The author repliles to Rheingold.
Professor Rheingold raises an important issue the chemical education community needs to seriously consider. No doubt many chemistry laboratories at colleges and universities and other research laboratories are in possession of chemicals now classified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as controlled substances. A search of JCE's online index reveals other preparations utilizing anthranilic acid. These experiments include the original sparking crystals preparation (1) and a reference using anthranilic acid to make methyl anthranilate (artificial grape odor) and a benzyne intermediate (2). In 1993, a new preparation of benzyne was published, not because anthranilic acid was a controlled substance, but because the dry intermediate salt has a tendency to explode (3). It is very likely that these procedures are used at numerous undergraduate institutions because of the three decades of distribution. This issue is an interesting one for any supervisor of undergraduate laboratory curricula.
What now should legitimate laboratories do with these chemicals? What are the legal, moral, and ethical considerations that need to be dealt with in this situation? Is this matter serious enough that we, as a chemical education community, should discuss and develop guidelines and procedures? These issues may need to be examined.
Literature Cited
- Erikson, J. J. Chem. Educ. 1972, 49, 688.
- Dougherty, C. M.; Baumgarten, R. L.; Sweeney, A. Jr.; Concepcion, E. J. Chem. Educ. 1977, 54, 643–644.
- Drouin, J.; Jacq, P. J. Chem. Educ. 1993, 70, 863–864.
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