α-Methylacetylfentanyl

α-Methylacetylfentanyl

Systematic (IUPAC) name
N-Phenyl-N-[1-(1-phenylpropan-2-yl)-4-piperidyl]acetamide
Clinical data
Legal status	CA: Schedule I DE: Anlage I (Controlled) UK: Class A US: Schedule I
Identifiers
CAS Number	101860-00-8
ATC code	none
PubChem	CID: 62307
DrugBank	DB01532 Y
ChemSpider	56102 Y
UNII	0O1GKW2BQO Y
Synonyms	α-methylacetylfentanyl, acetyl-α-methylfentanyl
Chemical data
Formula	C22H28N2O
Molecular mass	336.471 g/mol
SMILES O=C(N(c1ccccc1)C3CCN(C(Cc2ccccc2)C)CC3)C
InChI InChI=1S/C22H28N2O/c1-18(17-20-9-5-3-6-10-20)23-15-13-22(14-16-23)24(19(2)25)21-11-7-4-8-12-21/h3-12,18,22H,13-17H2,1-2H3 Y Key:OKTLVZBUKMRPLL-UHFFFAOYSA-N Y
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α-Methylacetylfentanyl (or alphamethylacetylfentanyl) is an opioid analgesic that is an analog of fentanyl. It is a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States, with a DEA ACSCN of 9815.

α-Methylacetylfentanyl was sold briefly on the black market in the early 1980s, before the introduction of the Federal Analog Act which for the first time attempted to control entire families of drugs based on their structural similarity rather than scheduling each drug individually as they appeared. α-Methylacetylfentanyl is made with the same synthetic route as α-methylfentanyl, but by substituting the relatively common acetic anhydride for the more difficult to obtain chemical propionic anhydride in the synthesis.

α-Methylacetylfentanyl has similar effects to fentanyl. Side effects of fentanyl analogs are similar to those of fentanyl itself, which include itching, nausea and potentially serious respiratory depression, which can be life-threatening. Fentanyl analogs have killed hundreds of people throughout Europe and the former Soviet republics since the most recent resurgence in use began in Estonia in the early 2000s, and novel derivatives continue to appear.

The 2013 DEA production quota for acetyl-alpha-methylfentanyl is 2 grammes.