Is it hard to synthesize barbiturates?
Yes, because you need the precursor barbituric acid, which is highly controlled.
Exit Intl attempted this some years ago with "the peanut project". While not a lot of info was released about it, what appears to have happened is they got in a lot of trouble with the government before they were able to finish anything.
I made a post here last week about barbiturates in general, and the fact that it's pretty much non-existent substance these days.
Thread 'PSA ABOUT N and Barbiturates in general...'
I can't emphasize this enough, as it seems that every week there are questions about N, and barbiturates in general. The advent of benzodiazepines put a huge dent in the actual demand for barbiturates. Because they are significantly safer, doctors all over the world just stopped writing...
sanctioned-suicide.net
There's just no demand for it, like, at all. There are much "better" anesthetics (propofol), anti seizure meds (numerous), and obviously anxiety meds have gone the way of bzds, which are considered 1000x safer.
Even the vet euthanasia market is graduating towards tranqs like xylazine and medetomidine, which are much easier to obtain, just as effective, and could be bought in bulk cheaply from China before the big busts a few months ago.
The closest someone could reliably get to a pento type deliverance would most likely be ghb - I mean as far as ease of sourcing. The aforementioned tranquilizers combined with an opioid, nitazene, or benzo like rohypnol would also be just as reliable/peaceful. Nitrous Oxide could be argued to be even better than any of those options.
This forums fixation on ingesting a caustic poison like SN is a little strange. If you're going to go through the protocol of sourcing it, getting comfort meds and a prescription antiemetic, there are literally much more peaceful methods right here on these forums. Easier to obtain, just as reliable, and 1000x more peaceful. N2O can be purchased on Amazon or Walmart for crying out loud. People say "well Nitrous is illegal in the UK" - well, ya, so is SN! At least N2O is still sold at the grocery store. SN and AEs aren't.