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I was thinking the same thing, though I couldn't remember the timeline. Makes me wonder if there was something already in the zeitgeist, or if it was fueled by
by milesvp 5mo ago
I was thinking the same thing, though I couldn't remember the timeline. Makes me wonder if there was something already in the zeitgeist, or if it was fueled by the obsession with purity in the series. I could totally see Breaking Bad causing chemists to want to up their game, or causing chemists to get clowned for having low purity.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- trhway 5mo agoyes, while the show probably popularized the idea of purity for meth, in general strict prohibition leads to increase in purity and potency. We've recently seen that with heroin/fentanyl. There is probably still no "fentanyl of meth", and thus so far only purity increase. Once a more potent, fentanyl-like, meth appears, it will probably similarly get into and displace a lot of classic meth trade.
- whimsicalism 5mo agoWhat? Prohibition historically showed the exact opposite. I suspect higher purity & potency of street drugs has much more to do with more sophisticated operators operating outside of the US than strict prohibition. Same with fentanyl.
- KarlKode 5mo agoI believe OP wanted to make the point that one of the most important things for people profiting from the illegal sale of drugs (meth or heroin/opiates) is to minimize the amount that has to be trafficked (1kg of 10% meth vs 100g of pure meth or 1kg of heroin vs 10g of fentanyl). I believe this explanation is too simplistic...
- trhway 5mo agoyes, the "Iron law of prohibition" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_prohibition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_prohibition "the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs."
- projektfu 5mo agoProhibition encouraged higher potency but purity was highly questionable. The stills themselves often leeched contaminants from the metal used to make them, as well as the heads and tails of the distillate, which should be discarded but might not be.
- scythe 5mo agoThe production case for a stronger stimulant is weaker. Heroin is a really complicated molecule. It is only made from a natural precursor. Meth can be made by two major pathways, and P2P can be made by at least four off the top of my head. It was the fentanyl equivalent for cocaine. For anything else, you balance the increased complexity of synthesis with any increase in potency.
- z33k 5mo agoThe pyrovalerones are basically the fentanyl of meth. More potent, shorter lasting, more dangerous.
- trhway 5mo agoi'm a layman here, so just googled it: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Pyrovalerone https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Pyrovalerone "Pyrovalerone is a DEA Schedule V controlled substance. Substances in the DEA Schedule V have a low potential for abuse relative to substances listed in Schedule IV and consist primarily of preparations containing limited quantities of certain narcotics."
- dev_hugepages 5mo agoHe's talking about the derivatives (nicknamed Pyros because they're related to Pyrovalerone) like α-PVP, MDPV and others.
- temp0826 5mo agoMore commonly "bath salts"
- sidewndr46 5mo agoAren't cathinones the equivalent for meth? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_cathinone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_cathinone