc.) or full total synthesis — they never use naloxone as a starting material to make oxymorphone.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Well of course pharmaceutical companies don’t, they can get cheaper base materials for opioids like the thebaine you mentioned. It was just someone proving it could be done and showing that it could be a potential concern one day. Right now it’s a million times easier to get and cook fentanyl with precursors, so no one would bother with this synthesis. It’s not like consumer nalaxone is cheap for the amount you get.
moody@lemmings.world 6 days ago
I dunno, I can go to the pharmacy right now and get naloxone for free if I wanted. They give that shit away here.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
4 mg at a time… I think they might get suspicious after your 100th time.