Anyway, the other day I stumbled onto a fascinating thread about an alkaloid called thebaine, and I was reminded of how criminalization creates a very powerful incentive for users (and dealers) to always look for stronger and more concentrated versions of whatever is being prohibited. I don't know the site but it appears to be patronized by junkie types (and, most likely DEA rat types, who may even run the site, a la Emmanuel Goldstein). They were carrying on about a substance I'd never heard of before called "etorphine" -- and speculating about possible ways to make it from thebaine. Thebaine is not a narcotic drug, but a weird alkaloid which no one would ever take to get high, because its effects are similar to strychnine. However, it is found in most poppy plant species to varying degrees, and it is an immediate precursor to the notorious Oxycontin and other strong narcotics. It is what the drug companies use as the primary ingredient in the manufacture of many semi-synthetic opiod drugs. Interestingly, thebaine does not have to come from the opium poppy (several other poppy species are even better sources), so the drug companies can bypass the security issues typically associated with opium growing and obtain only thebaine, doing the chemical reprocessing later in their factories.
Naturally, these drug enthusiasts were drooling over the possibility of making etorphine. The stuff is so strong it is almost unbelievable:
Etorphine (Immobilon or M99) is a semi-synthetic opioid possessing an analgesicmorphine.[1] It was first prepared in 1960 from oripavine, which does not generally occur in opium poppy extract but rather in "poppy straw" and in related plants, Papaver orientale and Papaver bracteatum.[2] It was later reproduced in 1963 by a research group at Macfarlan-Smith and Co. in Edinburgh, led by Professor Kenneth Bentley.[3] It can also be produced from thebaine. Etorphine is often used to immobilize elephants and other large mammals. Etorphine is available legally only for veterinary use and is strictly governed by law. Diprenorphine[4] potency approximately 1,000-3,000 times that of (M5050), also known as Revivon, is an opioid receptor antagonist that can be administered in proportion to the amount of etorphine used (1.3 times) to reverse its effects. Veterinary-strength etorphine is fatal to humans; one drop on the skin can cause death within a few minutes.
Amazing. I read that the chemists who discovered it learned the hard way how dangerous it was when a test tube broke, spilling a bit of it on their skin and sending them directly into a comatose state which would have been fatal had they not been rescued.
Naturally, stuff like that is a drug dealer's dream, and the DEA's worst nightmare. Or is it? Might the DEA love doing battle against ever stronger, ever more deadly drugs?
So, as I remarked to my co-blogger M. Simon earlier, newer and stronger drugs in turn create a demand for newer and stronger laws! Good for the drug dealers and good for the DEA.
A win-win!
Simon informed me that Richard Cowan wrote a "law" called the Iron Law of Prohibition:
"the more intense the law enforcement, the more potent the prohibited substance becomes."I had not heard of that law by name, but it never ceases to amaze me how Prohibition fuels itself.
