Ephedrine is a potent stimulant that has been used for centuries in china. Modern day Ephedrine is usually derived from the plant, Ephedra Equisetina, or synthesized. When the drug is synthesized it produces a drug know as pseudo-ephedrine, which reacts most with chemicals and the human body in identical ways. For all intents and purposes, these drugs are one and the same.

Ephedrine is commonly sold over the counter as a nasal decongestant and legal stimulant. It has the beneficial property of expanding ones cappilaries and breathing tubes (don't know technical name), making it a wonder drug for anyone with a cold.

Although overdoses of ephedrine are rare, they DO occur, usually with doses of over a gram (oral ingestion over a period of time) (Compare caffeine, the LD50 is 70 grams in humans!) the user can suffer a heart attack and must be taken to a hospital. Rarely are these OD's fatal.

Do NOT drink Crank Juice if you have a heart condition, or a history of heart illness. If unsure, check you doctor.

As far as we here at Hardcore Beverages know, Crank Juice is the first Ephedrine containing soft drink ever marketed!

It is interesting to note that this drug is virtually identical to methamphetamine, or the street drug know as speed, crystal meth, or crank. Speed is simply the d isomer of ephedrine. So methamphetamine could be written as d-ephedrine, and ephedrine could be written as l-methamphetamine.

The FDA has been restricting the purchase of ephedrine because of the fact that methamphetamine is easy to synthesize from ephedrine. All it requires is a simple reduction. Usually it is reacted with Hydro Iodic acid. Usually the HI is produced by mixing red-phosphorus and iodine together, and running the HI gasses that are emitted through a freebase ephedrine-water solution.

Sometimes "meth cooks" use acid-base extractions to purify the mixture, but many home chemists choose to ignore this step. Then muriatric acid (hydrochloric acid) is added to turn it into the drug salt, d-methamphetamine HCL. After which, an ether or naptha wash may be used to seperate the meth from the iodine containing mixture.

Red phosphorus can be reused by filtering the solution, and then washing the red phosphorus in water.

There are other methamphetamine synthesis, like the Thionyl chloride and lithium aluminum hydride synth, but these are beyond the scope of this article.

Another interesting chemical that can easily be derived from ephedrine HCL is methcathinone HCL. This synthesis is incredibly easy. All one would need to do would be to oxidize the ephedrine. This is usually done with a chromate, but I've heard good things about a "cat" synthesis using KMnO4 (potassium permagnate).

Most people at home would probably not be able to synthesize a drug from either of these two brief summaries, but with the information I just gave you, a chemist could go out, spend 50 bucks and synthesize 2000 dollars of methamphetamine.

For more inforation, read the Ephedrine FAQ