Comment · Mon, August 10, 2020
Forget Plant-Based Medicine, MDMA is Now Made From Crude Oil
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post in this thread.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Thank god. The harvesting of safrole was a massive cause of deforestation. Using a minuscule amount of petroleum is much more sustainable. This article is stupid.
MAPS did not comment on the infrastructure necessary to extract and refine crude oil into MDMA, nor the effects of such operations on people (including Indigenous people who live with the realities of extractive industry), animals, or broader ecological systems.
Jesus... There is ZERO extra infrastructure necessary here. None. Zilch. Nada. It already exists at massive scale. Plus, this wording used is ridiculous! Refine crude oil into MDMA? Dramatic much? It's like boycotting toothpicks to prevent deforestation. Perhaps we should focus on the real issues. Cutting down forests for safrole was a REAL issue. That is solved by this synthesis route. It's better for indigenous people to not have their forests cut down for safrole. The small amount of petroleum used to make the precursors for this synthesis route is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but the benefits to preventing deforestation from harvesting safrole are not. Furthermore, catechol has many sources, including plant-based sources. You can distill it from catechin. It's found in other plants, too. Sure, most bulk catechol is likely from petroleum, but where do we draw the line of ridiculousness? Did they deliver it in an electric car that was charged on a grid fully powdered by solar and wind? How insane are we going to take it? If this synthesis route prevents the cutting of forests for harvesting safrole, then it is a step in the right direction.