UPDATE: JUNE 1, 2025
Due to the recent passing of the Youth Poisoning Protection Act, sales of pure sodium nitrite or mixtures containing greater than 10% sodium nitrite are banned for consumer use. According to the law, “consumer” includes any private individual as well as schools. The law does not affect commercial or industrial customers. Liberty Scientific LLC will no longer sell sodium nitrite or mixtures containing sodium nitrite to individual consumers or to educational customers. As outlined in our previous sales policy below, we share the concern of Congress to protect those who would wish to obtain this material for self harm and we are saddened that the abuse of an otherwise innocent chemical has deprived students across the country the opportunity to study its reactions. A new generation of would-be chemists will come into the industry with preconceived notions biased towards the dark and tragic history created by the few evil people who thought to promote the misuse of this chemical online to masses of vulnerable children faced with the confusion and struggle inherent to life. Those evil people, not sodium nitrite, are who should be mercilessly ostracised from society. They are the danger to our children.
Since this law does not prohibit sales or purchase of sodium nitrite for commercial or industrial purposes, and we do still have stock (as of the date this policy is enacted), if you are a bona fide commercial or industrial customer, please contact us by email to discuss your needs. We will independently verify the legitimacy of all inquiries and we will likely continue to cancel more orders than we fill. If you are an individual or a school, we will not even respond to inquiries. Please do not waste our time. It is unclear if universities or colleges are considered “schools” for the purposes of this act, so we will not be filling any orders for those types of insitutions until after the law is in effect and the courts have decided where the “school” line is drawn. Our hope is that university students, future chemists who might need to practically understand nitrite chemistry, will have that opportunity. But that is not for us to decide.
OUR PREVIOUS POLICY
(this policy has been superceded by the policy described above and is no longer in effect):
Sodium nitrite is a common laboratory chemical that has recently increased in popularity for illegal and immoral uses. Liberty Scientific LLC is very much interested in preventing the misuse of this material, while keeping it available for customers who have a legitimate use for it. As a matter of company policy (as there are no laws regulating the sale or purchase of sodium nitrite), we require some additional information from customers wishing to purchase sodium nitrite from Liberty Scientific LLC.
Before you make a purchase:
All customers, whether they are purchasing for a school or business, or for individual use, must provide a statement of intended use. This statement may be sent to liberty at libertysci dot com. The statement can be general, but should provide enough detail to indicate what will be done with the material once you have received it. It must also contain the customer’s full name and be sent from the same email address as will be referenced in the sale. Depending on your intended use, Liberty Scientific LLC may recommend a substitution.
If you order without providing this statement, we will email you requesting the statement within three business days. If the statement is not received by the third business day, the order will be cancelled. Liberty Scientific LLC reserves the right to cancel ANY order for ANY reason.
When you make a purchase:
Once we have indicated that you may make the purchase, order online as you normally would. Other items may be included on the same order. Before we ship the order, we must receive a copy of your state-issued photo identification. This should be sent in the same email thread as your statement of intended use. Your full name and date of birth MUST be visible and the address on your ID must match the shipping address. If the addresses do not match, please provide an explanation why. Liberty Scientific LLC reserves the right to cancel ANY order for ANY reason.
You may block out the ID number and other personal information (such as height, weight, or if you need corrective lenses to drive) if you wish. Full name, address, date of birth, and photo MUST be clearly visible.
Send the image as a .jpg file as an attachment to the email. Do not send links to third party image hosting services or unusual image file formats.
We will keep your information in your customer file, so you will only need to provide it once. If you need to reorder, please send us an email to be on the lookout for your order. If you use the same email thread, we’ll already have everything we need to process your order right away.
If you place an order and provide a statement of intended use, but refuse to provide a copy of your identification document for whatever reason, we will cancel the order. If we do not receive your ID within three business days of your order, we will cancel the order. Again, Liberty Scientific LLC reserves the right to cancel ANY order for ANY reason.
After your purchase:
Store sodium nitrite LOCKED UP! Guard against theft and unauthorized use. This material should NOT be accessible to children or pets, as it may be fatal. As with every chemical you use, be sure to fully understand the hazards it presents and take proper action to mitigate those hazards before you use the material.
Business Exemption:
Customers who are purchasing sodium nitrite on behalf of a business and shipping to a business address MAY be exempt from providing positive identification. The same applies to teachers shipping to educational institutions. However, to ensure that students are not misusing school mailrooms, we request that teachers and professors provide a link to their school’s website indicating they are a member of the faculty or staff.
Liberty Scientific LLC reserves the right to request positive identification from EVERY customer, and once again, the right to cancel or refuse ANY order for ANY reason.
We understand that these policies present an inconvenience to customers who are purchasing sodium nitrite for one or more of its many legitimate uses. This is most definitely a case where a few bad actors are spoiling it for everyone else. The philosophy of Liberty Scientific LLC recognizes that individuals tinkering in private labs have produced many innovations that today, we take for granted as part of modern life. Stifling amateur experimentation and innovation is not good for society.
We have instituted these policies to make it more difficult for people intending to misuse sodium nitrite to obtain it, and we regret that this must affect our valued, upstanding customers. However, we feel that imposing these hurdles to purchase is better than discontinuing all sales of sodium nitrite. We thank you for your business, and appreciate your understanding.
POLICY IN EFFECT: SEPTEMBER 1, 2022