Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: [j--e] at [joes.place.org] (Joe Sconner)
Subject: Re: Drug Legalization Legislation
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 17:11:08 GMT

Purchased cigarettes include potasium nitrate, also known as saltpeter,
which is a fairly strong oxidizer.  It keeps the cigarette burning when it
isn't being smoked, so you buy more cigarettes.  Of course, the whole
corporate conspiracy thing isn't necessarily true, I suppose people could
have wanted cigarettes that stay lit without constant attention.

Potassium nitrate is the same ingredient that makes incense smoulder; it is
also one of the three inredients in black gunpowder, which has lead to the
rather stupid rumor that there's gunpowder in cigarettes.

Besides wasting your tobacco, the nitrate forms nitrites, which are very
unhealthy chemicals (sassafrass root was banned for its nitrite
composition.  Which reminds me, why is there so much mention of isosaffrol
being the precursor to MDMA?  My research says it is actually safrol, with
the double bond on the end of the side chain.  This makes sense because you
will then do a Marconicov (sp?) addition across said double bond.  If you
were using isosaffrole there would be no control over the placement of the
bromine (first or second carbon on side chain) and you would cut your yield
in half and necessitate a messy seperation.  Sassafras oil is ~80%
safrole.)

joe