So can you add elements to illegal drugs to make them technically different?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Black Hole
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Drugs Elements
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
Sign up Log in
6 replies · 5K views
Black Hole
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
First off I am nothing of a scientist or chemist.

can you add a oxygen molecule to say marijuana without screwing it up?

or if i add one of the inert gases to it?

haha, I'm just thinking out loud

what you scientists say?
 

Discussion

Chemistry news on Phys.org
I don't even know if this question can be salvaged into a reasonable topic, but I'll try (although I suspect that this topic is not allowed on these forums. I'll do my best to keep it professional):

Many natural products, such as cannabinoids and opioids, do have synthetic derivatives. In fact, the term "semi-synthetic" is often applied to these types of molecules. For example, morphine, extracted from poppy seeds, is used as a precursor in the industrial manufacture of hydromorphone.

However, it's much more complicated than just "adding oxygen" or "adding an inert gas" to the molecular structure. In fact, those terms are pretty meaningless--all reactions are organic reactions, and organic chemistry isn't as simple as adding A +B to make C. Of course, it becomes even more complicated in biological systems.

Deciding on an appropriate pharmaceutical derivative of a natural product is a complicated task: it involves first of all understanding how the original molecule interacts with different receptors in the body, the overall goal of the intended pharmaceutical, minimization of side effects and toxicity (relative to the intended dosage).

Overall, this is a cool field, but as you said, it's pretty clear you aren't a scientist or a chemist ;-)
 
Adding oxygen to THC in atmospheric amounts will oxidize a small amount of compound, which in this case means you are reacting the oxygen with the double bonds in the molecule, and this will likely wreck it as there is no easy way of going back from this. At higher amounts of oxygen, this "oxidation" rate increases. The other complication is that the oxygen will probably react with different double bonds at different rates so that you will not just get one compound but various percentages of 3-4 different compounds (given THC's benzene ring and double bond). Chemists usually don't like getting various compounds because you can't single out the "good one" among the "bad ones" without some major chemical wizardry, so most chemists will only add raw gasses to compounds that have blatantly electropositive molecules they know will produce only one compound; THC is not like that. Finally, adding an "inert gas" like Neon, Argon, Krypton, or preferably Nitrogen (which is not noble, but in its N2 form is relatively inert) due to its much lower cost, will do nothing to the molecule, but some food packagers use nitrogen precisely for its inertness as it displaces oxygen while packing and thus retards spoilage and maintains freshness.
 
When you smoke MJ, you are directly oxidizing it. IE adding oxygen to it. Thats how combustion works. So i don't believe you could "add" oxygen to it and still keep it the same chemical.

I have to ask what you mean by "adding" an element to it. Do you mean that the element bonds and creates another substance? Or do you mean that the elements just diffuses throughout the material without bonding or combusting or anything? (Like a sponge soaking up water)
 
hey, I'm talking about stuff i have no clue about and i thank you guys for the responses

i stumbled upon this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabis

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...bans-fake-pot-products-that-emulate-marijuana

looks like someone is kind of doing this, but of course the dea and whoever else won't allow this to fly...

was just curious, always been interested in the "synthesis" of stuff from other stuff,

i'm in over my head cause i have no basic understanding of chemistry, just learning as we go
 
Black Hole said:
can you add a oxygen molecule to (...) without screwing it up?

Take a good, old ethanol that people consume legally for recreational reasons. Add a single oxygen atom to it - and you end with ethylene glycol, syrupy, toxic liquid used as an antifreeze.

It is not always this way - in some cases effect of modifying the molecule is not that large. But it is always possible.