Making Crystal Meth - Breaking Bad
Wednesday January 30, 2008
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Now... just because it's easy to make crystal meth doesn't mean it's smart. First off, it's highly illegal. It's also decently hazardous to your health. In the US, a typical meth lab employs something called the 'Red, White, and Blue Process', which entails hydrogenation of the hydroxyl group on the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine molecule. The red is red phosphorus, white is the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, and blue is iodine, used to make hydroiodic acid. If you aren't careful, you can expose yourself to highly toxic phosphine gas. White phosphorus with sodium hydroxide produces the gas, usually as a result of overheating red phosphorus, plus white phosphorus can autoignite and blow up the meth lab. In the first episode of "Breaking Bad", the chemistry-prof-turned-meth-chef gets away from some bad guys by purposely cooking up phosphine to use as a poison. In addition to phosphine and phosphorus, various nasty vapors may be found floating around a meth lab, such as chloroform, ether, acetone, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, methylamine, iodine, hydroiodic acid, lithium or sodium, mercury, and hydrogen gas.
Although meth is second only to alcohol and marijuana in terms of drug popularity in many parts of the US, there are some really excellent reasons why I'm more likely to grab a beer than mess with crystal meth. It causes nerve damage that produces degeneration of brain tissue reminiscent of what you get from Alzheimer's, is associated with meth mouth (in which your teeth rot and fall out), and tends to cause long-lasting behavioral changes even in people who only use it once or twice. I would guess most of the more heinous side effects of crystal meth result from contamination of methamphetamine with the reagents or solvents (most crystal meth is of abysmally low purity), since methamphetamines have reputable prescribed uses, too. Even so, I'll stick with coffee as my preferred pick-me-up. The tv show seems pretty good so far. The characters are interesting and I've certainly learned more about crystal meth than I knew before.
How to Make Aspirin | Anabolic Steroids
Photo: Crystal Meth (US DEA)
Comments
Thanks for the update as well as your site. It’s an awesome reference for my students.
The show shows Walt doing a demonstration where he sprays something into a flame and causes it to flame up very colorfully…how did he do this?
G.R.:
Those are simply solutions of different salts dissolved in ethanol. The solution that made the purple flame for example was a potassium salt in ethanol.
I added instructions for coloring a bunsen burner flame.
thanx i used it for my project i love this web site
HI GUYS , M JACK FROM GLASGOW , IVE JUST STUMBLED ON TO THIS SITE TRYING TO FIND OUT THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE SPEED , IVE SUFFERED YEARS OF DEPRESSION AND BAD TIMES TILL ABOUT 18 MONTHS AGO WHEN I TRIED SPEED FOR THE FIRST TIME ,
IT LIFTS ME LIKE NOTHING I KNOW COULD DO
SO IM HOOKED IN A WAY I SUPPOSE BUT IM 45 YEARS OLD NOW WITH A GOOD BUSINESSS AND FAMILY , I SWEAR ON MY LIFE I ONLY WANT THE RECIPE FOR MYSELF TO MAKE IT , I WOULDNT TRUST ANYONE TO TELL THEM , IM RUNNING OUT OF MONEY FAST BUYING IT OFF DEALERS AND BEING RIPPED OFF EMAIL ME PLEASE SOMEONE WITH A HEART , HONESTLY IM A FIT GUY AND EVEN IF IT KILLED ME IN ANOTHER YEAR , IT WILL BE GOOD HAPPY TIMES ,
DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND ME HERE .
JACKCHRIS1234@YAHOO.CO.UK
I have the exact same problem; buying often bad and expensive “speed” from dealers on the street. I want to find out how to make my own “amphetamine” and so save a lot of time and moeny; please help me! Ulf.
I realize that it has it’s dangers and I believe that it is demonized by law in order to take advantage of those stupid enough to play with it. Governments that prey on their citizens, especially their poor and impoverished, should be punished under the same capitol punishment laws that deter corruption in other parts of the world. We need change and we need it desperately. This has gone on long enough and those responsible for jailing the impoverished should be jailed themselves.
LET ME SMOKE THAT PLZ
Dear Anne Marie:
Though your post is quite informative and useful in a general sense, unfortunately it faults in it being disproportionately bent towards the “cons” of Crystal Meth use. You give specifics as far as the negative side effects but only lightly graze over the “pros” of this substance. For example you fail to mention how in the United States a legal version of Crystal Meth is prescribed by doctors and psychiatrists. This medicine is called Desoxyn, and, like its “cousin” Concerta, it’s currently being used with relatively good results in the treatment of conditions such as ADD and ADHD. Unlike Concerta though (which chemically is not a methamphetamine), Desoxyn produces fewer side effects. Yet, unlike Concerta, doctors and psychiatrists are terrified by the possibility of prescribing it due to how Crystal Meth has been demonized over the years. So, a less effective (and quite debilitating, if you ask me) drug is currently being given to hopeful patients, while a much better one (which, obviously, requires a closer watch by doctors due to its higher risk of addiction than Concerta) is kept hidden from them.
This is not to say that I am advocating the illegal purchase and use of Crystal Meth by the population at large. I’m simply pointing out that you faulted when you avoided (deliberately or not) to present us with some specific examples about Crystal Meth’s “pros”.
As per what’s good or not to an individual, I’ll use the following example in the hope to drive home a more general statement. Spending hours watching inane soap operas on TV is not very healthy for the watcher’s brain (especially in the long run). Also, the frequent ad breaks, end up damaging the watcher’s attention span and focus. Third, such a “habit” (to use a less “demonizing” term) has the side effect of keeping the watcher indoors and away from more useful and beneficial activities (especially, the physically engaging ones like sports, the gym, etc.) Fourth, the ads themselves act as a mental conditioning. It is generally understood that TV ads are created and designed for the deliberate purpose of modifying people’s behaviors, purpose achieved by undermining the watcher’s self-confidence and stimulating his/her sense of inadequacy and dissatisfaction about his/her choices, lifestyle, appearance, possessions, etc. Clearly, a highly and very destructive process. Yet, this type of “habit” is not even warned against, and of course, no one touch the ads!
Am I right?
Thank you!
Mark
they making it reel hard to by sudafed at longs now days, i have to go country side to pick up enuff sudafed 4 cook sum more