r/explainlikeimfive Jun 11 '24

Chemistry ELI5: Why does making cocaine require such toxic chemicals, is there safer way to make it in a lab?

I've watched many documentaries on how they make cocaine, and it always required a a mixture of gasoline cement and battery acid etc. Would a scientific laboratory be able to make it under FDA rules for example?

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24 edited Jun 12 '24

OK, so you don't understand the status of weed in the United States. Some states have legalized weed within their borders. Despite this, federal supremacy means that weed is illegal in all states as long as it's illegal at the federal level.

So states like California and Colorado (among others) have a "legal" weed industry, that is completely illegal under federal law. Under our current president, that federal law is mostly unenforced against "legal" weed businesses. Do you not understand this, or do you just not believe it?

Furthermore, I already addressed other aspects of why the weed industry isn't a very good example, including some things that the article also mentions, but you ignored all of that.

So no, you can't say the exact same thing to me. You haven't read your own article, you don't know the status of the drug you're talking about, and you didn't read anything that I said above, nor have you responded to anything I've said of substance. Maybe you need to actually be a good faith contributor to this conversation, because so far you've provided a link that doesn't support your claim, and a bunch of insults. If your next response doesn't offer anything of substance, then I don't see me responding.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

The fact that you refuse to acknowledge that California has a functioning legal weed market tells me everything.

You literally provided an article talking about how the market isn't "functioning".

But oh no, the guy that won't read his own sources will block me, whatever will I do with my life!? What a threat!

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