Methylamine is sold as a solution in methanol, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, or water, or as the anhydrous gas in pressurized metal containers.

[4] This was made possible by Kazimierz Smoleński [pl] and his wife Eugenia who discovered amination of alcohols, including methanol, on alumina or kaolin catalyst after WWI, filed two patent applications in 1919[5] and published an article in 1921.

[11] The colorless hydrochloride salt can be converted to an amine by the addition of a strong base, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH): Another method entails reducing nitromethane with zinc and hydrochloric acid.

[15] Representative commercially significant chemicals produced from methylamine include the pharmaceuticals ephedrine and theophylline, the pesticides carbofuran, carbaryl, and metham sodium, and the solvents N-methylformamide and N-methylpyrrolidone.

[19] In the United States, methylamine is controlled as a List 1 precursor chemical by the Drug Enforcement Administration[20] due to its use in the illicit production of methamphetamine.

[21] Fictional characters Walter White and Jesse Pinkman use aqueous methylamine as part of a process to synthesize methamphetamine in the AMC series Breaking Bad.