Home mephedrone (4-MMC) purification method

[Novator]

Cleaning the drug in 10 minutes. Small volumes.​

One of the most frequent questions is how to clean the purchased drug (crystals/powders). It is also one of the basic skills of an advanced consumer, sometimes the results of such a simple cleaning are striking.

• Why clean if always used as is?

- For example, this is necessary for intravenous use (the cleaner the drug, the safer), in addition, it affects the purity of the exposure, as well as the severity and variety of side effects.

Then I give a universal instruction, following which you can easily wash not everything from the residues of synthesis by-products, but a lot. If the drug is purified by this method, as a rule, the weight loss of the final product is small.

• How to determine what can be cleaned according to this instruction?

-The main parameter of a suitable drug for cleaning is insolubility in anhydrous acetone and cold isopropyl alcohol. Most of the impurities in street drugs are from laboratories due to negligence in synthesis. And impurities, of course, reduce the shelf life of the drug, spoil the commercial species, worsen the force of exposure, and also increase the risk of poisoning.

Consider a method of purifying mephedrone in powder form.​

The principle of the process is elementary. A filter is assembled from the available means, which will retain mephedrone, but pass flushes with impurities (impurities dissolve in cooled acetone/alcohol, and mephedrone is insoluble). The impurity extractant is then forced out of the filter under pressure, leaving the pure product. If necessary, the process can be repeated by adding a new portion of extractant.

What will be needed and what to do?​

• Chilled extractant (anhydrous acetone or absoluted isopropanol);
• Mephedrone of any hue and humidity 3 g;
• Cotton wool 0.5x0.5 cm;
• Syringe 5-20 ml 1pc;
• Waste glass;
• Petri Dish (any plate is suitable);
• Pipette 3 ml.

In a syringe, we put a tiny piece of cotton wetted in extractant. It'll hold the clean mephedrone inside. If there is a lot of cotton wool, the design will lose functionality. If the cotton wool is too small, or it does not cover the hole, then part of the mephedrone will come out with the waste.

Spoiler: Creating a filter

We grind mephedrone into dust and pour it into a syringe over the cotton wool, you can slightly compress. A third of the free space for the extractant should remain in the syringe.

Spoiler: Charge the system

Using a pipette, we fill the remains with the syringe with a cooled extractant (in the photo, the extractant is marked with the number 1). As it moves, it will be visible how impurities leave (in the photo you can see in the field at number 2).

Spoiler: Add extractant

Next, we insert the piston into the syringe cylinder and squeeze the extractant through the mephedrone with some force. The eyes will see how the dirt moves to the filter, and then leaves the syringe in a waste glass.

Spoiler: Extract impurities into a waste glass

The indicator of mephedrone purity is the color of the extractant drop leaving the filter. The drop should be transparent and without color. If necessary, add fresh extractant to remove impurities without residue.

Spoiler: Complete the washing of mephedrone

The impurity extractant should be discarded. It won't be useful anywhere else.

Spoiler: Extract

The syringe contents are now placed on a Petri dish to further evaporate the extractant residues. We remove a piece of cotton from the mephedrone, it will no longer be useful. The evaporation of the extractant can be accelerated in a water bath or other heating elements.

Spoiler: Lay out the purified mephedrone until it dries completely

Upon reaching a constant weight and the absence of the smell of the extractant, cleaning can be considered completed. This method does not give 99.9% purity of the product, but this is the best of the most affordable and simple. After such cleaning, the substance is suitable for consumption. For greater purity and commercial appearance, the obtained powder can be subjected to a slow recrystallization method (and another recrystallization method).

• Can amphetamine (sulfate, phosphate, hydrochloride) be purified by this method?

-You can. Amphetamine is insoluble in acetone and isopropanol.

• Can methamphetamine be cleaned in this way?

- No, the process should be conducted very differently. Methamphetamine, like many other drugs (a-pvp), is soluble in acetone and isopropanol. If it is very necessary to at least slightly increase purity, a similar purification method can be followed (to be described in another topic).

• Such washing will remove impurities added by the dealer (caffeine, etc.)?

-Mostly not. Such impurities, as well as the drug, do not dissolve in the extractants used. Consequently, all additives will remain with the product.

• What else can we do to make the product cleaner?

- Of course, recrystallization. But you're interested in more serious ways?
Acid-alkaline extraction is available from simple means. But here a skill in working with chemicals and a number of tools will already be useful. Also, this method is not suitable for the purification of mephedrone and a-pvp (mdpv). And the loss of the final product can be 40% of the starting mass, if done incorrectly.
- Of the more complicated methods - distillation of the free base of the drug in a deep vacuum. For example, this method allows you to obtain a free base of amphetamine of exceptional purity even before crystallization with acids, therefore, without traces of the synthesis steps passed. During distillation in a vacuum, all heavy impurities remain in the original flask, and the drug in the form of a free base condenses into a receiving flask. You can also distill the free base in a vacuum with water vapors, but this is a more time-consuming and somewhat less effective purification route.

 

[Vasile]

When you reffer to :

'Using a pipette, we fill the remains with the syringe with a cooled extractant (in the photo, the extractant is marked with the number 1)'

What do you mean cooled extractant, should i put the 99% isopropanol in the fridge or what temperature should it have?

 

[G.Patton]

It's worth to cool it in fridge (2-4*C) in order to reduce 4-mmc solubility and losses.

 

[Vasile]

Got it, thank you!

 

[Vasile]

Novator When you reffer to :

'Using a pipette, we fill the remains with the syringe with a cooled extractant (in the photo, the extractant is marked with the number 1)'

What do you mean cooled extractant, should i put the 99% isopropanol in the fridge or what temperature should it have?