Hey all, this is my first post of this nature. Hopefully this will be informative and easy to follow so those of you with minimal chemistry knowledge can still use this. It's quite a long post as you can see but I believe this is valuable information for anyone who partakes in using MDMA.

So to begin with some background information on MDMA purity. The crystal form of MDMA that we all know and love is MDMA.hcl (i.e its a salt of MDMA). A common misconception that I see around forums is that if its brown and smells like aniseed/liquorice then it pure MDMA - This is incorrect, as pure MDMA.hcl is an ODORLESS WHITE transparent crystal. This brown appearance and sometimes oily texture, coupled with the distinctive aniseed like smell are actually precursors and by-products that have not been cleaned off after the synthesis. I won't go into details as to what they are (erowid has a very thorough article on this for anyone who is interested) but some such as safrole, are potential carcinogens whilst others have unknown activity but, either way it's probably not a good idea to be ingesting them. Another problem that this causes is that these impurities can make up a significant proportion by weight of the sample (i've had crystal samples from 'reputable dark onions' that have been almost 50% by weight impurities!) and so skew what people consider to be a good dose. As the level of impurities will vary from sample to sample the ability to be able to consistently know a good dose for yourself becomes impaired which of course is very problematic in terms of safety and having a satisfying roll!

Qualitatively I find rolling on pure MDMA much more enjoyable than dirty/contaminated samples, the come-up is very smooth (none of the weird jarring rushes) and the peak effects have a lovely balance of energy, euphoria (insane amounts) and empathy all without feeling overstimulated, speedy or dissociated and trippy. The comedown is more gentle and it's easier to sleep once you have comedown. Obviously reactions to even pure MDMA vary greatly so all I can speak from is personal experience and the experiences that friends of mine have had from batches that I have purified.

Before I explain the method(s) for purification there are some limitations to this procedure that I will outline:

1: Make sure you REAGENT TEST your sample! This is so important as if your sample doesn't contain MDMA then this procedure is pointless and you may actually be concentrating potentially harmful substances such as PMA/PMMA which are chemically very similar to MDMA.

2: Whilst deliberate cuts of some substances such as caffeine (and most other free-base alkaloids) will be removed effectively by this procedure, other chemically similar substances (such as MDA, MDEA, Amphetamine, Meth etc) will not be removed by this unless they are only present in trace amounts (very approximately less than 5% of the sample weight). Fortunately, at least in Europe, additives such as meth and speed are quite rare as they are quite expensive per gram compared to MDMA.

3: There can be in some cases a significant loss in weight (especially if corners are cut in the procedure or if product is very impure) of your sample and there will always be some loss of weight.

Now with that in mind I will outline the procedure:

It consists of 2 parts:

1. Anhydrous acetone wash (easy, reasonable increase in purity)
2. Hot anhydrous isopropanol recrystallisation (more difficult, yields very pure product)

The acetone wash is simple even if you have no knowledge of chemistry, the recrystallisation is more tricky but still not too complicated and for those who enjoy home chemistry projects is, a superior method of purification. When both are utilised it is possible for one to obtain virtually pharmaceutical grade MDMA.

Acetone Wash Overview

• Make Anhydrous acetone using anyhydrous magnesium sulfate.
• Crush MDMA to dust and pour into beaker/glass then pour in anhydrous acetone.
• Stir mixture for a few minutes and leave to settle. Decant off just dirty acetone. Repeat steps 1-3 till acetone stays clear.
• Filter mixture to Isolate MDMA crystals, dry crystals using hairdryer.

For the acetone wash you will need:

• Pure acetone (crucially not mixed with water or anything else like in some nail polish removers) - This can be bought easily and cheaply on amazon without suspicion.

• Epsom salts - These are hydrous magnesium sulphate crystals and can be bought easily and cheaply from your local chemist such as boots ( I will explain further down why these are necessary)

• A smallish beaker (50ml is good) but if that is not available then a regular kitchen glass can be utilised (a short and thin in diameter glass is good)

• Filter paper (coffee filter paper is also fine for this)

• something to stir the mixture with (glass rod ideally but a chopstick or metal knife is fine, just make sure if your knife has a plastic handle it doesn't come into contact with the acetone)

Firstly you need to make anhydrous acetone [CAUTION: acetone is extremely FLAMMABLE so keep away from sources of ignition]

MDMA is very soluble in water and acetone is hygroscopic meaning that it attracts water. You will lose a very large quantity of your sample if your acetone is not anhydrous before use. This is where the epsom salts come in:

First you bake your epsom salts ( you will want to use a fairly large quantity) in the oven at 250 degrees centigrade for for 3-4 hours. This will yield a dusty white powder which is anhydrous magnesium sulfate.

Next you just add the anhydrous magnesium sulfate you have made to your acetone until a snow-globe type of effect happens when you swirl the liquid around (the presence of free-flowing magnesium sulfate indicates the acetone is dry, when there is water in your acetone the magnesium sulfate will clump together and sink to the bottom of the solution). After you reach this point give the acetone a good shake and chill in the freezer for a few hours before use. This should ensure that it's dry for use.

The Actual acetone wash is very straightforward after doing this:

• Step 1: Crush your MDMA to dust - same procedure as if you were going to take a line of it, the finer you crush it the better the acetone wash will work to remove impurities. Here is a photo of my sample to give you an idea of how fine it should be. Before Crushing Imgur and After Crushing Imgur

( The sample shown here has been reagent tested and purity tested by the EZ semi-quantative kit and is of about 60-70% purity, it feels a little oily and has a very strong aniseed smell)

• Step 2: Pour MDMA into a beaker/ glass then pour in the anhydrous acetone that you made earlier, you want to use an amount that will give you a decent head of solvent that can be decanted off without pouring out your MDMA as well. Stir vigourously for a few minutes and leave to settle (you can gently tap the side of the beaker/glass to speed this up). You should now have the MDMA sunk to the bottom and a layer of discoloured acetone at the top containing the impurities as shown here Imgur. Now decant off the dirty acetone carefully without pouring out the MDMA with it (this part is made easier by a pipette but is not necessary). Repeat this step until the acetone on the top layer stays clear (usually about 3-5 washes) like so Imgur.

• Step 3: Filter the MDMA out of the acetone using filter paper. Fold your filter paper into 4 ( i.e 2 times) and then pop it out in to a cone shape (3 of the folds will be on 1 side and 1 on the other side), then pour your mixture through paper. The easiest way to do this is, to stir the solution so the crystals are flowing around with acetone then quickly pouring the mixture into the filter paper, this makes it easier to get the MDMA out of the beaker without having to scrape it off. Any remaining MDMA in the beaker can be mobilised like this using a small volume of acetone and is then poured into the filter paper. MAKE SURE THE FILTER PAPER IS EITHER HELD STABLE BY YOU OR A FILTER FUNNEL WHILST POURING! You don't want to drop the filter paper by accident and lose all your hard work. Imgur. Rinse your crystals in the filter paper with a small amount of cold acetone.

• Step 4: Dry your crystals. Acetone is very volatile (evaporates easily) so this can be done easily using a hairdryer. Simply wrap up your crstyals in the filter paper so there is nowhere the crystals can be blown out from and dry using a hair dryer till the paper and crystals inside are dry to the touch and don't smell of acetone. If you are going to recrystallise with isopropanol afterwards, your crystals do not need to be fully dry. Also if you don't have a hairdryer you can dry your sample in the oven at a low temperature (50-60 degrees centigrade).

That it you're all done! This procedure can be used to wash other substances such as cocaine and mescaline and to extract the MDMA out of pills. This is what my sample looked like after the acetone washes Imgur it would be brighter but it was still wet at this stage.

Recrystallisation Using Isopropanol:

In order to attempt this, it's advisable to understand how this works. Recrystallisation works by dissolving your sample in hot (near boiling) solvent (isopropanol in this case) as solubility increases with temperature. This allows you to dissolve all of your sample in a relatively small amount of solvent (1g of MDMA will dissolve easily in 10ml of hot isopropanol). Now all of your sample including the impurities that were trapped inside the crystal are now in solution. This is why it is better than an acetone wash as no matter how finely you grind the crystals up there will always be some impurities trapped in the crystals that the acetone cannot remove. Also as you are heating up the isopropanol some harder to dissolve impurities will be soluble in it. You then allow the heated solution to cool as SLOWLY as possible. The pure MDMA crystals will start to precipitate out from the solution when the temperature decreases. This is because the MDMA is less soluble in cold isopropanol. By doing this slowly it allows the MDMA crystals to form whilst the impurities stay dissolved in the isopropanol (along with a small amount of MDMA crystals). By cooling the solution too fast (i.e putting it immediately in the freezer after dissolving your sample in the isopropanol) other impurites crash back out of the solution along with the MDMA so the product is not as pure, also the crystals that form will be smaller and not as pretty as a result of the lower purity.

What you will need:

• 2 pyrex beakers (50ml is again a good size for these), unfortunately due to the fact that the isopropanol needs to be heated, I cannot recommend using a normal glass to heat up the solvent as it could shatter. Fortunately you can buy these very cheaply and without suspicion from amazon.

• Pure isopropanol (99% or above) again must not be diluted with other chemicals or water. Again this can be bought easily and cheaply from amazon.

• Filter papers (again coffee filter paper is fine)

• Anhydrous Magnesium sulfate (the same stuff used to make the acetone anhydrous in the previous step)

• Anhydrous acetone (optional)

• Stirrer (wooden chopstick is fine)

• Glass pipette (optional)

Overview

• 1. Heat anhydrous isopropanol till it just starts to boil
• 2. Use minimum amount of hot isopropanol possible to dissolve MDMA in
• 3. Allow isopropanol solution to cool slowly to form pure MDMA crystals
• 4. Recover extra MDMA from dirty isopropanol, then filter and dry samples.

How to carry out procedure

• Step 1 : Pour some isopropanol into a pyrex beaker. Its better to use more than you need as you will be heating it and some will evaporate. For 10g's of MDMA I used around 30ml to dissolve it but heated up 40ml. Then you can stack a saucepan on the surface of a frying pan over the hob to heat up the isopropanol. Isopropanol is also extremely FLAMMABLE so should never be directly exposed to the flame from the hob. By using the set up of the saucepan on top of a frying pan the isopropanol is buffered from the flame directly so the risk of it igniting is minimal. Place the beaker of isopropanol onto the saucepan and heat it up to when it just starts to boil. Use the extractor hood above your hob if your have one during this, if not at least open a window to help ventilate the room better.

• Step 2 : Get your beaker containing your MDMA crystals ready. Now, once the isopropanol has just reached boiling, pour in a small volume into the beaker containing your MDMA (not the whole volume you planned to use). The top of the beaker should be cool enough to touch as long as the beaker is not completely full but, you can use insulating gloves/cloth if you prefer. Swirl the isopropanol around to mix it with the mdma. Now place the Beaker with your MDMA and isopropanol onto the saucepan as well to keep it hot. Keep adding small amounts of hot isopropanol to your MDMA until it just dissolves. Let me repeat this in clearer words: you want to add the smallest volume of isopropanol possible to dissolve the MDMA, if you add too much isopropanol the MDMA will not precipitate from the solution once you cool it down or if it does your yield will be very poor. If you accidentally add too much you can boil some off to reduce the volume once the MDMA has all been dissolved. Keep swirling/stirring the solution with the MDMA in it whilst adding isopropanol to help it dissolve. Once everything is dissolved you should be left with a discoloured solution with everything dissolved that looks similar to this Imgur As you can see, even after acetone washing my sample there were still lots of the brown coloured impurities that have dissolved into the isopropanol.

Note 1: If there are impurities that are insoluble in isopropanol e.g if your sample is cut with table salt or talcum powder, they wont dissolve in the isopropanol at all. They will be left over once all the MDMA and other impurities have dissolved and you can simply filter the solution using filter paper to remove them and then let the solution cool down as normal.

Note 2: From the image you can see that I am using just a frying pan to heat the isopropanol and not a saucepan in a frying pan. This is quicker to heat up the isopropanol but also carries more risk of ignition and overboiling your solvent. I do this because I have lots of experience handling chemicals in a lab, I would recommend that someone with little to no experience with lab work/handling solvents use the set up I suggested.

• Step 3 : Once everything has dissolved, turn off the hob and allow the solution to cool on the saucepan, this will ensure that it cools down slowly. Once it reaches room temperature you can put it in the freezer to allow the crystals to fully form. If you have added a minimal volume of isopropanol after leaving the beaker in the freezer for 20-30mins the crystals should be forming pretty obviously. Sometimes the crystals start to precipitate out once the solution has reached room temperature, this is also okay. As I said before the slower you cool it, the purer the crystals are. Some people will leave the beaker at room temperature overnight then leave it in the fridge for 4 hours, then in the freezer overnight to obtain incredibly pure and large crystals. Personally I find this to be excessive and have achieved very good results with leaving the beaker to cool down for one hour to room temperature, then to leave it in the freezer for 2-3hours. Occasionally crystallisation has to be induced once the sample has cooled down. If you think you have used the right volume of isopropanol to dissolve your MDMA but after cooling down in the freezer no crystals have appeared you can scratch the bottom of the beaker with something like a glass rod or a metal fork. This often will induce crystallisation and the crystals will start to appear right before your eyes. When successfully done you will have a beaker containing your crystals at the bottom and a head of excess discoloured isopropanol at the top which you will want to keep (I will explain why in a moment). This is what my MDMA looked like once I had poured off the dirty isopropanol Imgur. If you do not have anhydrous acetone available then you will want to keep the dirty isopropanol in beaker with your MDMA, then dislodge the crystals from the bottom of the beaker using a chopstick or metal knife, swirl the mixture to mobilise then crystals and then pour into a filter paper to collect your MDMA crystals and keep the dirty isopropanol in another beaker. If you have anhydrous acetone then you can simply pour off the dirty isopropanol into another beaker and use the acetone to help dislodge the crystals and then pour the mixture through a filter. This my batch whilst being filtered Imgur

The MDMA you have collected in the filter paper is now very close to 100% pure, I have achieved purities of greater than 95% with this method. It can now be dried in the same way using a hairdryer as described earlier. If you have used acetone to help get the MDMA out of the beaker it will be quicker to dry than if you have just poured the MDMA out with the dirty isopropanol.

This is the main batch of very pure MDMA (the good shit).

• Step 4 : This is not compulsory but is highly advised to improve your yield

In the dirty isopropanol you have collected there is still some MDMA. This can be extracted by boiling off the dirty isopropanol until there is only a very small volume left (approx 5ml). Then you just let it cool down slowly again to allow the MDMA to precipitate from the dirty isopropanol. This will be a smaller but still significant amount of product. From the batch I have shown there was around a whole gram extracted from the dirty isopropanol. The MDMA formed from this will not be as pure as the main batch of crystals but will still be very pure compared to the starting product. I have rolled from these 'recovered' batches before and they are still VERY STRONG!. You can separate the crystals from the dirty isopropanol the same way as described above.

The beaker on the right is the purest main batch and on the left is the recovered batch Imgur

Here is the result of the EZ purity test for the purified batch : Imgur It corresponds to colour in the bottom right corner of the chart which indicates a similar purity to a 100% pure sample of MDMA.

Congratulations! You have just made some near 100% pure MDMA!! Here is what my batch looked like after this Imgur . Just a word about dosage and how to use as, many people would not have had MDMA this pure before. Most people would say I have a naturally high tolerance to MDMA, I have (irresponsibly) used upwards of 500mg of various purity batches in a night in the past. I realised after a learning about MDMA on erowid and other sources that those dosages are not only really bad for you, but also the rolls that I enjoyed the most were actually when my dosage was kept sensible. I find that the body load (heavy floppy limbs) and memory issues negatively impact the roll at above 250mg of pure MDMA as well as worsening the comedown. Also you may find that if you have been using impure batches in the past your seemingly high dose may have only been 50% MDMA by weight ( e.g if you took 300mg only 150mg of that would have been MDMA). Even with my perceived high tolerance I find a 170mg initial dose followed by an 80mg re-dose 2 hours later to be far more than enough for a night. Combining this pure MDMA with /u/MisterYouAreSoDumb excellent guide to supplementation will give you an experience that blows your average roll out of the fucking water.

I appreciate that this a very long post so thank you for taking the time to read it. Hopefully you all found this easy enough to understand (I know it seems like a lot to do but once you've done it once you will hopefully realise that it is fairly straight forward) but, if you have any queries post them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them. If you follow the procedure as I outlined you could expect some pretty great results even for a first time trying this out.

Peace