The main thing about P2P meth is that there’s so much of it (2021)

关于P2P冰毒，最主要的问题是它的产量实在太大了（2021）

dynomight · updated Aug 2022 · science policy dynomight · 更新于2022年8月 · 科学政策

Sam Quinones was recently on Econtalk and in the Atlantic talking about methamphetamines and homelessness. He points out that “old” meth was made from ephedrine and that “new” meth is made from a chemical called Phenylacetone or P2P. He suggests that new meth might be chemically different in a way that caused people to go crazy, starting around 2017: 山姆·奎诺内斯（Sam Quinones）最近在《Econtalk》节目和《大西洋月刊》上谈论了冰毒（甲基苯丙胺）与无家可归者的问题。他指出，“旧”冰毒是由麻黄碱制成的，而“新”冰毒则是由一种名为苯基丙酮（P2P）的化学物质制成的。他认为，新冰毒在化学成分上可能存在差异，导致人们从2017年左右开始出现精神错乱：

Ephedrine meth was like a party drug. […] You could normally kind of more or less hang onto your life. You had a house, you had a job. […] P2P meth was nothing like that. It was a very sinister drug. It brought you inside. You didn’t want to be around other people. You wanted to just kind of be alone with whatever bizarre thoughts your mind was now cooking up, and conspiracies. “麻黄碱冰毒就像一种派对药物。[……] 你通常还能勉强维持正常生活。你有房子，有工作。[……] P2P冰毒则完全不同。它是一种非常邪恶的毒品。它让你变得封闭。你不想和别人在一起。你只想独自一人，沉浸在脑海中编造的各种离奇想法和阴谋论里。”

I was curious about this. What do we know about the difference between old meth and P2P meth? What evidence is there that these have a chemical difference? 我对这一点感到好奇。关于旧冰毒和P2P冰毒之间的区别，我们了解多少？有什么证据表明它们在化学上存在差异？

Meth in the US shifted to P2P synthesis between 2009 and 2012. In the before times, meth was made with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. However, in 2006, the US banned over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine, and in 2008 Mexico banned almost all sales. In response to this, meth makers switched to a synthesis based on P2P, which can be made from many different, widely available, source chemicals. 美国的冰毒生产在2009年至2012年间转向了P2P合成法。在此之前，冰毒是用麻黄碱或伪麻黄碱制造的。然而，2006年美国禁止了伪麻黄碱的非处方销售，2008年墨西哥也几乎禁止了所有此类销售。作为应对，冰毒制造者转向了基于P2P的合成法，而P2P可以由多种广泛可得的原料化学品制成。

The Drug Enforcement Agency tests the meth they seize to see how it was made. Here’s their data starting in 2009, where you can see that P2P synthesis (in red) rapidly displaces the older ephedrine-based synthesis (in blue). 美国缉毒局（DEA）会对查获的冰毒进行检测，以确定其制造方式。以下是他们自2009年以来的数据，你可以看到P2P合成法（红色）迅速取代了旧的麻黄碱合成法（蓝色）。

How could P2P meth be different? There are two ways: Either it could be a different type of meth, or the meth could be contaminated with some other chemicals. Let’s talk about different types of meth first. P2P冰毒有何不同？有两种可能：要么是冰毒的类型不同，要么是冰毒中混入了其他化学杂质。我们先来谈谈不同类型的冰毒。

Isomers

同分异构体

A naive P2P synthesis would produce an even mixture of l-meth and d-meth. For many complex molecules, you can take the atoms, and “flip” them to get another stable version of the same molecule, called an isomer or (more specifically) an enantiomer. These different versions of the molecule can have very different effects on the body. 原始的P2P合成法会产生左旋甲基苯丙胺（l-meth）和右旋甲基苯丙胺（d-meth）的等量混合物。对于许多复杂分子，你可以将原子“翻转”以获得同一分子的另一种稳定版本，称为同分异构体，或者更具体地称为对映异构体。这些不同版本的分子对人体的影响可能截然不同。

Methamphetamine happens to be one of those molecules. The one that produces the effects we call “meth” is d-methamphetamine (d-meth). That’s the one that increases dopamine in the brain, causing euphoria. (It’s also the one that is sold at pharmacies in the US to treat ADHD and obesity.) On the other hand, l-methamphetamine (l-meth) has no effects on dopamine and presumably isn’t nearly as much fun. 甲基苯丙胺恰好就是这类分子之一。产生我们所说的“冰毒”效应的是右旋甲基苯丙胺（d-meth）。它能增加大脑中的多巴胺，引起欣快感。（这也是美国药店出售用于治疗多动症和肥胖症的药物成分。）另一方面，左旋甲基苯丙胺（l-meth）对多巴胺没有影响，想必也不会带来多少快感。

Anyway, a synthesis that turns P2P into meth will create an equal mixture of d-meth and l-meth, basically because atoms bouncing around randomly are equally likely to end up in either of two equally low-energy configurations. Older synthesis methods using ephedrine would create only d-meth. 总之，将P2P转化为冰毒的合成过程会产生d-meth和l-meth的等量混合物，这主要是因为原子在随机碰撞时，同样有概率进入两种能量相等的稳定构型中的任意一种。而使用麻黄碱的旧合成方法只会产生d-meth。

P2P initially had a fair amount of l-meth, but it was almost all gone by 2019. Here’s data from the DEA again, where “potency” is the percentage of d-meth among all meth. This data is assembled from the National Drug Threat reports from many different years: P2P冰毒最初含有相当比例的l-meth，但到2019年几乎消失殆尽。再次引用DEA的数据，“效力”（potency）是指d-meth在所有冰毒成分中的占比。这些数据汇总自多年来的《国家毒品威胁报告》：

Be careful here: Take a sample of meth that’s ¼ d-meth, ¼ l-meth, and ½ other impurities. This would count as 50% potent because 50% of the meth is d-meth. (Other impurities are accounted for with “purity” below.) The dip in 2014 might be explained by the introduction of a new synthesis method (NTS), which we’ll talk about below. 这里需要注意：假设一份冰毒样本中含有1/4的d-meth、1/4的l-meth和1/2的其他杂质。这会被计为50%的效力，因为冰毒成分中50%是d-meth。（其他杂质将在下文的“纯度”中说明。）2014年的数据下滑可能可以用一种新的合成方法（NTS）的引入来解释，我们将在下文讨论。

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any data going back further to before when P2P meth was introduced. It’s likely that d-meth was higher before P2P synthesis become popular, though this paper analyzes meth in Australia and finds that, for some reason, ephedrine-based meth often has fair amounts of l-meth, too. L-meth is in various easy-to-obtain drugs. Vick’s VapoInhalers contain 50mg of l-meth, which they spell in an unusual way probably to reduce the number of people who notice what’s in there and freak out. L-meth is also produced as a metabolite of Selegiline, a drug for Parkinson’s and depression. 遗憾的是，我似乎找不到P2P冰毒引入之前的更早数据。在P2P合成法普及之前，d-meth的比例很可能更高，尽管有一篇分析澳大利亚冰毒的论文发现，出于某种原因，基于麻黄碱的冰毒也经常含有相当数量的l-meth。l-meth存在于各种易于获得的药物中。Vick’s鼻吸入剂含有50毫克的l-meth，他们用一种不寻常的方式拼写它，可能是为了减少人们注意到其中的成分并感到惊慌。l-meth也是司来吉兰（Selegiline，一种治疗帕金森病和抑郁症的药物）的代谢产物。

Contaminants

杂质

The purity of meth is now higher than ever. The DEA has tracked purity in meth that they have seized for a long time. They define purity to be the percentage of meth (d or l) amongst all chemicals in the sample. Here’s a plot of all the data I could find: 冰毒的纯度现在比以往任何时候都高。DEA长期以来一直追踪其查获的冰毒纯度。他们将纯度定义为样本中所有化学物质里冰毒（d或l）的百分比。以下是我能找到的所有数据的图表：

Now, the terms “purity” and “potency” as used by the DEA are a bit confusing. A consumer of meth probably cares about the percentage of d-meth amongst all chemicals in the sample. You get this by multiplying the purity and potency: 现在，DEA使用的“纯度”和“效力”这两个术语有点令人困惑。冰毒消费者可能更关心样本中所有化学物质里d-meth的百分比。你可以通过将纯度和效力相乘得出这个数值：

Modern street meth is higher quality than ever, around 95% d-meth on average. There are many ways to make P2P meth. Here’s a figure that shows how P2P might be produced from source chemicals, simplified from this paper: 现代街头冰毒的质量比以往任何时候都高，平均含有约95%的d-meth。制造P2P冰毒的方法有很多。以下是一张图表，展示了如何从原料化学品中生产P2P，简化自这篇论文：

This shows two routes to make P2P. The top route uses benzaldehyde and nitroethane to produce nitrostyrene (NTS), which is then made into P2P. The bottom route uses ethyl phenylacetate (EtPA) to make phenylacetic acid (PAA), which is again made into P2P. Note that lead acetate (which has been raised as a concern) is only used in the PAA synthesis route. 这展示了制造P2P的两种途径。上方的途径使用苯甲醛和硝基乙烷生产硝基苯乙烯（NTS），然后再转化为P2P。下方的途径使用苯乙酸乙酯（EtPA）制造苯乙酸（PAA），再转化为P2P。请注意，醋酸铅（已被列为关注点）仅用于PAA合成途径。

Synthesis methods for P2P meth have changed repeatedly. This paper by DEA scientists goes over the profiling of different types of P2P meth. Here’s the history, as far as I can make out: Starting around 2009, people used EtPA to make PAA. Around 2014, there was a shift towards using the NTS synthesis. Around 2018, there was a shift back towards using PAA. (It’s not clear if this PAA was sourced directly, or made from EtPA or what.) P2P冰毒的合成方法反复更迭。这篇由DEA科学家撰写的论文概述了不同类型P2P冰毒的特征分析。据我所知，其历史如下：从2009年左右开始，人们使用EtPA制造PAA。2014年左右，转向使用NTS合成法。2018年左右，又转回使用PAA。（目前尚不清楚这些PAA是直接采购的，还是由EtPA制造的，或其他来源。）

It’s much messier than this implies: The transitions were gradual, and the DEA finds a fair number of “unknown” samples each year that they can’t classify. On top of these different methods to make P2P, there are different methods to convert P2P into meth, and these have probably changed over time as well. The DEA seems to attribute most impurities to the P2P production step. However, they seem more interested in the meth supply chain than how impurities might affect the health. 情况比这要复杂得多：这种转变是渐进的，DEA每年都会发现相当数量无法分类的“未知”样本。除了这些制造P2P的不同方法外，还有将P2P转化为冰毒的不同方法，这些方法可能也随时间发生了变化。DEA似乎将大部分杂质归因于P2P生产步骤。然而，他们似乎对冰毒供应链的兴趣远大于杂质如何影响健康。