Amfetamin FAQ - Vanliga frågor och svar

Sometimes amphetamines are sold as a pasty or waxy substance. There are a few reasons this can happen; a common misconception is that pasty or damp amphetamine samples are 'stronger' than dry powder. Damp of pasty speed can result from leaving it out in the open, especially in a moisture rich environment, because certain chemicals absorb water from the air (explained below). Moreover, if all of the freebase is not properly reacted when converting to salt, the oil will cling to the crystals causing them to stick together in waxy clumps. Neither of these things makes the end-product any more potent than the dry salt (although freebase is more potent by weight than the salt form).

Chemically speaking, amphetamines are generally either a freebase or a salt. The term 'freebase' is widely misused in regards to amphetamines; used correctly, freebase refers to the drug in its natural (pure) form. Since amphetamines are amines, and amines are bases, the pure form is called the freebase because it is the base free of any other functional groups. Freebases tend to be oily liquids at room temperature and pressure, and are often quite volatile (i.e., they evaporate easily). As a consequence, the freebase form is generally preferable for smoking; however, freebase oils are also more difficult to store and measuring accurate doses can be problematic. For this reason the freebase is almost always converted to a salt.

The salt form is more common on the street, and is made by performing an acid/base extraction of the freebase, where the type of salt produced depends on the acid used. With most drugs, hydrochloric acid (HCl) is used, which produces HCl salt. However in the case of amphetamines, the HCl salt is not particularly suitable because it absorbs moisture from the air quickly (i.e., amphetamine HCl is 'hygroscopic'). For this reason the sulphate salt is preferable to the hydrochloride salt; as a consequence, most 'street speed' is amphetamine sulphate. In the case of methamphetamine, the HCl salt is far more common, because it forms better crystals and the sulphate is not suitable for smoking.