Except for the part where the building blocks are not common between drugs, and the protocols to assemble them are neither uniform nor few in number. Tooling up

Except for the part where the building blocks are not common between drugs, and the protocols to assemble them are neither uniform nor few in number. Tooling up to synthesize a drug can draw on thousands of different techniques and tools, even when working with small quantities. Amateur drug synthesis does occur (particularly for recreational drugs), but it's neither safe, nor efficient, nor flexible. It will take a new platform technology to allow for distributed drug synthesis, and a likely a better understanding of those drugs to get there.