Hot Bath, Anyone?

I interrupt the regular programming at The House of LadyLee to bring you this special blog post.

*Oldgirl putting on her Dr. LadyLee cap*

Boys and girls! We're going to talk a little chemistry today.

*Blog family stretches and yawns and gives the Dr. LadyLee the laser side-eye*

In the words of Tupac:

Walk with me... Hail Mary... Come quickly... How do you like me now, La di da la la la!!

So...

There was a story in the news this weekend about some strange problem of bath salts being sold as drugs, and that snorting these salts have pretty much the same effect as snorting cocaine or meth.

*crickets*

I'm sure this freaked people out, and had them looking at their Calgon saying...

Calgon, can you REALLY take me away?

LOL!!

I, being a chemist, usually pay these stories no mind.

Because I know what's up.

But I was a little worried when a twitter sista was a bit perplexed over it.

I told her what my expertise was and that I would look into it. (This would take me all of 2 to 3 minutes).

So I came back and tried to explain it to her.

(Note to self: be REAL ready to thoroughly explain things to a lawyer. REAL ready).

So, we had a fine fine twitter chat about this on Sunday evening. I know both of our timelines were like O_O. Folks left us alone and let us talk back and forth, lol.

I thought it was worth posting over here, dear dwellers of The House of LadyLee. My followers may be chickens, but they are not chickenheads, and are eager to learn new things. I need you to be educated when you see some madness come up about people sniffing strange substances that weren't meant for that purpose.

(Remember the whole nutmeg craziness a couple months ago? Same principle.)

First of all, let me tell you about me, so you will know that I know what I'm talking about. I am a food chemist right now, moreso an analytical chemist (seperating and analyzing small amounts of chemicals on stuff). I am TRAINED (got my doctorate) in Organic synthesis and drug design. Meaning I can draw a drug on paper, sketch up a way to make it, and then go in the lab and make it and purify it.

Uh, a drug dealer would love the Oldgirl. That is all.

So, listen close when I tell you this, cuz I know what's up.

So... they say the "bath salts", well, you can snort them and get you high.

Do not run in the bathroom and snort your Calgon. Please and thank you.

Here's the issue: Not sure where the whole "Bath salt" thing came from, but it looks as these drugs are marketed as herbal bath salts.

The $2 dollar box of Calgon ain't herbal. These little packets of "bath salts" cost over $25 a packet.

I personally think that these substances are packaged as "bath salts", so they can be sold over the counter.

So I looked into it.

Here are the two chemicals, the "bath salts" that get a person high. (double click on the blank spaces)

mep.hedrone



methylened.ioxypyrovalerone (MDP.V)

I laughed uncontrollably when I saw that first chemical, mephre.done. Why? Because it is CHEAP and easy to make.

I did a retrosynythetic analysis of both of the drugs. This simply means that I grabbed a scratch piece of paper, drew the compounds, and deconstructed them down to their starting materials. That first one can be made in half a day, I suppose. It's a matter of purifying it, which shouldn't be too hard.

The second chemical with the long name should take a week, but should be much easier to purify than the first one.

The first one is available for order off the net. Looks to be a hot item in Britain. I wouldn't order it though.

You don't need to be sniffing stuff, man. Really.

You don't.

Anyway, it's my guess that the second one, the MDPV, is the one they sell as the "bath salt" for snorting. For the simple reason that it's more difficult to make/get a hold of.

(They talked about it on the news tonight. Yeah, the MDPV is the true culprit here.)

Incidently, that MDPV is similar to another chemical, MDMA. (double click on blank space)

That one is the chemical in Ecstasy. As you can see MDMA and MDPV look alike. The only difference is that the MDPV produces a purely "cocainish" high, whereas the ecstasy does the same, along with the sexual and social euphoria.

That is all very interesting. Those are all a part of a family of drugs called Designer Drugs.

They are drugs made in the lab.

(Yeah they are easy to make. One of my classmates use to make his own speed. Was wondering why Shorty was so doggone happy and moving fast all the time! Sigh.)

So there you have it.

Now you know.

When you see news reports of jokers sniffing strange stuff, know that there is a chemical involved that produces the high.

Whether it be the nutmeg you use in your apple pie...

Or the high class herbal bath salts you shake in your bath water....

Chemicals compounds aboud... whether good or bad

They are everywhere...

Man oh man.... I haven't done organic synthesis work in a good 11 years.

And looka here, looka here... I did a little in a blog post.

*lee cheesing hard like Celie*

This chemistry lesson has been brought to you by Your Friendly Neighborhood Doctor....

Dr. LadyLee.

*lee takes off Doctor hat, throw it in the closet*

Now... back to our regular programming.