r/DrugNerds • u/pkstrl0rd • Aug 16 '26
Several important Cathinone and Amphetamine precursors to be banned EU wide by 18th of September
Several important drug precursors for Cathinones and Amphetamine are being banned in the Eu on 18th September. Most of these were already controlled in some countries, but they were widely available to buy in bulk in select EU countries for easy synthesis.
I'm going to paste some excerpts from the EU document talking about the ban of these precursors. Basically the most important precursors for several cathinones and amphetamine that enabled easy synthesis using scalable methods are being banned AS OF THE 18th OF SEPTEMBER.
I'm going to guess the cathinones including 4-MMC will almost interely disappear from the European drug market. Looks like Amphetamine will also be badly hit as P2NP will be banned and that is the only synthesis I know and afaik everyone used that.
Quote:
National competent authorities indicated an increase in seizures of the following nine non-scheduled substances:
(i) 3'-chloropropiophenone;
(ii) 2-bromo-3'-chloropropiophenone;
(iii) 3'-methylpropiophenone;
(iv) 2-bromo-3'-methylpropiophenone
(v) 4'-methylpropiophenone;
(vi) 2-bromo-4'-methylpropiophenone;
(vii) 4'-chloropropiophenone;
(viii) 2-bromo-4'-chloropropiophenone; and
(ix) phenyl-2-nitropropene.
(3)
3'-Chloropropiophenone and 2-bromo-3'-chloropropiophenone are precursors of 3-cloromethcathinone or clophedrone (3-CMC). 3'-Methylpropiophenone and 2-bromo-3'-methylpropiophenone are precursors of 3-methylmethcathinone (3-MMC).
4'-Methylpropiophenone and 2-bromo-4'-methylpropiophenone are precursors of mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone or 4-MMC). 4'-Chloropropiophenone and 2-bromo-4'-chloropropiophenone are precursors of 4-CMC (clephedrone or 4- chloromethcathinone).
Phenyl-2-nitropropene is a precursor of amphetamine.
EDIT:
Use of P2NP was especially popular in smaller scale clandestine operations (especially in Eastern Europe) due to the simplicity of the nitrostyrene route.
I think people also used it in connection with the Leuckart method, creating P2P using P2NP by reducing and hydrolysing it since P2P has been a schdule 1 drug precursor for s long time.
BMK glycidic acid and its derivatives were also recently scheduled making large scale amphetamine synthesis much harder.
Sources:
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u/IfDreamsCouldHappen Aug 16 '26
Wondering how this will impact bupropion manufacturing considering that 3-chloro-propiophenone is used as its precursor.
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u/Backinthedaze Aug 17 '26
Probably nearly nil, as the API is coming from China and/or India, even if the actual finished product is being assembled somewhere in the EU.
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u/Longjumping-Rope-237 Aug 19 '26
Bupropion is legal substance, all above drugs are illegal. Plus nobody in eu is producing bupropion. Is all produced in Asia
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u/rpkarma Aug 16 '26
This will hit the 3/4-mmc supply hard. A shame too, they’re fun and unique, already went away once
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u/TrumpetingEcstacy Aug 16 '26
Can't you synth 4-mmc from toluene?
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u/rpkarma Aug 16 '26
You can synth it via many routes, but the simple precursor routes that exist(ed) are much better at scale which is what matters for widespread supply
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u/Kalki_X Aug 16 '26
Looks like Amphetamine will also be badly hit as P2NP will be banned and that is the only synthesis I know and afaik everyone used that.
There are many other routes.
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u/Backinthedaze Aug 17 '26
So many other routes. Same with the cathinones. People who are just following step by step recipes with "precursor kits" might have trouble, but any sort of proper chemical lab, that can source bulk chemicals and has someone with some training at their helm shouldn't have any issue. The market will rebound.
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 16 '26
That is good to know. What percentage of clandestinely synthesized Amphetamine would you estimate was created using P2NP?
From what I have heard and read I'd say that in smaller scale clandestine operations (especially in Eastern Europe) use of P2NP was very widespread due to the simplicity of the nitrostyrene route.
I think people also used it in connection with the Leuckart method, creating P2P using P2NP by reducing and hydrolysing it since P2P has been a schdule 1 drug precursor for s long time.
BMK glycidic acid and its derivatives were also recently scheduled making large scale amphetamine synthesis much harder.
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u/Longjumping-Rope-237 Aug 19 '26
Amph is mainly produced in Benelux. In Eastern Europe is meth main shit.
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u/AdRadiant2115 Aug 18 '26
P2np isnt the main precursor for amphetamine. P2p is used for amphetamine as well as methamphetamine just dont need methylamine to make L amphetamine
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u/AstroPhysician Aug 17 '26
Is it possible to purchase precursors outside of eu? Anyone know the logistics currently of how much realistic impact this would have?
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 17 '26
A lot of the precursors have been made in China, but starting November 1st the PID (Product identifier) law will come into effect. It will make it much harder to import any regulated or illegal products from outside of the EU.
Starting November 1st B2C (Business to consumer) e-commerce imports must include specific Product Identifiers (PIDs) in customs declarations to improve supply chain safety and traceability.
Up to three identifiers will be required and general descriptions of products will no longer be accepted.
Merchant Product Identifier (M-PID): The unique SKU or item code assigned by the online seller.
Non-Standardised Manufacturer PID (NS-PID): The internal or specific part number provided by the item's manufacturer.
Standardised Product Identifier (S-PID): A globally recognized barcode or standard like an EAN or ISBN, if applicable.
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u/dontbend Aug 21 '26
What will these PID's change? Won't they just lead to another description?
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 21 '26
The EU has designed PIDs to enforce systematic tracking. Under the new mandate, if a single package is flagged for carrying hazardous ingredients or counterfeit trademarks, customs authorities can instantly run its product identifier through the central system to automatically flag and block every other incoming shipment sharing that exact ID across all 27 EU member states
Importers can no longer use vague descriptions (e.g., "plastic toy" or "cosmetic cream") to sneak illicit items past border controls. To clear customs, a declaration must link the product to a multi-tiered identity structure consisting of:
Merchant Product Identifier (M-PID): Links the item to the specific store or online marketplace offering it.
Non-Standardised Manufacturer PID (NS-PID): Traces the item directly back to the physical facility that created it.
Standardised PID (S-PID): Uses globally recognized tracking standards like EAN, UPC, or ISBN barcodes where applicable
Any missing, mismatched or incomplete identifiers will lead to the package being automatically rejected.
AI systems will be used to flag suspicious packages using previous data.
PID also ends the Anonimity of E-commerce packages from outside the EU since all packages are linked to the merchant and they are legally responsible for any goods that don't meet safety regulations or are otherwise non-compliant or illegal.
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u/dontbend Aug 21 '26
Damn that's huge. Maybe they could use a different NS-PID for every package? How do you trace a package of coca powder to its manufacturer anyway? A huge blow in any case.
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 21 '26
Yeah, it will make it even harder for small businesses to adhere to these rules. The new EU packaging rules already led to thousands of vendors pulling their listings from AliExpress and Temu for all EU customers.
Shit really sucks. I kind of understand the EU from an Economic and safety point of view as so much is lost to Chinese vendors that don't respect intellectual property and dangerous chemicals are found in many goods. Still, in many cases the pricing is too good to pass items even in cases where I know there can be a safety hazard or the product is clearly a replica or straight up illegal.
With all these new policies EU is becoming a nanny state extremely fast:
Chatcontrol 1.0 : LETS companies keep track of users messages and files on messaging apps on a voluntary basis.
Chatcontrol 2.0(Not yet approved): FORCES every company operating in EU to keep track of these messages and files and potentially automatically flag content based on keywords and files based on their hashes.
PID (1st of Nov): Comprehensively allows for extremely accurate tracking of all packages from outside the EU and sharing of information between states to stop or illegal or non-compliant goods entering.
Upcoming new drug precursor controls: The European Union's upcoming drug precursor overhaul relies on a new unified regulation proposed by the European Commission to aggressively restrict designer precursors and accelerate bans on shifting chemical classes in the whole EU. It will ban complete classes of chemicals instead of specific ones, allowing for blanket bans.
EU Digital Identity Wallet and age restrictions on websites and social media networks (Dec 31st): The European Union is rolling out an age verification app and the European Digital Identity Wallets by the end of 2026. This will be used to verify users ages on all Social media sites and apps as well as some websites containing age-appropiate content.
The goal is supposedly to built a privacy focused application that only returns a yes or no answer when a website or an app queries for a users age, but currently no such thing has been implemented. In my opinion the responsibility of monitoring children's internet use should be the parents' responsibility. There are a wide variety of options available for parents to monitor and restrict their child's apps, messages, websites accessed and location among other things. Many just aren't aware of this, don't know how to do it or simply don't care. Age restriction laws will essentially ban under 13 year olds from all social media platforms and most communities on the internet. 13 to 16 and 16 to 18 year olds will also have certain restrictions placed on them by apps and websites such as disallowing direct messages.
Many private companies that provide age verification specifically keep all of your information and tie it to your account, making identifying you extremely trivial. They can also sell this information forward. Companies that have such information are often targeted by both private and state backed hackers and several have had data breached leading to people's IDs being stolen by cyber criminals.
The real goal is most likely to completely bread the pseydoanonymity that internet still has and to tie all accounts to real identities to collect data and enforce laws on what people write, share and buy on the internet.
The internet is becoming a dystopian nightmare like the rest of the world. Oh how I miss the days when this place was like the wild west!
To continue browsing with some freedom I sugges looking into anonymous networks like TOR, I2P and Hyphanet (Previously Freenet).
Everyone should also have a No-logs VPN like Mullvad and ideally Residental proxies like the ones from Shifter.io, Dataimpulse or IPRoyal (Properties vary a lot depending on what use case you are looking for).
For payments one can use privacy focused cruptocurrencies like Monero (XMR).
For operating systems there are Tails OS, Whonix, Tubes OS, Pure OS for desktop and Graphene OS, Calyx OS, /e/OS for mobile. At a bare minimum you can get an experience that is very similar to normal Android rooms using LineageOS with additional privacy focused modifications, applications and properly configured settings. You will still lose some protections you would have on other operating systems.
To have a good browsing experience while staying safe and private you should consider using a browser like Librewolf, Mullvad browser or if you absolutely need a Chromium based one you can use Brave. Without configuring the settings properly and using other methods like Ad-blocking and a VPN in most cases you won't have a totally private browsing session.
On windows especially I recommend using a 3rd party disk encryption tool like Veracrypt.
For messaging apps there are many with varying privacy levels such as Session, Threema, SimpleX Chat, Briar, Cwtch and Signal. Note that Telegram doesn't even have end-to-end encryption by default so it's not very private despite what many think. It's mostly popular because it allows large group chats and many migrated there when moderation was very lax. Telegram is operated from Dubai, registered in the British Virgin Islands and its' founders are originally from St.Petersburg, Russia, where it was also originally ran from. After one of its' founders was arrested in France in 2024 it began cooperating with western authorities and cracking down on users and group chats that were breaking its' terms of service or the law. Recently the co-founder was also arrested in Russia on charges of facilitating terrorism for the Ukrainian secret services allegedly using it to recruit and plan attacks. Russia has since also cracked down on Telegram.
See r/privacy for more.
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u/Dibly__ Aug 17 '26
Won't people find other routes, or get those precursors anyways? Will they really go away?
Also, will it hit other caths like nep?
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 17 '26
Yes, people will find other routes, but these in question were extremely simple and had great yields.
This doesn't affect NEP, though I think it will be targeted very soon due to the "Nepidemic" that is happening in several European countries. I think Valerophenone (or 2-BromoValerophenone) is the limiting reagent when it comes to NEP.
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u/ebolaRETURNS Aug 17 '26
P2NP will be banned and that is the only synthesis I know and afaik everyone used that.
How are they going about this? Isn't this compound important industrially?
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u/pkstrl0rd Aug 17 '26
It's not a total ban. Controlled would be the right word. Previously it could be sold by pretty much any company to any individual in selected countries (I think Poland, Czechia and Hungary). From now on all sellers and buyers must be properly licenced.
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u/AdRadiant2115 Aug 18 '26
P2np is easy to make literally mix 3 chemicals together and leave them for 10 days and its done .
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u/WowItsBilly Aug 16 '26
this is my 911, time to bulk up on 4mmc