We have some exciting news! We’re launching channel Memberships for just $0.99 a month. You’ll get access to members-only posts and videos, live Q&As with Bloomberg reporters, business trivia, badges, emojis and more. Join us: kzfaq.infojoin

"iT wAs uNrEaL tO mE aN aMerIcaN cOmPanY CoUld dO tHiS" - *laughs in oxycontin*

The irony is that they're shutting down the purest heroin product, so the market will instead go to fentanyl laced heroin made in bathtubs, that will be much more dangerous to the end customer.

When the war on drugs was never anything more than a war on personal freedom

“Drug money is used to rig elections and train brutal corporate sponsored dictators around the world” -Serj T.

All these guys saying how shocked they are, whos shocked by this? Business as usual for hundreds of years

"Fell through the Cracks" is code for some politician is getting rich

The most damaging drug by far is alcohol. But at least it is regulated.

They have done studies that show if heroin users get an unlimited supply of heroin they normalize their dosage and use and in these studies allot of these people where able to get a job and become fully functioning members of society, it’s when potency and purity are random and when supply is random that overdoses are common, these people need are understanding not for us to take away their fundamental rights as human beings

"it's startling that a corporation would ignore international law to make a profit" 😑🙄

"I'm not guilty. You're the one that's guilty. The lawmakers, the politicians, the Columbian drug lords, all you who lobby against making drugs legal. Just like you did with alcohol during the prohibition. You're the one who's guilty. I mean, c'mon, let's kick the ballistics here: Ain't no Uzi's made in Harlem. Not one of us in here owns a poppy field. This thing is bigger than Nino Brown. This is big business. This is the American way. " - Nino Brown, New Jack City

As a chemistry student this panic over acetic anhydride is honestly wierd. To us acetic anhydride is an extremely useful reagent. It's also extremely common.

Nothing is illegal as long as the right people get paid ..

Let's just go back to the old days where you can get a prescription for cocaine for ghosts in your blood.

Acetic anhydride is not really regulated in anyway... mainly because it is widely used for organic synthesis and analytical chemistry. When I worked at a small polymer company, we ordered it regularly without going through any hoops. You just order it from a chemical company such as Sigma-Aldrich, the reason they don't look out for it is because it is used everywhere. If you were to strictly regulate acetone, acetic anhydride, diethyl ether, hydrochloric acid, and sulfuric acid (all List II Chemicals [suspected for use in the synthesis of drugs]), universities and companies would have a field day because they buy 99.9999% of it. Hell, 90% of chemistry labs use acetone and hydrochloric acid to clean glassware, so they buy it en masse. There is no way that it would be logical to make acetic anhydride as hard to get as something like carbon tetrachloride, because then research and synthesis would grind to a halt. There needs to be more research put into a documentary like this.

“A friend and I just walked into a feed store and bought 6 hundred pounds of corn, and the clerk told us he can get us much more if we want. That corn can make up to 40 gallons of moonshine. The fact someone can just walk into a store and buy this stuff is just ridiculous”

"the great tragedy for me for me in investigating this was the idea that any american company could be involved in that, even if it's unknowing." speaks volumes coming from BLOOMBERG

Anddddd the war on drugs continues to be a complete joke.

Jesus, the guy pretending to be surprised an American company was tied to this is really killing the story.

News flash, those in power have already known. And the more regulations you enforce the further it goes underground with lower quality substitutes. So congrats on doing what you've been doing. Finding continuous ways to continue losing the "war on drugs."

This same ingredient is used in ALL the labs in EVERY University, all over the world, in large quantities.

“That’s why it’s number one on the red list...” that list is literally in alphabetical order!

4:18 tighting regulations just mean they set up a monopoly

Never mind that China ships fentanyl here by the shipping container

This guy just realized that corporations will sell products regardless of safety or use... Come on man

"Unknowing", sure. They totally didn't know they are selling serious quantities in area where the legitimate chemical consumption for the industry doesn't justify it. And they just happened to make a convenient packaging as well.

3:24 the reason it's #1 on the list is due to alphabetical order

In Philly we call Kensington: Zombie Land. It's pretty crazy to see how these corporations that nobody knows are all in on this stuff. Also, those margins are crazy. You can make a million dollars off of a $300 bottle?!

From Bloomberg (July 3, 2013): HSBC $1.9 Billion agreement with the US to resolve charges it enabled Latin American drug cartels to launder billions of dollars was approved by a federal judge.

Acetic anhydride (aka concentrated vinegar) is first on the list because the list is sorted alphabetically.

US-Made chemicals. US-Made weapons. All billed in USD.

This was a waste of my life.

Bloomberg mini doc is getting more better and interesting!!!

No amount of money, regulations, or harsh laws will EVER stop the drug trade. The only option is to legalize and regulate this industry.

“Mexico is an island in international drug laws”. In other words Mexico is a sovereign state and us laws don’t apply to it just like Mexican laws don’t apply to the us?

What never ceases amazes me is there young kids going to collage to get a higher level of education and they are using drugs that are produced in 3rd world countries under horrendous conditions by people that don’t even have a 6th grade education.

Acetic anhydride can by prepared by the dehydration of acetic acid at 800°C. Alternatively, the reaction between the acid chloride and a salt of acetic acid (e.g. sodium acetate) yields acetic anhydride and a salt. ... Approximately 1.5 percent of the annual acetic anhydride production is used in the synthesis of aspirin.

"Heavily regulated" lol.... Heavily regulated right to the front door of the cartel's superlabs..

Are we back to doing real news? Its been a while... let me pause my Meghan Markle and Octomom stream

When I learned Mexico has only one place In the whole country they can purchase guns, and they are very hard to get🤯🤯 So the guns are from us in the US and the demand for drugs and the money is from US too, wow we have no reason to say or do anything judgmental but we do have a reason to take some responsibility for the deaths of Mexican people caught in drug violence crossfire!

No one is forcing junkies to stick needles in their arms

It’s a horrible cycle but one that can be broken. Portugal legalized every substance, the result was crime and overdose statistics were cut nearly in half

Acetic Anhydride is one of the most simple organic compounds, can be prepared in the lab.

Heroin is synthesized by acetylation of the two hydroxyl groups of morphine with acetyl chloride.

Thank you for doing this report

Bloomberg needed the dramatic effect so just seemed to forget the fact that Acetic Anhidrido is number one on the Red list basically because of alphabetical order and not that hype Cam is trying to attribute to it

seeing grown men say they are shocked by any of this ,makes me wonder what planet they have been on for 40 plus years ,money talks alwys has always will ,

Great reporting thanks for this enlightenment

The problem is theirs tons of ways to acetylate stuff. Acetyl chloride will work. You can use glacial acETIC acid first for the 6th position To save on watched or controlled chems.

Legalize all drugs.

The infuriating thing about this is, that when I tell someone about this they think I’m a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy nut.

Criminals don’t let laws impede their plans. This guy seems shocked that criminals commit crimes. Time to grow up!

Rubbish more chemicals are needed than just Acetic Acid

"Top of the list" Was the list alphabetical? lol

Controlling this chemical is essentially an unwinnable battle. Acetic acid is in your pantry right now, its literally white vinegar. Anhydrous or Glacial Acetic acid is just vinegar with no water. And obviously, removing water from a mixture is trivially easy, it's literally just the process of distillation. Like making whiskey or vodka or moonshine. Anhydrous acetic acid is extremely widely used as well. It's used to make glues, vinyls, paints, ink, synthetic fabrics, and all kinds of various plastics. It's so ubiquitous, essential, and easy to make that it would be like trying to control the sale of salt. The only states and countries that are winning the war on drugs stopped fighting the war on the products, and started looking at and reducing the reasons that people start using in the first place, and treating addiction like the disease it is instead of a crime. It's like trying to close pandoras box. Drugs, alchohol, tobacco, and guns in the US have all been let out of the box. You will never be able to close the box, but you can learn to minimize the risks of what the box contained. Educating people on the realistic risks associated with these things, educating them on how to safely use and test these things to prevent accidents should they choose to use them, and treating the misuse of these objects as a mental disorder that can be treated and prevented is the ONLY way forward.

People use butter to make drug brownies. Do you know that you can literally walk into any store over her in the US and buy it? Isn't that criminal? We must legislate and hypertax the butter producers to save our children!!!!

Addiction is honestly not as much of the problem as people think.

I remember jumping through a lot of hoops and regulations trying to get a liter of acetic anhydride for a highschool thesis research, surprised to learn that's its an essential component for heroin production. Thats why it took months to get ahold of some.

They can still turn it with Vinegar, there are plenty of substitutes - with Fentanyl around what's the point

End the war on drugs and you end one of the many wars on the people.

This JT Backer company starting to sound a whole lot like Madrigal Elektromotoren from Breaking Bad

This is like blaming Arm & Hammer for supplying Sodium Bicarbonate to make crack... Sure not exactly the same, but Acetic Anhydride is an extremely common chemical in labs. I used it in highschool...

Thanks to the sackler family.

What your reporting is incredible and I don’t know how you can sleep.

I dont get it... what's the tragedy? Everything about the drug trade is American made.

Legalise it

KEEP POSTING BUSINESSES AND INFORMATION SO THAT UNDER THE LAW THE BUSINESS LICENCE AND PREMISES TO OPERATE WILL BE SEALED ON THE SPOT AROUND THE GLOBE

Meanwhile, when we're distracted fighting the culture wars the real conspiracies take place.

There is no way aventor didn't know what it was being used for.

I am a recovering drug addict and it has to do with "the war on drugs" the American government is responsible for how easy it is to get drugs in communities. The us government does not want to stop it because it makes to much money off of the backs of Americans.

You do realize it is very high purity vinegar. Easy to make.

Do more of this Bloomberg

We realized at that moment that we were risking our plausible deniability for having started the drug war in the first place in order to sell arms, put black men in prison and terrorize our civilians.

This is a bit silly. All sorts of anhydride are useful chemicals for all sorts of processes, not sure this is the big discovery you think it is.

One would think " Hey why don't we use our American military muscles to enter Mexico and put a stop to the drugs and cartel crisis "? Because the U.S. doesn't want to lose their share of drugs and money they're getting 😉

The drug war has failed, when are we going to end this madness?

I use to work at Rohm and Haas in Philadelphia as a Chemical Operator. One of the buildings I worked in produced a product called Goal. It was a very potent Herbicide that was sold to Asian. Acetic anhydride was one of the Chemicals added to make the final product. I also lived in Kensington all my life and it definitely is a different level on openness to drug sales/use here.

You can make acetic anhydride by using something called a ketene lamp. All it takes is acetone and concentrated vinegar and a lot of energy.

You can see how much this disturbing information is getting to him.

When you close one door for the cartel 100 doors open up, you'll never stop them or even come close

The problem is not any drug. "Don't ask why the addiction. Ask why the pain?" - Gabor Maté

Moral of the story ,never trust neighbours on your daughter's safety . Their standard of protection may not be the same

1:40 jeez thats one helluva line dude theres a whole gram there! 🤣

I’m glad someone is doing something about this problem ,the chemical company would go broke if it wasn’t for the narco this is really sad state of affairs that so many die from this drug ,really,really sad

The same thing happened with DMT makers. They make a pamphlet on how to make DMT and advised that you buy the chemicals from SMALL companies as the big companies are more likely to inform the police that you are trying to buy certain chemicals from them.

"Ingredient" should refer to a component of a finished product's formulation. "Reagent" is the word to use here.

So they stop selling it in Mexico however they still sell it right there in Philadelphia Kensington so that's another problem

Fantastic work.

Decriminalize and regulate safely.

Thanks for stepping in n making it hard to obtain, that will show them. And thats how fentanyl was born.

All about that Supply & Demand and If there’s a will …there’s always a way We’d like to thank drugs … for winning the war on drugs

You dont really need acetic anhydrate but hey you can feel like you did something

R.I.P. GARY WEBB

documentaries are getting better and better

Oh.hey. Call us for your local delivery

There's many,many instructional videos on KZfaq for many different chemical pathways to produce acetic anahydride. ketene lamps, sodium acetate. It's an extremely simple molecule that's any chemistry undergrad could make with their eyes shut.

If they thought the ingredients for cocaine being manufactured in the United States was embarrassing let me tell you about Iran Contra

This is a reverse scoop.

American capital: "regulations impede the market" Also American capital: "we need more regs, the cartels are cutting into our sales"

Sir, great job you did...