My favorite journal, Journal of Apocryphal Chemistry, has just published an interesting article. The authors, O. Hai and I. B. Hakkenshit, describe a synthesis of pseudoephedrine from readily available crystal meth. Pseudoephedrine is the decongestant in Sudafed, which used to be out on stores shelves. Now if you want to buy it you have to show your drivers license at a pharmacy. This synthesis should make it much easier to get this useful medicine.

“We have demonstrated here a simple series of
transformations which allow pseudoephedrine to be obtained
in a more straightforward manner than is the current norm.
We expect that the simultaneous trends of restricting
pseudoephedrine sales while N-methylamphetamine becomes
less expensive and of higher purity will make the methods
presented here increasingly attractive.”

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