Drying toluene?

[pincus]

made strongly alkaline with 25% aq. NaOH and then extracted with 2x50 ml toluene. The combined alkaline extracts was dried over MgSO4 and the solvent removed by distillation. The residual oil was dissolved in 200 ml EtOAc...

 
If you are going to distill off the toluene should you still dry it using MgSO4? Won't all the water be removed before all the toluene is gone?

[Rhodium]

First a toluene/water azeotrope will distill off, then the remaining toluene.  If your dissolved product can hydrolyze or decompose when heated in the presence of water, it might be a good idea to dry the toluene first.

[pincus]

How about MDMA base, MDA base or Meth base?