Such conversions are not just possible on paper. Slightly more complicated alterations yield the drugs 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Ecstasy) and methylphenidate (Ritalin). Ephedrine, the active ingredient in herbal diet pills, differs from methamphetamine by just an oxygen atom-while those same atoms arranged differently would give you pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in many cold medicines. Various other stimulants look quite similar. Pencil in another carbon in the right place, and you have drawn methamphetamine. Its skeleton is just a ring of six carbon atoms, with two more carbon atoms attached to the ring, and then a carbon and a nitrogen attached to the second of those. Diagrammed on paper, amphetamine looks like a hexagon with a forked tail. Amphetamine and methamphetamine are simple molecules.
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