Why do people tout a "tan" color - or any color other than white - whenever they list MDMA? Being forthright is certainly appreciated, but why isn't this product being edged-out competitively by purer MDMA with sparkly white crystals?
Academically speaking, off-colored MDMA can be purified using OTC reagents. The steps would be roughly:
- Recrystallize from boiling 99% IPA
- Filter fresh product
- Wash with cold, anhydrous acetone
- Vac.-filter dry
Loss in weight: ~8-15%, but that was never product in the first place! If you're going to cut the product, use a safe, non-neuro-toxic cut. Or... don't be a greedy dickwad & cut the product. Pure product will keep peeps coming back & leads to more profit in the long run anyways, if that's your m.o.
MDMA impurity byproducts from clandestine labs are potentially quite toxic. These can come from:
- OTC reagents
- Poor lab techniques & strategy
- Miscalculated reaction amounts
- Makeshift (or missing) lab equipment
- Sloppy/lazy/unused/misunderstood purification methods & efforts
- And a host of other batshit-crazy & unscrupulous things our governments allow to occur by choosing to criminalize, instead of regulate, the recreational drug market
I hate to quote bluelight.org, but I was looking for an older report I had read years ago on The Hive (former Bee here) about MDMA impurities formed from clandestine manufacturing, and came across this gem:
A major health concern with any illicit production of MDMA is in the final step of reductive amination. If any of the allyl starting material or its propylene isomer are present during this stage, these will be reduced but not aminated, and a very toxic, probably carcinogenic, chemical will result i.e. 1,2-(methylenedioxy)-4-propylbenzene. While its possible to remove this, one wonders how much time the typical crook-cook would spend on it, as some product will always be lost with any purification. The often mentioned sassy or aniseed [sic] odour of pills, which is frequently interpreted to mean a "good" pill, should in fact be seen as a warning that the starting material may have been present during the (RA) step.
Also if the product smells fishy, this could indicate residual methylamine (formaldehyde + ammonia reax. smells like rotting deathburgers), a closely related impurity, or even an impurity formed during the methylamine production that is later introduced.
But moreover, do a little Pepsi challenge next time you acquire a good quantity of MDMA -- take some of it & clean it up with coffee filters, mason jars, & 99% isopropyl alcohol (search DuckDuckGo for that shit). Or just get some pure product. Then take it and you will FOR SURE know the difference. The aforementioned Hive thread had something about the pharmacological effects of amphetamine impurities actually having the reverse qualitative effect on people during the studies... Res ipsa loquitur.
I think tan MDMA is perceived as less likely to be methylone or some other RC.