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I am a newbie at chemistry and wondering what the key difference between dexedrine and methamphetamine HCL is. I know that methamphetamine has an extra methyl group compared to Adderall. But what about dexedrine?

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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Chemguy1122
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2 Answers2

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Adderall

Adderall is a drug(trade name) that contains a combination of four salts of amphetamine (equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio between dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine, the two enantiomers of amphetamine).

Racemic amphetamine: levoamphetamine and dextroamphetamine respectively. Notice the dash-wedge notation. The methyl group is pointing away from the reader in the former structure and is pointing towards the reader in the latter structure.

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Enantiomeric amphetamine: chiral molecules that have a mirror orientation of one another. See this question.

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Dexedrine

Dexedrine is the trade name for dextroamphetamine

Methamphetamine

It is a drug similar in structure but has an extra methyl group (So, primary amine becomes secondary amine).

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Also, do note that a simple change in the drug structure can change the potency.

Nilay Ghosh
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The difference is that it is not the same molecule (group $ \ce {NH_2} $ for one, group $ \ce {NH-CH_3} $ for the other) so not the same properties.

amphetamine metamphetamine

Nicolas
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