I've been thinking recently about trying to expand the scope of one of my projects, a move that would require me to synthesize a compound or two structurally related to cocaine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the easiest starting point for these types of substances is cocaine itself, which can be purchased from all your favorite multinational chemical companies.
There's only one problem - cocaine is expensive. I can buy a gram of it for $196 from Aldrich, which is way above the two dollar a gram limit the boss likes us to stick to. So I couldn't help but wonder if it would be cheaper for me to buy it from a less... conventional source.
Of course, the problem with trying to determine what would be cheapest is twofold. Not only do I not know any cocaine dealers, but the very nature of the black market for drugs makes it pretty difficult to determine what an "average" price for a gram of cocaine might be. Fortunately, the UN has already seen fit to research that very issue, so I can just use their numbers.
The cheapest option for cocaine purchase from Aldrich comes to $136.50 per gram (for the hydrochloride salt - freebasing will cost you double). According to the UN, the "typical" price for cocaine on the street is about $110 per gram. Not too shabby, Aldrich. I'm more than happy to pay the extra $30 for quality control.
As for other drugs?
Aldrich is significantly cheaper for methamphetamine hydrochloride. At $14.78 per gram, it's a bargain over the street product, costing $160 per gram for 73% pure material.
If you want Ecstacy (MDMA), however, you're much better off going to the street. Street prices for that were reported at $25 a tablet, which could contain up to 100 milligrams of active compound . Purity is a big problem, but if you want the straight stuff from Aldrich, you'd better be prepared to pay for it - $277.50 for 50 milligrams, or $5,550 for a gram. Even more expensive is the chirally pure MDMA, which racks up to an astounding $33,760 per gram.
Of course, this is all moot anyway, because I doubt the terms of my grant allow for such "unconventional" uses of government money.
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4 comments:
you should pick up a B-2 stealth bomber, they only run $3.08 per gram.
Wow, what a bargain! That's close enough to the limit that I wouldn't even have to run it by the boss...
That's always been a curiosity of mine -- where does one buy cocaine? Gareth and I talked alot about this in London. What if your life (or the life of a loved one) depended on it -- perhaps they were being held by sa mad man. You couldn't notify police, but you needed a bag of cocaine. Where the hell do you get it? Unless I am in Washington D.C., I would have no idea. Washington's easy, they sell it outside the FBI Building at night.
Yeah, it isn't like there's a number you can call. And I'll be damned if I'm going to go walk around the sketchy part of town yelling "I NEED TO BUY COCAINE!"
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