Manufacture of amphetamines
Its membership in the amphetamine class has made pseudoephedrine a sought-after chemical precursor in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine and methcathinone. As a result of the increasing regulatory restrictions on the sale and distribution of pseudoephedrine, many pharmaceutical firms have reformulated, or are in the process of reformulating medications to use alternative, but less effective, decongestants, such as phenylephrine. In the United States, federal laws control the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products. Many retailers in the US have created corporate policies restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products. Their policies restrict sales by limiting purchase quantities and requiring a minimum age and government issued photographic identification. These requirements are similar to and sometimes more stringent than existing law. Internationally, pseudoephedrine is listed as a Table I precursor under the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Sports
Pseudoephedrine was on the International Olympic Committees (IOC) banned substances list until 2004, when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list replaced the IOC list. Although WADA initially only monitored pseudoephedrine, it went back onto the "banned" list on January 1, 2010.Pseudoephedrine is excreted through urine, and concentration in urine of this drug shows a large inter-individual spread; that is, the same dose can give a vast difference in urine concentration for different individuals. Pseudoephedrine is approved to be taken up to 240 mg per day. In seven healthy male subjects this dose yielded a urine concentration range of 62.8 to 294.4 microgram per milliliter (µg/ml) with mean ± standard deviation 149 ± 72 µg/ml.
Ion Ţiriac, the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, resigned over the scandal.In the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the IOC issued a reprimand against the Slovak ice hockey player Lubomir Visnovsky for usage of pseudoephedrine.In the 2014 Winter Olympic Games Team Sweden and Washington Capitals ice hockey player Nicklas Bäckström was prevented from playing in the final for usage of pseudoephedrine. Bäckström claimed he was using it as allergy medication. In March 2014, the IOC Disciplinary Commission decided that Bäckström would be awarded the silver medal. In January 2015 Bäckström, the IOC, WADA and the IIHF agreed to a settlement in which he accepted a reprimand but was cleared of attempting to enhance his performance. Detection of use
Pseudoephedrine may be quantified in blood, plasma, or urine to monitor any possible performance-enhancing use by athletes, confirm a diagnosis of poisoning, or to assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Many commercial immunoassay screening tests directed at the amphetamines cross-react appreciably with pseudoephedrine, but chromatographic techniques can easily distinguish pseudoephedrine from other phenethylamine derivatives. Blood or plasma pseudoephedrine concentrations are typically in the 50–300 µg/l range in persons taking the drug therapeutically, 500–3000 µg/l in people with substance use disorder involving pseudoephedrine, or poisoned patients and 10–70 mg/l in cases of acute fatal overdose. Chemistry
Pseudoephedrine is a diastereomer of ephedrine and is readily reduced into methamphetamine or oxidized into methcathinone. Nomenclatures
The dextrorotary (+)- or d- enantiomer is (1S,2S)-pseudoephedrine, whereas the levorotating (−)- or l- form is (1R,2R)-pseudoephedrine.