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**************************************************************
alt.drugs Clandestine Chemistry
Primer & FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Version 2.51
95-05-19
(c) 1995 Yogi Shan
yshan@bnr.ca
**************************************************************
"Give me an underground laboratory,
half a dozen atom-smashers, and a
beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil
waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee,
and I care not who writes the nation's
laws."
-- S.J. Perelman
Copyright Notice
----------------
This document is Copyright (c) 1995 Yogi Shan. This text, in
whole or in part, may not be sold in any medium, including but
not limited to electronic, CD-ROM, or print, without the express
written permission of Yogi Shan.
Permission is granted to reproduce for individual, personal, non-
commercial use, in electronic form *ONLY*, provided that no
part of this document is modified in any way, including this notice.
I reserve the right to revoke this permission at any time (though I
don't presently anticipate doing so).
Any commercial, organizational, institutional, or governmental
use is expressly forbidden without prior written permission.
REWARD OFFERED!: If you know of any violation of this copyright
notice, please show your gratitude to the author for making
available this document, by letting him know. As well,
I'll give you 25% of any damage award (net) I get from legal action.
If you have found this document of use, a $5 donation is requested
to any of the following: the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), Amnesty International, or any schizophrenia/mental health
charitable organization. Please let the author (yshan@bnr.ca) know
if you have made such a donation. It will truly brighten his day.
Thanks!
Revision History
----------------
Initial Draft Release...........................v. 1.0 950319
Major Revision: correction of an
ungodly number of typos & errors; most
sections revised, and new material added....... v. 2.0 950419
Added Synthetic Heroin section, & amphet.
impurities, and many small corrections..........v. 2.5 950518
Acknowledgements
----------------
Thanks to Malcolm, Denni, and Lamont for their comments and input.
Disclaimer
----------
Nothing in this document should [obviously] be construed as
advocating or promoting the criminal violation of any laws.
Neither does the author take responsibility should you poison,
injure, or blow yourself or others to smithereens doing
something alluded to in this document.
Introduction
------------
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
UseNet is one of the most amazing phenomenon I have ever seen:
a dynamic synthesis of human knowledge, thought, and under-
standing. Where else but on the 'net could I post a comment
about an obscure line from the SF cult movie "Bladerunner" in
the evening, and have half a dozen follow-ups from fellow
aficionados scattered across the globe, by the next day?
But as the human spirit soars to unimaginable heights, so
does it wallow in the gutter of depravity with equal, if
not greater joy.
As a high traffic newsgroup, alt.drugs generates about 130
posts a day. And according to news.lists estimates (Jan.
1995), has 120,000 daily readers, a possibly conserv-
ative figure.
A topic of continuing interest -- enough to result in the
1994 spawning of its own subgroup, alt.drugs.chemistry --
is the subject of "underground" or "clandestine" chemistry:
the covert manufacture of illicit drugs.
In an undoubtedly vain attempt to stem the flow of wasted
bandwidth arising from idiotic "How do you make
<illegal_drug>?" questions on the alt.drugs* and sci.chem
newsgroups, I have assembled this FAQ/Primer.
**************************************************************
Table of Contents
-----------------
1. Net.resources
alt.drugs
alt.drugs.chemistry
sci.chem
misc.legal & misc.legal.moderated
anon remailers
2. Books: The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly
Psychedelic Chemistry
PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story
Marijuana Chemistry
The Anarchist Cookbook
Other Books
Pop Culture
3. So You Want to make <Illegal_Drug>
The Merck Index
Chemical Abstracts
4. Historical References on Underground Chemistry
"No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
Speed Labs
LSD Manufacturing
A Brief Bibliography on Synthetic Heroin
5. "You Have Greatly Misunderstood the Purpose of the Net"
Trade Secrets
Killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg
"Please e-mail me the answer to my [Stupid] Question."
"Why Didn't Anyone Answer my [Stupid] Question?"
Is the DEA on the Net?
Can I Rely on Net.answers to my Questions?
6. The Law
7. Morality & Ethics
**************************************************************
1. Net.resources
**************************************************************
"It's propping up the governments,
In Columbia & Peru,
You ask any DEA man,
He'll say, 'There's nothin' we can do.'
From the Office of the President,
Right down to me & you.
Me & you."
-- "Smuggler's Blues"
Glenn Frey/Jack Tempchin (1984)
alt.drugs
---------
A document listing a plethora of net.resources may be found at:
http://hyperreal.com/drugs/faqs/resources.html
ftp://hyperreal.com/drugs/00-MORE.FILES
Other WWW sites are:
http://www.pitt.edu/~mbtst3/druginfo.html
http://www.hyperreal.com/~lamont/pharm/pharm.html
There are a variety of excellent FAQs and other documents
available in the hyperreal.com anonymous FTP site (the
"official" alt.drugs FTP site). In case it changes (making
this reference stale), the pointer to the FTP site is
regularly posted to alt.drugs as the alt.drugs FAQ and
the Net Resources FAQ.
The "Australian Natural Highs FAQ" and "Chemical Extraction FAQ"
are particularly note-worthy, since extraction of botanical
drugs is the procedure most likely to be successful for the
amateur. The chemical synthesis section of "PIHKAL" (supra) may
also be found at hyperreal.com.
The book "E for Ecstasy" (1993), by the Englishman, Nicholas
Saunders (Nicholas@neals.cityscape.co.uk) is also available
at hyperreal.com as well as at:
http://www.cityscape.co.uk/users/bt22/
There's an interesting piece in the Notes section (at the end),
describing the trials and tribulations of clandestine MDMA
manufacture as experienced by some English entrepreneurs. The
appendix (by Alexander Shulgin) lists a number of synthetic
references for MDMA, though it is far from complete. The MDMA
FAQ at hyperreal.com has a good chemistry section too.
As well, some very high quality chemical and pharmacological
information is occasionally posted by some readers of alt.drugs.
However, the signal-to-noise ratio is very low (< 1:100), so
you have to pay close attention. Even worse are the idiots
who have read a book or two and now fancy themselves as
experts. They are not.
As with the rest of the net, reputation is a good *indication*.
Majority rules is not. Never gamble where issues concern
health, safety, or freedom. In the interests of eugenics,
feel free to ignore the previous statement.
Though the focus is on "smart" drugs, alt.psychoactives is a
related group with a much lower traffic level that you might
want to check out/post to. Ditto for alt.drugs.psychedelic.
alt.drugs.chemistry
-------------------
Make it easy for the DEA: post your chemistry questions here.
After all, we wouldn't want them having to wade through a lot
of silly "I'm really baked! (Hi, Mom!)" posts.
Less well propagated on the net (by half!) than alt.drugs, for
obvious reasons. In order to maximize your audience, cross-post to
alt.drugs if you're going to post here.
sci.chem
--------
Many a great mind will attempt to tap into the knowledge-base
of *real* chemists in their glorious quest for riches, er, I
mean enlightenment, by posting thinly disguised drug manufact-
uring questions to sci.chem. Usually related to the manufact-
ure of methamphetamine, these queries generally fool only the
totally naive.
The questions are generally phrased around the topic of
reduction of benzylic alcohols, reductive amination, or
the ever-popular benzyl methyl ketone, the archaic pre-IUPAC
name for P-2-P, the notorious (and illegal) amphetamine
precursor.
Such questions seldom produce the desired result, though I
suppose there's no harm in trying, as long as you don't mind
being flamed, or having your name passed to the relevant
civil authorities. On the other hand, I've also seen some
craftily worded drug synthesis questions successfully run
the gauntlet without detection.
Posting anonymously tips off many people to the true nature
of your (nefarious) motivations, by the way.
misc.legal & misc.legal.moderated
---------------------------------
Get all your legal questions answered NOW. There's no Newsfeed
in Leavenworth.
anon remailers
--------------
Anon.penet.fi is good, the many U.S. cypherpunks anon
remailers are better, and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy),
for encrypting e-mail, should be de rigueur.
The fact that these utilities are easily available
(check out alt.security.pgp, alt.privacy.anon-server,
alt.anonymous, and sci.crypt; or wait for the two
PGP FAQs to appear in news.answers or alt.answers;
ask around if you need help!), but not widely used,
is _de facto_ evidence that drug use impairs good
judgement, if not the mental faculties, in general.
Finger remailer-list@kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu for a list
of various anonyous remailers.
*************************************************************
2. Books: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
*************************************************************
"[It's] the last American folk adventure...
the light in the moon...narcotics agents
chasing you all over the land. It's a
fantasy made real."
-- George Marquardt, convicted
drug chemist, on clandestine
chemistry
As with the net in general, there is a paucity of accurate
information available on the subject of illicit drugs. Even
the fact of publication is not necessarily a guarantee of
any sort of technical legitimacy, particularly, though not
limited to, "counter-culture" efforts.
There are many reasons why people write books, but making
money is one of the biggest. When the subject is of an
illegal nature, the likelihood of inadequate, incomplete,
or blatantly wrong information is even higher than usual.
Companies like Paladin, Delta Press, and Loompanics are
typical purveyors of such trashy misinformation under cover
of the U.S. First Amendment.
Ever seen the list of "underground" books by Ragnar Benson
& Duncan Long? How many things can these guys be "expert"
in? Not bloody likely. What's that maxim? If you can't
do, teach.
One of the more egregious examples of gross error in the
drug book realm, was the "Cocaine Consumer's Handbook" by
one David Lee (Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1976).
In it, Mr. Lee flogged the notorious "Clorox [bleach] Test"
for cocaine. This test, described in excruciating detail,
and complete with color photographs, purported to detect
not only eight different adulterants and diluents, but the
relative percentage purity of the cocaine itself.
Alas, several years later, the test was finally unmasked as
utter nonsense by PharmChem, a reputable Menlo Park, CA
street drug analysis organization.
Undeterred, Mr. Lee -- shameless scallywag and possible shill
for the Clorox Company -- came out in 1981 with a brand new
book, "The Cocaine Handbook: An Essential [sic] Reference."
Alluding coyly to the PharmChem "controversy", Lee continued
to include the Clorox Test (now illustrated with black & white
photos), but added an equally useless "foil burn" test (with
color pics), along with the detailed procedure for home
manufacture of freebase ("crack") cocaine.
Cocaine use had by now begun to lose its cachet, as well as
more than the occasional user, so the ever-helpful Lee
covered his bases and assuaged his conscience by including
a dozen-odd page list of addiction service agencies.
So it goes.
There are many other such errors large and small that have
made it into print. Books like the "Anarchist Cookbook"
(infra) are ridden with them. For instance grafting a hop
plant onto a marijuana root (debunked by Crombie & Crombie
(1975) and Starks (1990), infra), and making meth from soft
coal, ammonia, and bluing compound (described in "Complete
Guide to the Street Drug Game" by Scott French. Secaucus,
NJ: Lyle Stuart (1976)) are all complete bunk.
Militating against the writing of quality books is that the
fact of the matter is that if you gain enough knowledge to
be a competent underground chemist, you can snag good paying
employment -- and not risk your freedom and mortal soul
through involvement with the drug business.
(Then again, there's the infamous case of the DuPont chemist
["Chem & Eng News" 851223 & 860310] who, inspired by lurid
media accounts of Fentanyl analog manufacture, decided to go
into the synthetic heroin business out of the blue.
Unfortunately for him, he had no contacts for distributing
it. In attempting to make such contacts he was promptly
indicted, convicted, and sentenced to a long prison term.
For apostasy, more than anything else.
Cf. "New Scientist", 930807, p. 21-22, for a different case at
Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals.)
Nonetheless, reliable books on clandestine chemistry have
been published. Below are some of the more accurate
efforts I have seen.
It is no coincidence that the "good" ones originate from
Berkeley, California, a center of politically-motivated
underground chemistry since the early 60's.
These books may be illegal and/or subject to confiscation
by postal/customs authorities in countries such as Australia.
"Psychedelic Chemistry"
----------------------
M.V.Smith. Port Townsend, Washington: Loompanics (1981).
(loompanx@olympus.net) (P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend WA 98368).
Largely abstracted from the specialist literature, PC is the
hands-down leader in a very small field. It's a classic.
LSD, mescaline, psychedelic amphetamines, and THC are
thoroughly covered, among others. One of the more interesting
"recipes" is an actual underground one for the large-scale
production of LSD; to wit, a 2.6 million (!) dose batch.
M.V. Smith (a reference to Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange
Land") is a pseudonym for Michael Starks, author of
"Marijuana Chemistry" (see below). PC was originally
published by San Francisco's RipOff Press, and --
unfortunately for the budding felon -- requires a
thorough grounding in organic chemistry to make heads
or tails of. Though out of date, it is generally accurate.
There are two known serious mistakes. One where hydrogen
peroxide is substituted for water, with possibly
unfortunate results.
The second error is the extension of the Ritter
reaction to MDA. According to JACS 74:763 (1952),
this reaction apparently fails with safrole and other
ring-substituted allylbenzenes.
Loompanics also sells a few other books on clandestine
chemistry, which range from trash to OK. An example is
Jim DeKorne's "Psychedelic Shamanism", which is in the
worthless trash category.
DeKorne is apparently a devotee of botanical psychedelics
-- though not devoted enough to bother accurately
documenting chemical extraction procedures.
"PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story"
------------------------------
("Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved"), Alexander &
Ann Shulgin. Berkeley, California: Transform Press (1991).
(P.O. Box 13675, Berkeley, CA 94701).
Authored by a published, legitimate, and respected chemist
(his wife is co-author), PIHKAL thoroughly outlines the
synthesis of a couple of hundred psychedelic amphetamines
(N,a-alkylarylethylamines and congeners), including MDMA.
PIHKAL is an expanded and metamorphosed version of a
lengthy chapter by Shulgin in the "Handbook of Psycho-
pharmacology", 11:243-333 (1978).
Like PC, you have to be a chemist to understand the
recipes, since the explanation of the synthetic routes
are either sparse or non-existent. The recipe section
is available at the hyperreal.com FTP site.
It is believed that Dr. Shulgin is less respected -- in more
staid circles -- since publication of his magnum opus.
"Marijuana Chemistry"
--------------------
Michael Starks. Berkeley, California: Ronin Press (1990).
(P.O. Box 1035, Berkeley, CA 94701).
A detailed examination, written for the layman, of the world's
most thoroughly persecuted peasant inebriant. Extensively covers
potency issues in growing, home hash oil manufacture, and
isomerization.
Good discussion on the pros and cons of various extraction
solvents. Contains an updated section on THC synthesis from
PC, which Starks also wrote. Originally published as
"Marijuana Potency" (And/Or Press, 1977).
"The Anarchist Cookbook"
-----------------------
William Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Barricade Books (1971)
($22 [includes S&H] from P.O.Box 1401, Secaucus, N.J. 07096).
I mention the infamous AC because of its notoriety, popular
appeal (over a million copies in circulation), and simply
because it was the first.
The AC, containing sections on the home manufacture of drugs
and explosives, was the first mass market publication created
with the express purpose of subverting modern technology in
order to overthrow the government.
For this reason alone, the book is a classic.
Unfortunately, the book is outdated and full of all sorts of
mistakes, though most of the dangerous ones are confined to
the explosives chapter. The DMT recipe will *not* work (you
have to use anhydrous dimethylamine, not the 40% aqueous
commerical solution that the AC implies), for instance,
Aldrich won't sell you trimethoxyphenylacetonitrile, and the
"bananadine" and peanut skin recipes are nonsense.
Thus, I cannot recommend the AC except as a curiosity, a
stepping stone to more serious works, or to impress cheap
dates with your hipness.
But then again, with its healthy dollop of revolutionary
leftist ideology, I think that the AC was never meant to
be so much an end in itself, but more a beginning.
Other Books
-----------
"Cannabis Alchemy" (by D.Gold), "Dr. Atomic's Marijuana
Multiplier" (by Larry Todd), "Basic Drug Manufacture",
and "The Book of Acid" (by Adam Gottlieb) are several
old, but reasonably accurate pamphlets. They are
are available from a number of counter-culture suppliers
(such as FS Book Co., P.O. Box 417457, Sacramento, CA
95841) that advertise in such drug publications as the
mass-market "High Times" (hightimes@echonyc.com) and
the smaller "Psychedelic Illuminations"
(PIMagazine@aol.com or jkent@jkent.seanet.com)
(P.O. Box 3186, Fullerton, California 92634).
There are other books available from Loompanics that I
have seen mentioned in alt.drugs, however I off-loaded
my rakish friends many years ago, and so haven't had
the opportunity to borrow and review them (donations
cheerfully accepted!).
These include "Recreational Drugs" (by Prof. Buzz), "Secrets
of Methamphetamine Manufacture" (3rd ed., Uncle Fester),
and "The Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug
Laboratories" (Jack B. Nimble). No word on whether a "Get
Out of Jail Free" Card comes with purchase. The imaginative
pseudonyms may give you some clue as to the quality of
these books, which is quite uneven.
Fester seems to focus on the Leuckart reaction, which though
simple to do, has a rather low yield. It's obvious he was
clever enough to locate the Org. Synth. Collective Volumes,
though this is not particularly clever, in my mind. He repeats
the Ritter reaction error mentioned previously.
Pop Culture
-----------
In the fiction category, "The Alchemist" by Kenneth Goddard
(N.Y.: Bantam, 1985), is a cliche-ridden potboiler about
a manufacturer of PCP analogs. Gives the whole business
a bad name [the fiction book business, that is].
A sleazy biker chemist is portrayed as a minor character
in the 1991 movie "Rush". He's the one that doses
the female undercover cop [Jennifer Jason Leigh] with some
sort of psychedelic.
"Fixing the Shadow", stars Charlie Sheen as a narc
infilitrating some bikers running a speed lab.
A nice color poster showing a ninja-ed out raiding party
member sporting a "DEA Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement
Team" patch is available from Delta Press
(deltagrp@eldonet.com) for $11.95 + 3.75 S&H.
**************************************************************
3. So You Want to Make <Illegal_Drug>
**************************************************************
"And then there came the night of the greatest ever raid,
They arrested every drug that had ever been made,
They took 82 laws,
Through 82 doors,
And they didn't halt the pull,
Till the cells were all full,
Cuz Julie's workin' for the Drug Squad,
Julie's been workin' for the Drug Squad."
-- "Julie's in the Drug Squad"
The Clash (1978)
The "Merck Index"
----------------
I can answer 90% of the technical questions posted to
alt.drugs by merely leafing through the copy I have at
home of this exceedingly useful book. It's truly the
chemist's bible. The Merck is a dictionary of thousands
of chemicals, listing their structure, basic chemical and
pharmacological properties, and pointers to synthesis and
more detailed info.
"The Merck" -- as it's referred to by those in the know --
will be in the reference section of any university science
library, and any decent public library. No, it isn't
available on the Net.
The Merck -- not to be confused with the "Merck Manual" -- is
a window to the scientific specialist literature. Expect to
have to learn some chemistry to use it effectively. Your
librarian can help you on locating the journals referenced
(Don't worry, I doubt she'll have the slightest clue what you're
up to.) Most of the articles you seek will be well-thumbed.
Some will have been razored out of their volume: living
testimony to the morals of many a drug user, unaware that
desecrating books is the mark of low-born barbarians, and
a sin against God and Man.
"Chemical Abstracts"
-------------------
Most of the syntheses referenced in the Merck will be in old,
obscure, and sometimes difficult to obtain journals, even if
you do live near a university.
[Side Note: A number of people may have been needlessly
harmed by a poorly made batch of the synthetic opiate,
MPPP, because a paper on a previous instance of this
happening was rejected by the mainstream medical
journals (it was finally published in an obscure journal,
"Psychiatry Research").]
Have no fear, Chem. Abs. is here!
Though the actual paper is *always* best, abstracts of U.S.
and foreign chemical patents and journal articles can also
be found in this invaluable journal. Any chem student, or
the reference librarian, can show you how to use it.
You'll have to learn even more chemistry to effectively use
Chem. Abs. (Hint: Me = methyl, Ac = acetyl).
Chem.Abs. is also good if you only read English, providing
a convenient translation of foreign papers. (Personally, I
have found that being able to translate German -- as well
as the occasional French and Italian paper -- extremely
useful in my forays into the literature).
*************************************************************
4. Historical References on Underground Chemistry
*************************************************************
"I had a number of projects that I wished to pursue
in France. I wanted to learn to speak the language,
I wanted to break my father loose from his grief
over the death of my mother, and especially, I
wanted to put a methylenedioxy group in place of
two of the methoxy groups in Trimethoxyamphetamine."
-- Dr. Alexander Shulgin
"PIHKAL"
Ah yes. History, "the lie that all historians can agree on."
(Mencken).
There is a dearth of historical information available on the subject
of underground/clandestine chemistry. Considering the shadowy and
covert nature of the business, this is really not surprising.
If I've missed any noteworthy publications, please let me know.
I could also have written sections on MDMA, Quaaludes, PCP/Angel
Dust, and heroin (both natural and synthetic analogs), but for
reasons of brevity, I won't (except for a biblio on synthetic
heroin). Interestingly, different drugs have radically different
stories reflecting their unique origins, histories, markets, and
pharmacology.
Going back a few decades, the moonshining business in the rural
Eastern U.S. provides an interesting historical antecedent to the
modern day drug manufacturing business. Serious researchers are
advised to examine this angle.
I found the parallels quite fascinating, from the analogous
precursor controls on sugar, to the flurry of Federal laws passed.
"No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
----------------------------------------
"A little poison now and then, that makes for
agreeable dreams. And much poison in the end,
for an agreeable death."
-- "Thus Spake Zarathustra"
Friedrich Nietzsche
Probably the best layman's overview of the chemistry of illicit
drugs may be found in the ground-breaking paper, "The Clandestine
Drug Laboratory Situation in the U.S.", J.For.Sci., 28(1):18-31
(1983) by Richard S. Frank, then Chief of the DEA's Forensic
Science Division.
Complete with chemical diagrams, and covering the detailed synthetic
routes to methamphetamine, amphetamine, P-2-P, MDA, PCP, and metha-
qualone (quaaludes), the actual literature citations are conspic-
uously absent, no doubt to prevent amateurs from using the article
as a cookbook.
Nonetheless, publication of such a complete blueprint represented
a significant shift in strategy for the DEA's Forensic Division,
which apparently decided that underground laboratory activity had
become so widespread (it had: see next section) that the
advantages of dissemination in the open literature -- education
of state, local, and international forensic scientists and
investigators -- outweighed the disadvantages.
It is also interesting to note that this article deliberately
provided clandestine chemists with a correction to a wrong
procedure. An obscure method for producing methamphetamine
involves the condensation of the Grignard, benzyl magnesium
chloride, with other reactants. However the order of mixing
of these reagents in one of the reaction's original literature
cites (a Chem. Abs. abstract of a British Patent) is incorrect.
This error was then reproduced in an underground drug-making guide.
Unfortunately, even incorrectly mixed, instead of the reaction
simply failing, a white, crystalline -- and toxic -- solid
will still be produced ("Microgram", DEA, unpublished).
Apparently open source publication was authorized with the
knowledge that the information would reach clandestine chemists,
and thereby avoid some potential deaths.
No doubt this departure from the DEA's normal caginess must
have sparked heated internal debate over its propriety.
Speed Labs
----------
"Polydichloric Euthimal! Those stupid bastards
are taking Polydichloric Euthimal! It's an
amphetamine. Strongest thing you ever saw.
Makes you feel *wonderful*."
-- Dr. Lazarus
"Outland"
The amphetamines occupy a unique position in the world of
underground chemistry, in that they are highly marketable,
profitable, as well as easy to make, chemically-speaking.
The rise of the speed lab during the early 60's is documented
in "Love Needs Care" (David Smith & John Luce. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1970), a chronicle of the travails of the Haight-Ashbury
Free Clinic during the Summer of Love, "The Speed Culture"
(Lester Grinspoon & Peter Hedblom), and "Licit and Illicit
Drugs" (Edward Brecher. Mt. Vernon, NY: Consumers Union, 1972).
The first two books are out-of-print, but all three are classic
works well worth locating for anyone interested in a variety of
aspects of drug use in society.
The years 1979/1980 ushered in an explosion in the number of
clandestine speed labs, and an eleven-fold increase in speed
lab busts, as the DEA and State narcotics enforcement
agencies became proficient in tracking them down (GAO Report
GGD-82-8 (1981) and Frank (1983), supra.).
February 1980 saw the scheduling of the main clandestine precursor,
phenyl-2-propanone (aka P-2-P). Within a few years the
unregulated l-ephedrine had replaced P-2-P as the main
methamphetamine precursor. Since P-2-P produces the racemic
mixture, and l-ephedrine the more potent d-isomer, this was
actually a step backward, from a law enforcement and public
health perspective.
Tandem legislative efforts culminated in a 1989 Texas State
Law (Texas Health & Safety Code 481.080 - .81) making it a
felony to purchase a round-bottomed flask (and other glassware)
without a license ("Science", 263:753 (1994) and "New Scientist",
941022, p. 88).
As a result of the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine,
which appears to be centered in California and Texas, and
is strongly correlated with the Big Four bike gangs (HAs,
Banditos, Pagans, and Outlaws), who both finance the labs and
run the distribution network, what I call the "golden age" of
underground chemistry -- the late 60s to mid 70s -- is over.
[One story I've heard was an HA method from the old days
in Northern California. A 55-gallon steel drum would be
filled with a mixture of P-2-P, methylamine, aluminum foil,
etc. The lid was quickly sealed, and the drum rolled into a
mountain stream for cooling. On returning after three days,
if the drum had not exploded, it would now be filled with
raw methamphetamine ready for purification.]
The 60's bred a generation of "hippie" chemists, smugglers,
and high-level dealers at least superficially motivated by
idealism and the radical rejectionist politics of the times.
This change of attitude was not lost on the pursuers:
"It appears that the illicit production of dangerous drugs
has become an intellectual and professional challenge to
many individuals associated with their misuse." (Gunn et al.,
"Clandestine Drug Labs", J.For.Sci. 15(1):51-64 (1970)).
Changing times and the maturation of law enforcement efforts
to counter the drug threat invariably elicited a "changing of
the guard", as these idealists retired or were busted, and
their organizations dismembered.
In a form of negative evolution, the idealists were replaced
by common criminals, attracted from their normal anti-social
pursuits solely by the easy, and outrageously high profit
margins of drug trafficking, and frequently schooled in jail
by the imprisoned old-timers.
Ironically, the problem had been metastasized by the very
efforts of society to stamp it out.
The end result was an amoral business aggressively pursued by
the government, which could dismantle organizations like a
domino game, rolling over one defendant after another with
ruthless efficiency. A business riddled with informants and
marked by endemic violence, rip-offs, and government sting
operations.
The wary should note that the mere purchase or attempted purchase of
laboratory equipment and/or chemicals of any type can be considered
"suspicious" unless through an established, legitimate company or
educational institution.
Sorry kids, trying to buy chemicals with cash or a money order, or
using a fake letterhead just doesn't cut it anymore. It hasn't for
years.
As a result, the manufacture of controlled substances within the
U.S. is almost exclusively controlled by organized professional
gangs. The days of the basement cowboy chemist are long gone.
Between 1977 and 1984, over a dozen papers -- mostly originating
in Europe -- appeared in the literature (J.For.Sci. 22(1):40-52
(1971), Arch.Krim. 162(5-6):171-175 (1978), J.For.Sci 23(4):
693-700 (1978), Bull on Narc. 36(1):47-57 (1984)) on the
impurities found in clandestine speed labs. Focussing mainly
on the Leuckart reaction, which is easy to find in the
literature, and thus popular as a synthetic route, this
research sought to "fingerprint" the output of these labs.
A forensic technique first applied to illicit heroin, the idea
is to quantitatively analyze impurities with a view to
determining the source of the drugs.
It was determined that the Leuckart reaction in particular
was a veritable witch's brew of incomplete and side reactions,
comprising up to 25% of the reaction mixture: amphetamine
dimers, pyridones, pyrimidines, pyridines, polycylcic compounds,
and N-formyl derivatives.
Unfortunately, the same legal pressure that seeks to root
out clandestine production makes the solvents necessary for
purification harder and more dangerous to get, and forces
the use of unsafe procedures, or short cuts that make drug
use even more medically dangerous than it should be.
LSD Manufacturing
-----------------
"Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals."
-- graffito
The clandestine manufacture of LSD is logistically
complex, requiring a variety of difficult to obtain
"watched" chemicals, and a comparatively sophisticated
lab setup. Notwithstanding the previous statement,
like any of the illicit syntheses I have examined,
the reaction, if done in a typical organic chem
laboratory, would be considered routine.
The LSD trade is unique within the drug world,
in that those who are involved seem to be
motivated by genuine, if misguided, altruism.
As such, there seems to be no violence associated
with any level of the LSD trade, and acid chemists
and dealers (and many users) typically have a
semi-mystical, proselytising reverence for the
substance (cf. PIHKAL). As a result, laboratory
busts are rare, and consumption has remained more
or less steady (in the tens of millions of hits per
year), since the late 60s.
Augustus Owsley Stanley III was the first major
"acid chemist", and he is considered a legendary
figure from that era by some. His story is
chronicled in "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"
by Tom Wolfe (Bantam, 1981).
Other articles on Owsley worth checking out are
"The Creator" ("Newsweek", 680108), and, more
recently, "Owsley & Me" ("Rolling Stone", 821125).
Owsley, who first burst onto the public stage when
his name was splashed across the front-page of the
"New York Times", was put out of business by his
1967 arrest at his suburban Orinda, California lab
site with a quarter of million hits of LSD and a
quarter kilo of STP ("Owsley Guilty: 67.5 Righteous
Grams", "Rolling Stone", 691115, p. 14).
Owsley passed the torch to associates Nicholas
Sand and Tim Scully, of "Orange Sunshine" [ALD-52]
fame, along with the mysterious Ronald Stark.
Sand and Scully were involved with supplying
psychedelics to the Brotherhood of Eternal Love,
a California hash smuggling and LSD distribution
ring.
ALD-52, N-acetyl-LSD, was actually the first "designer
drug", though it being technically legal did not
save Scully and Sand from 20 and 15 year federal
prison terms respectively, in 1969. (See Burton
Hersh, "The Mellon Family". N.Y.: William Morrow
(1978), p.480-495, for the story of Sand, Scully,
Billy Hitchcock, and the Millbrook estate).
The only detailed discussion I have found on LSD
pharmacology from an illicit chemistry perspective,
is "LSD Purity", an entirely speculative January
1977 "High Times" piece by Bruce Eisner
(mindtoo755@aol.com), whose major flaw is its
lack of hard data.
I know of only two books devoted to the nether-world
of illicit LSD manufacturing:
"The Brotherhood of Eternal Love", Stewart Tendler &
David May. London: Panther Books (1984). Out of
Print. (I haven't been able to get my hand on this
book [and would love to hear from anyone who has a
copy], but see "Acid Dreams" by Lee & Shlain. NY:
Grove Press (1985) and "Storming Heaven", by Jay
Stevens. N.Y.: Harper & Row (1987)).
"Operation Julie", Dick Lee & Colin Pratt. London:
W.H.Allen (1978). Out of Print. Covers the tracking
and 1977 take-down of the U.K. organization led by
Richard Kemp that formed from the regrouping of the
post-indictment remnants of the BEL. The Kemp ring
allegedly manufactured 60% of the world's LSD at the
time, amounting to tens of millions of hits over a
several year period.
The motive of the ring's leadership was the expectation
that widespread use of LSD among Britain's youth would
catalyze leftist Revolution, leading to the overthrow
of the aging and morally bankrupt _ancien regime_.
For the temerity of admitting this to police, sentences
totalled 170 years in prison.
Their bust was immortalized in the delightful electric
guitar/piano medley, "Julie's in the Drug Squad" by
the Clash.
The most recent LSD bust of note occurred in Bolinas,
California in July 1993, and was the largest seizure
of LSD in U.S. history.
A Brief Bibilography on Synthetic Heroin
----------------------------------------
"It's my wife,
It's my life,
Cuz a needle to my vein,
Leads to a center in my head,
Then I'm better off than dead"
"Heroin"
Lou Reed
The "original" China White fentanyl analog was alpha-
methylfentanyl, which the DEA initially thought was
3-methylfentanyl.
Refs:
"Control Recommendation for a-MethylFentanyl", DEA (1981)
"Federal Register" 46:46799 (1981) [Notice of Scheduling]
"Science 85" (March)
"Anal. Chem" (Oct. 1981) "Behind the Identification of
China White"
"Fentanyl Program", GFR1-81-4044, DEA (1981), unpublished.
"Chem.Eng.News" 59:71 (1981) [before they realized it was
alpha and not 3-methyl]
"Science" 224:1083 (1984)
References on 3-methylfentanyl, which appeared separately and much later,
and also caused some O.Ds:
Monastero in "America's Habit" President's Commission on
Organized Crime (1986)
"New York Times", 25 December 1988.
Literature cites on MPPP, of Parkinson fame:
"Psych. Res." 1:249 (1979) [the original paper, rejected
by JAMA & NEJM]
"Science" 219:979 (1983)
"The Sciences", Langston (date unknown) "The Case of the
Tainted Heroin" [by the guy who tracked it down]
"The Case of the Frozen Addict", PBS "Nova", (1986),
transcipt of show
There are lots of other papers available, but these
are some of the main ones of interest.
********************************************************************
5. "You Have Greatly Misunderstood the Purpose of the Net"
********************************************************************
"Don't get me wrong, Don Juan," I protested,
"...but I also want to know everything I can.
You yourself have said that knowledge is
power."
"No!" he said emphatically. "Power rests on
the kind of knowledge one holds. What is
the sense of knowing things that are useless?"
-- "The Teachings of Don Juan:
A Yaqui Way of Knowledge"
Carlos Castaneda
UseNet at its best is a network of some of the brightest minds in the
civilized world, getting together to discuss whatever strikes their
collective fancy. Professors and academics, engineers and scientists,
polymaths, and intelligent people everywhere, getting together to kick
ideas, information, and scurrilous personal attacks back and forth. A
synthesis of great minds and intellects, altruistically donating their
time and effort in glorious cosmic synergy.
However, it's sad to say that, as more and more people go online, the Net
is beginning to reflect the tawdry conglomeration that is society at large.
One mammoth, lowest common denominator, vainglorious, pseudo-intellectual
whore-house.
To put it simply, UseNet may already have peaked.
Alas.
Trade Secrets, Or "Where Can I get Oil of Sassafras?", "How Do I
------------- Extract Codeine From Tylenol #1's?", "Can You
Isomerize Dextromethorphan to the Narcotic Levo- Form?"
Just because you ask a question on the Net, does not mean
anyone's going to answer it. Or in particular on alt.drugs --
a newsgroup dominated by drug burn-outs, poseurs, and
wannabes -- answer it correctly.
You may get an answer to your question, but you can't
realistically expect it when it amounts to a trade
secret. Someone who poses such a question obviously
has a recipe for making MDMA, aka E. The recipe requires
oil of sassafras, or another source of safrole. Needless
to say, the government is aware of this too, and it's
somewhat difficult, though not impossible, to get.
Broadcasting to the world, via UseNet, where to get it,
is a good way to get the government to clamp down on
that source of supply. Why on earth would you expect
anyone to tell you how to get rich (illegally) anyway?
Figure it out yourself, idiot!
The codeine extraction question is another good one,
commonly asked on alt.drugs. Tylenol #1's are OTC in
Canada and elsewhere. Someone was selling such a recipe
for thousands of dollars in New Zealand a few years back.
So why would someone give it to you for free? Your grasp
of philanthropy is deeply flawed, pal.
More importantly, to do that brings us the issue Number 2:
Killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg
------------------------------------------
I guarantee that if a simple recipe was posted for something
such as extracting codeine from OTC medications, within
the year, codeine would be prescription-only everywhere.
But then dopers -- being the narcissistic morons that they
are -- have never been particularly known for foresight.
Ditto for isomerizing dextromethorphan, the OTC cough medicine.
Out of chemical interest, I've wondered that myself in the past.
But I don't know the answer, never having been interested enough
to explore the matter.
The fact of the matter, however, is that widely publicizing
certain things -- and the Net is as wide as it gets --
inevitably results in their negation through government
action. I don't say this to stifle people from posting
information, but there is such a thing as discretion, ya know.
Coming in a close second, are those individuals who request
"simple high-yield recipes requiring a minimum of trouble".
Get serious, dudes! TANSTAAFL. More importantly, why would
anyone tell it to you for free?
"Please e-mail me the Answer to my [Stupid] Question"
----------------------------------------------------
...Because I'm such a lazy putz that I can't be bothered to
stick around long enough to wade through the regular traffic.
Along with "tell me everything about <Insert_subject_here>"
because you have a homework assignment due tomorrow and are
too dumb or lazy to use the library, this probably ranks as
one of my biggest net.peeves.
"Why Didn't Anyone Answer my [Stupid] Question?"
-----------------------------------------------
No, we're not too lazy or too arrogant. Er, well, maybe we are,
but dammit, we're not sitting here waiting around to respond to
whatever minuscule thought percolates through your tiny, 1/4 watt
cerebrum. That's Lamont's job.
Ever hear of a library? It's an amazing place. Medicinal
chemistry is around RM315 if you've graduated past the Dewey
Decimal System.
I started posting to the Net on the premise that I should put
back in, for what I've gotten out of the Net. Inspired by the
venerable Bill Nelson, who presides over in rec.pyrotechnics,
I began posting to alt.drugs primarily safety information,
and corrections to inaccurate posts. Other than that, if a
post interests me, time-permitting, I *may* respond. If it
doesn't, I don't. _C'est la vie_.
You're a lot more likely to get a response if you show you've
done your homework -- made some sort of preliminary effort to
investigate the question yourself. I think I first got fed
up with the intellectual parasites that infest alt.drugs (and
much of the rest of the net) when during a lengthy thread on
petroleum ether, some nitwit posted the very same question
we had just finished discussing.
Is the DEA on the Net?
----------------------
The Internet is what the government constructed and owned
ARPANET has evolved into.
Of course they're on the Net, fool!
This was definitively confirmed in December 1994 by Lamont. No
surprise here, except among the drug-addled.
Of course, it is also the height of narcissism to think that the
DEA gives a hoot whether you are a dope-smokin' degenerate.
Believe me, they have more important things to worry about.
State and local investigators might, however, be a different matter.
More importantly, the fact that you posted a message to alt.drugs
such as, "I'm really baked!" [You're such a clever lad, aren't you?]
may not concern you now. However you may wish to consider the fact
that it's quite probable that someone somewhere is archiving *all*
net traffic, and that in ten or twenty years when you do care, it
may come back to haunt you.
Such is the price of a dissipated youth.
Can I Rely on Net.answers to my Questions?
------------------------------------------
No. Next question, please.
The Net is a whore that takes on all customers. This is its bane,
as well as its beauty. The nature of alt.drugs makes it particularly
vulnerable to inaccurate, incomplete, and downright erroneous
answers from trollers, poseurs, wannabes, and pseudo-experts trying
to pump up their flagging egos.
After all, the one-eyed man is king in the Land of the Blind.
Such misguided and/or maladapted individuals are most dangerous
when they provide partially correct answers or answers lacking
the appropriate caveats.
Elevating irascibility to an art-form, I've made it a personal
crusade to flame such net.idiots on general principles alone.
On the other hand, past and present alt.drugs Hall-of-Famers such
as J<rest of name deleted by request>, [St.] Anthony Ankrom, and
Lamont Granquist (with an honorable mention to Steve Dyer, Eric
Snyder, Howard Black, Pierre St. Hilaire, Malcolm, and Eli Brandt),
can usually be counted on to provide interesting, useful, and
accurate chemical information.
Their selfless dedication to, and pursuit of the Truth is truly
the Net at its best, and should be an inspiration to all.
Unfortunately, everyone but Lamont and Steve withdrew from posting,
or post only infrequently. Make of that what you will.
But the bottom line, after all, is that you get what you pay for.
If you rely on net.information at face value without independent
confirmation from a reliable source, you do so at your own peril.
'Nuf said.
*******************************************************************
6. The Law
*******************************************************************
"Ain't got no picture postcards,
Ain't got no souvenirs,
My baby, she don't know me,
When I'm thinkin' 'bout those years."
-- "New Orleans is Sinking"
The Tragically Hip (1989)
Not surprisingly, it is against the law everywhere to make
and distribute drugs. Even less surprisingly, this has failed
to make a dent in the manufacture and trade in such substances.
Since the U.S. is at the forefront of the War on Drugs, I will
concentrate on U.S. statutes only. I no longer follow U.S.
law particularly closely, so some of this information may be
out of date.
The U.S. Federal criminal statutes are found in the U.S.
Code (U.S.C.), located in any North American law library.
The USC may be found in a collection of volumes ("Titles")
called the U.S. Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.).
The drug statutes (possession, conspiracy, and sale),
including Schedules I to V of the Controlled Substances
Act (listing all banned and federally regulated drugs
and precursors) are in Title 21, Sections 800-900 (21
USC 800-900).
(Interestingly, first time drug possession is a misdemeanor
in the U.S. under Federal law. Unfortunately, minor
offenders are typically prosecuted under State Law, which
usually makes drug possession a felony.)
Other related laws are CCE (Continuing Criminal Enterprise,
21 USC 848), RICO (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt
Organizations, 18 USC 1961), and the Controlled Substance
Analog Enforcement Act.
RICO and CCE are the legal bludgeons the Feds use
against drug rings that achieve any sort of success.
They are quite draconian in both scope and harshness.
The long-predicted rise of synthetic heroin analogs
precipitated the passing in 1986 of the Analog Act.
This closed what had become a major loophole in prior
legislation, the so-called "designer" drugs (pharmacol-
ogically similar, minor chemical variants of banned
drugs). Analogs, however, were not a recent problem.
The first open source mention was Gunn et al. (1970,
supra.).
Other legal manifestations of the politics of contraband
include laws making money-laundering (18 USC 1956), and the
transportation of dangerous chemicals on airplanes Federal
felonies, as well as civil forfeiture, allowing for the
summary confiscation of a suspected drug dealer's assets
with or without any related criminal conviction. Failing
to report large monetary transactions, income tax evasion,
and using the phone (or the Net) to violate the drug laws
are also Federal crimes.
Additionally, the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights
was gutted to allow for pre-trial detention on the basis of
"being a danger to the community", against the previous
legal standard of mandatory bail except when there was "risk
of flight".
The USC is net.available:
http://www.pls.com:8001/his/usc.html
http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/gpo/
or as gzip compressed files (by Title):
ftp://etext.archive.umich.edu/pub/Politics/Conspiracy/AJTeel/USC/
Additions to the list of contraband drugs are announced
in the "Federal Register", a U.S. Government periodical
also found in any U.S. or Canadian law library, as well
as any U.S. "Federal depository" public library.
http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/gpo/
Or via gopher: gopher counterpoint.com
Ancillary regulations may be found in Title 21 of the
CFR, the Code of Federal Regulations.
A current list of proscribed drugs may be obtained by writing:
Drug Enforcement Administration
Attn: Drug Control Section
1405 "I" Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20537
*******************************************************************
7. Morality & Ethics
*******************************************************************
"And in between the moon and you,
The angels get a better view,
Of the crumbling difference,
Between wrong and right."
-- "Round Here"
Counting Crows (1993)
I've always been fascinated by the subject of outlaw chemistry.
But radical chic aside, the more I've seen of things, the
less and less happy I've become with the morality of it all.
I've even begun to question the value of that relatively
benign class of substances known as the psychedelics.
(What was it that Ram Dass once said? "Psychedelics have
a message to give, but once you get the message: hang up.")
With the rest, however, -- narcotics, ups, and downs -- the
answer is quite clear. And it ain't a good one.
For no matter how delightful you find the chemistry, the fact
of the matter is that the drug business is a sordid, tawdry
and immoral one that is driven almost entirely by greed,
and which leaves an awful lot of people dead, destroyed,
addicted, imprisoned, or impoverished: a constellation
of human suffering and misery which no decent man should
ever want to add to.
I'm not a particularly religious man, but to put it simply:
can you imagine Jesus Christ giving his blessing to your
crank lab?
No matter how you rationalize it, there is no way to escape
the cruel reality that drugs are about two things: money and
power. Amassed through the corrupt exploitation of human
weakness.
And if they catch you -- and the odds are very much
in favor of that -- you can expect no sympathy at all.
They *will* crucify your sorry ass.
It's a looking glass world, with the dealers and chemists
on one side, and an array of shameless, moral cowards:
the demagogic Republican slime politicians, crooked and
brutal cops, sleazy parasite lawyers, and hypocritical
judges on the other.
And they *all* profit to the detriment of society.
Don't get me wrong: criminal sanctions against drug *users*
are clearly not just wrong-headed, but more importantly,
counter-productive. It is fairly obvious, as the Dutch
and Swiss governments, and the highly respected "Economist"
magazine see it, that drug use is a social problem and public
health issue that should be dealt with as such.
Unfortunately, too many have too much invested in the status
quo.
Sound public policy is built not through the cynical
manipulations of politicians and two dollar moralists,
but through a careful balancing of harm minimization
to the individual, as well as society at large.
Until society comes to grips with that, the non-medical
use of drugs will remain an intractable scourge that
distorts entire economies, corrupts our institutions
to the core, and frays the social fabric.
However, the base hypocrisy of society cannot and does not
provide moral justification for the manufacture and
distribution of illicit drugs for personal profit.
Sorry.
*************************************************************************
"How much is enough, when your soul is empty?
How much is enough, in the Land of Plenty?
When you have all you want,
And you still feel *nothing* at all,
How much is enough?
Is enough?"
-- "How Much is Enough?"
The Fixx (1991)
*************************************************************************
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