I stumbled across this discussion and found it very interesting. AS a Canadian chemical supplier we have somewhat different laws pertaining to this topic but in general they are comparable. I just want to make a few points.
-chemical companies are not under any legal constraints with respect to selling to individuals, if a chemical is not illegal it can be sold to anyone. Chemical companies are cohersed by law enforcement to take that stance and they begin to beleive they have to. I have always allowed my staff to open accounts for individuals and if someone seems sketchy they pass them on to me and i make the decision. Honestly I really don't care if someone wants something they could make drugs from, there are hundreds of uses for those chemicals but no one gets anything out of my company to build an explosive with.
-there are illegal chemicals. There are a number of lists, list one and list two (or schedule A and schedule B precursors). There is the list of "items of interest" which is actually every chemical under the sun. There is about five schedules under the terrorism act which includes every chemical used in poisons and explosives but they all have thresholds. If you exceed a threshold for any chemical you have broken the law unless you have a regulated chemical permit.
-you can legally posess 250ml of safrole, 1kg of phenylacetic acid, 500g of heliotropin etc.. but the threshold for butyrolactone, phosphorous, hypophosphorous acid, lysergic acid etc.. is zero in every case. Diethylamine does not appear on any schedule, it is not illegal, it is a very common industrial chemical.
-end use declarations are used to cover the ass of the supplier, they are meaningless and won't hold up in court. I require them in certain cases but the rcmp will have to tear them out of my dead hands if they want to see them, I take customer privacy very seriously.
I know I'm probably not supposed to identify as a supplier on the forums but i felt it could add to the discussion since i've experienced all this.
But although its tight out there don't worry about your sodium borohydrides, lithium aluminum hydrides, hydrobromic acids....you get my drift, they are not scheduled and they are not illegal and in todays day and age where people are becoming more and more repressed I will keep giving them anything i can that is not illegal, which is anything that is not specifically designated as illegal.
