He’s complaining about Boing Boing showing this.
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I know. Allowing myself small fantasies makes my life much more pleasant.
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Law enforcement need to be well-informed what actual threats look like, else you get crap like this.
Whatever you think of our drug laws, Missouri Highway Patrol Officers are expected to bust meth labs, so officers need to be informed what a meth cook looks like – and what it doesn’t.
For example, if you tell someone to look for “separating filter” , they’ll probably think back to the high school chem class they hated and look for something like [this]
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Separatory_funnel_with_oil_and_colored_water.jpg), not a Dawn detergent bottle.
Demonstrating what an actual meth cook might look like, included what materials to look for, is thus helpful for both identifying met labs, and not staging drug raids against places that aren’t meth labs.
This video also lays the ground work for why meth labs are show dangerous: vaporous acids ( fuming HCL), nasty bases ( anhydrous ammonia), and solids that spontaneously burst into flames (lithium) are being used alongside dragster fuel (methanol), jet fuel (kerosene), and ether.
This video seems like a good use of my tax dollars.
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This can’t be real, it’s not even in an RV
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Its done in lieu of retirement benefits.
“You aren’t getting your full pension, but here is how you can supplement your income by making meth”
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I thought it referred to “Neo-Nazis” and their predilection for homemade narcotics.
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Nazi synthesizer.
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Well this certainly speeds things along…
(thank you, I’ll be here all week)
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The obligatory Spun trailer:
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Please post the reverse process…
How to make Pseudoephedrine from Meth – I assume that it is easier to get quantities of meth than it is to purchase a pack of Sudafed.
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Probable cause based on evidence?
That’s crazy talk!
Next you’ll expect them to try de-escalating a situation before they start shooting!
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Spoken like someone who hasn’t done organic chemistry. Yes, this may look like it’s ‘tricky and requires tons of stuff’, but I assure you it’s about as simple a synthesis as you will find for methamphetamine, and is trivial from a lab chemistry perspective. There is an arguably still more user-friendly synthesis that uses hydroiodic acid and red phosphorus to reduce the pseudoephedrine, and by going that route someone could avoid the need for anhydrous ammonia and lithium, but those are closely watched substances and still won’t really save you any steps, just give you slightly more manageable chemicals to work with.
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I think it’s more likely that the Nazis did a reduction in anhydrous ammonia using a different alkali metal, but that the overall parameters were close enough that they decided they could call this the same reaction. However there is no reason they could not have done it with elemental lithium proper, it became commercially available in the 1920s and Germany had, then as now, an extremely advanced chemical industry.
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So, Breaking Bad wasn’t so far off after all.
While it’s great to be sensational and be all like “LOL the cops are releasing a video on how to manufacture meth” I agree with the sentiment that this is almost certainly a training aid to help identify the kind of equipment you’d see in a meth lab.
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Explosion isn’t the risk so much as intense fire hazards. and general misery.
Three of the ingredients will, to use the technical term, really fucking hurt if spilled on a person.
(anhydrous ammonia, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid)
One of the ingredients can spontaneously ignite (lithium).
And the common name for the three solvents are Drag Racing Fuel, Jet Fuel, and Ether.
(methanol, kerosene, ether)
Methanol and Kerosene burn like mad (hence their use as transport fuels), while ether can explode if used in an enclosed space. Also, methanol and ether are intoxicating.
What could go wrong?
[1]
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Thought. Couldn’t the reduction step that needs the lithium or other watchlist chemicals be replaced by electrochemistry? It is unusual in organic chemistry but still has its applications.
And it is much more difficult to put electrons on a watchlist.
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In Oregon it certainly seemed like it must be.
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Indeed: Culshaw PN. Electrochemical reduction of pseudoephedrine to
methylamphetamine. Journal of the Clandestine Laboratory Investigating
Chemists Association 2007
But in any case lithium and anhydrous ammonia are not really practical to watch, which is why they try to restrict the pseudoephedrine instead, and the electrochemical reduction still uses that.
There are many, many routes to methamphetamine, though. One of the reasons it’s such a problem is that it’s relatively easy to synthesize even if you don’t have pseudoephedrine. Some other drugs, like LSD or various fentanyls, are sufficiently difficult that you really need either one of a few precursors (which the DEA can watch) or real, professional-grade chemistry skills and equipment. Which is why when they bust one of the few underground manufacturers of those chemicals it actually can dent or even eliminate the supply for a little while. Not so with meth, there are literally thousands of amateurs who could make it even without access to ephedrine/pseudoephedrine.
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I was being somewhat snarky :
BoingBoing used to be awesome, until the entire editorial board started doing meth.
TRUE FACT.
The only Boinger who is NOT a meth-head is the publisher, @jlw, and that’s just because he won’t let anything get in the way of his habit of drinking 6 quarts of oil a day. Claims its good for his colon, or some California nonsense.
And also @beschizza who, I have on good authority, mainlines powdered unicorn-horn twice daily.
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