Shulgin

METHOD 4 This is a P2P recipe that Strike has no hand in. Strike never even knew about it until Strike saw everybody talking about it on the net. But it seems to be extremely popular. Shulgin has written about it. Uncle Fester, Strike understands, has written about it. And there seems to be a lot of posts regarding its high success rates. Most people get started from the method description in the patent literature where they were first published. The following are some representative examples from the U.S. Patent 4,638,094 Process for Producing Phenylacetones ... 

This really crazy looking method is one of them. There are a lot of things about it that make it very attractive. The first is the author of the article Rajender S. Varma. You will see in the Nitropropene section of this book (and in references from many other parts of the book) that this guy has been making a lot of strangely applicable advances in catalysis, amination, and reduction of amphetamines and related compounds. It is uncanny how often Strike has come across this person s work. It is like he is the Shulgin of basic precursor and amphetamine progress. Go figure ... 

This procedure has been performed in a variety of ways [28 p714, 38-42] with variations in solvent, base and time of reaction. For piperonal conversion, the consensus is toward the use of acetic acid as the solvent, ammonium acetate as the base and 4 hours of reflux time. Dr. Alexander Shulgin, a giant in this field, prefers the use of cyclohexylamine as the base. Strike would not tend to doubt this man s choice, especially since Strike is also getting the... 

In Pihkal, Alexander Shulgin mentions that the preparation of MDP-nitropropene can be carried out in cold methanol with aqueous sodium hydroxide as the base. In fact, this method is even more reliable, and gives higher yields than the other method advocated by the dear doctor in his book. 

This will work just as well in converting benzaldehyde to pro-penylbenzene as it will in converting piperonal. This is like the millionth method Strike has pulled from the reference 19. This was the most street-applicable article Strike has ever come across, but the greatest thing about this article s recipes is that THEY WORK Strike means to say they work big time A lot of this has to do, no doubt, with the fact that the most accomplished amphetamine chemists co-authored the work Drs. Shulgin and Nichols. 

Shulgin, A.T., Shulgin, A., "Pihkal, A Chemical Love Story",... 

Trimethoxyamphetamine (TMA) causes perceptual distortions, LSD-like synesthesias, and dissociative states. At high doses, it may produce unprovoked anger, aggressive behavior, and homicidal violence (Shulgin 1978). 

Shulgin AT Hallucinogens, in Burger s Medicinal Chemistry, 4th Edition, Part 3. Edited by Wolff ME. New York, Wiley, 1981, pp 1109-1137 Shulgin AT Psychotomimetic drugs structure-activity relationships, in Handbook of Psychopharmacology, Vol 11. Edited by Iversen LD, Iversen SD, Snyder SH. New York, Plenum, 1978, pp 243-336... 

A variety of side-chain modified analogs of MDMA and MBDB have begun to be examined. Very early studies were of the a,a-dimethyl analog, 3,4-methylenedioxyphentermine (figure 8a) and its N-methyl derivative (figure 10). This latter compound proved to lack MDMA-like activity (Shulgin, unpublished). Interestingly, this compound also lacked the ability to stimulate the release of [ H] serotonin from prelabeled rat brain synaptosomes (Nichols et al. 1982). 

ANSWER When we decided to make MBDB we felt the alpha-ethyl would attenuate hallucinogenic activity. Dr. Shulgin made that compound because he was looking at things that had a stimulant effect. He had made it but had not evaluated it at effective doses. After a discussion, he evaluated it in the group of people that worked with him. 

In the drug discrimination assay we get symmetrical transfer. They seem to be the same. And the consensus, at least from Dr. Shulgin s group, is that it generally has the same kind of effect. Obviously it has not become a problem on the street. And I think if it was a very desirable compound we might well have heard something about it. 

Braun, U. Shulgin, A.T. and Braun, G. Centrally active N-substituted analogs of 3,4-methylenedioxyphenylisopropylamine (3,4-methylenedioxy-amphetamine). J Pharm Sci 69 192-195, 1980. 

Standridge, R.T. Howell, H.G. Gylys, J.A. Partyka, R.A. and Shulgin, A.T. Phenylalkylamines with potential psychotherapeutic utility. 

Recent controversy about the recreational abuse and potential therapeutic use of designer drugs has focused attention on MDA (methylenedioxyampheta-mine HCl) and structurally related phenylisopropylamine compounds, including MDMA istructural analogs of the psychomotor stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, and produce stimulant and/or hallucinogenic effects (Shulgin 1978). 

In humans, MDA and MDMA have been reported to produce positive mood changes, enhanced emotional awareness, and improved interpersonal communication (Greer and Tolbert 1986 Downing 1986 Shulgin 1986 Peroutka et al. 1988). Because of these psychotropic effects, MDA and MDMA have been used in psychotherapeutic situations (Naranjo et al. 1967 Yensen et al. 1976 Grinspoon and Bakalar 1986). In addition, presumably because of the same positive subjective effects, recreational use of MDMA on college campuses has increased in recent years (Peroutka et al. 1988). 

Shulgin, A.T. The background and chemistry of MDMA. J Psychoactive Drugs 18 191-205, 1986. 

Substituents on the aromatic ring play a critical role in determining whether or not phenalkylamines possess DOM-like activity. Hallucinogenic activity is commonly associated with methoxy-substituted derivatives (Shulgin 1978) for this reason, much of this work has focused on these types of agents. 

Shulgin, A.T. Psychotomimetic drugs Structure-activity relationships. In Iversen, L.L. Iversen, S.D. and Snyder, S.H., eds. Handbook of Psychopharmacology. Vol. 11. New York Plenum, 1978. pp. 243-333. Shulgin, A.T., and Carter, MF. Centrally active phenethylamines. 

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