With all due respect, you may have read the other threads on this subject, but the information you seek IS contained therein and is correct. I know -- I wrote most of them.
However, I can understand that information overload can sometimes make things a bit confusing, and I have a tendency to ramble, so... allow me be as direct as I can:
You are incorrect as to the formula of old poppers. They were not nitrites -- they were NITRATES. With an "A." However, even back in the "good old days," there were still nitrite varieties available. Nitrate was more common, however. And better.
So: NITRATE -- old poppers. NITRITE -- today's poppers.
That answers your first question, mostly. The difference is the nitrate vs. nitrite active ingredient.
Another difference is the binding agent -- whatever chemical the nitrate or nitrite is glued together with.
In the old days, a very common combination was amyl nitrate. This is the same stuff used by medical professionals today for cardiac arrhythmias, etc. I do recall isopropyl nitrate, which was used for quite a while by the Rush brand. This sucked -- the isopropyl burned your nose quite easily. Back then, some brands didn't even label their contents, so I'm sure there were plenty of other combinations as well but we never noticed or cared. Even today not all brands provide an ingredients list...
Your second question:
You can find old poppers in any hospital, but you'd have to break into sealed drug cabinets and would go to jail for stealing them. You can also find them in EMS kits and I do believe the military still issues them in field medical kits. But you can't get your hands on those.
You CAN get them in other countries, however.
Unfortunately, this is illegal.
ALL NITRATES are banned by United States Federal law.
A few years ago, you could search out websites and order them from The Netherlands and a few European countries, but most people had bad luck with that. Sometimes, instead of getting your poppers in the mail, US Customs would confiscate them and send you a letter stating that your package from overseas was being detained. They welcomed you to come get it if you wanted to. Most guys would wisely decline that offer... Having not seen these sites in a while, I think most of them are long gone. But if you want to take that risk, go for it.
I'm not going to retype all the stuff about the various formulas for Jungle Juice again -- it's all in those old posts you read, so check there.
Suffice to say you can get AMYL NITRITE, but not AMYL NITRATE. Alternately, you can get ISOPENTYL NITRATE (if you are lucky), but most times you will get what is legal in the US: ISOPENTYL NITRITE. That's if you buy Jungle Juice.
Email me if you want some additional info which I don't care to repost here at this time.
Here's where you are confused:
It is NOT the "amyl" part of the formula that matters most. It is the NITRATE part. Since nitrates are illegal in the US, you have to settle for NITRITES.
The website you mentioned is NOT selling old poppers. They are selling new, legal poppers with the less powerful NITRITE formula. The binding agent doesn't matter much, except for circumstances wherein the binding agent is more caustic than another, like the isopropyl I discussed above.
The good news is that new poppers are still pretty damn good, at least as compared to the interim "new poppers" that came out before Jungle Juice hit the market with it's isopentyl nitrite formula. And anything is far better than nothing at all, that rotten period of about a year and a half when there were NO poppers anywhere to be found (except in my freezer).
As for the brands you mentioned... I've never tried Kix. I'm quite happy with my JJ. I HAVE tried "Amsterdam Poppers," but not "English Amsterdam." I have no idea if they are the same. The Amsterdam Poppers I tried sucked the big one -- and they also exploded (see "Exploding Poppers" post).
The reason they label poppers as "Amsterdam" or "European" or "Real Poppers" or anything hinting that they are NOT from the US is because it just makes guys think they are from overseas and that they will be getting the "real deal." This is not true. If it is nitrite, it is legal for sale in the US and nitrite is NEW poppers. If you get nitrate by accident sometime (ahem), THAT is the good stuff.
My personally compiled and completely unscientific list of the most popular brands of poppers as decided by my personal preferences and the opinions expressed by other men I've talked to and who have posted here seems to be: Jungle Juice, Rush, Brown Bottle. But everyone has different tastes, though I'll say JJ seems to be riding high on the hit parade for now.
Hope that helps and is a little easier to follow. I still ended up rambling, though. Oh, well. What did you expect?
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