Hello, Ni hao ma peng yu?
You can start wherever you feel interested and comfortable. If you just want to make something you can find a recipe and follow it without having to learn much. This approach is the quickest and easiest but also the most risky or dangerous - you might end up making a poison or explosive or just really bad product and hurting somebody or yourself and getting unwanted attention if you don't understand what you are doing. Nobody wants that.
I wholeheartedly recommend studying all the organic chemistry you can fill your brain with. If you simply have an objective, such as "making ecstasy", then alot of it wont be necessary and you will find it irrelevent. However if you are planning on making this growing hobby a long term investment then you will find all the knowledge useful and beneficial as you will be able to apply it eventually.
I studied organic chemistry from a book for a while and then started watching videos and practicing and experimenting with chemicals much later. The hard part was finding a community such as this one. Consider yourself lucky - you found your way here!
I would recommend studying along side practicing simple experiments and procedures - this will help reinforce what you learned as you build a foundation. I would come up with a more simple objective and start reaching for that, for example, peoples first synthesis is usually meth or amphetamine or mephedrone. If that is something you want to do, start figuring out what you need for equipment, glassware and chemicals, etc. Familiarize yourself with safety first, how to use the equipment, the techniques involved in the procedure. Figure out how to get everything you need without getting in trouble - bringing attention to yourself. Can you get any of these equipment or chemicals from the store - ("OTC" - 'over the counter') ? Are they pure? Can you make them pure? How? Start small with little exercises practicing experiments, get a feel for it, get a little experience and confidence before you spend all kinds of money and start taking risks. You may find out you aren't cut out for this, hopefully at not too great of a cost.
Figure out one thing, then improve on it when you understand the "ins-and-outs". Then move on to the next experiment. You will find alot of the things you learned carry over, and then you learn all kinds of new things in the next experiment. Different equipment and techniques, different chemicals. It goes on and on. So it is up to you whether this is just a means to an end or a lifelong pursuit of perfecting your craft. The more you put in the more you get out.
I am very much a beginner compared to alot of users in this community. Somehow I find myself still able to provide useful advice or information to other users. We all have different skills and knowledge and alot of this life experience carries over into applying chemistry, we all have something to offer, even just by reporting our experiments, observations and outcomes, whether they were a success or failure, it is still an opportunity to learn. I am currently working on a project with a friend to help out complete beginners and help people with some experience hopefully learn and improve. You may find some of this content to your benefit. Everything you need to know has already been posted in this community, you just have to read to sort through and find it. I will be glad to communicate with you and learn from each other. Best wishes from USA. Take care.
