Environment Hazard
Methamphetamine does more than boost the crime rate, create drug addicts
and turn normal lives into nightmares. Its manufacturing process presents
an immediate environmental hazard. The cost of cleaning up these sites
can be enormous.
Environmental problems arise both during the cooking process and after
then large quantities of waste products are disposed improperly. Meth
is most commonly made by extracting pure psudoephedrine or ephedrine
from over the counter cold tablets that contain psudoephedrine or ephedrine
such as Sudafed and other brands of decongestants. The tablets are crushed
and soaked in highly explosive solvents to remove the pill binder and
other unwanted contents. It takes thousands of common ephedrine or psudoephedrine
tablets to make one pound of meth.
While the ephedrine or psudoephedrine are not harmful when used as directed,
the harmful chemicals used to cook it are. The drug is converted into "crank" using
one of three chemical methods.
Ephedrine/psudoephedrine is readily available in decongestants, the
low concentration makes it difficult to convert to meth efficiently.
The average ephedrine pill is just 25 milligrams, and it is extracted
and processed in order to obtain it in pure form to convert to meth.
When meth was first manufactured in the 1970s, the recipe called for
lots of heavy metals. Contamination throughout the site was more common.
The next cooking method used lots of solvents and caustic material, which
would also be harmful, but was more likely to evaporate before it caused
much trouble.
 One process calls for the cook to spray ether onto the oil that rises
to the top at the end of cooking process. The ether dries out the oil
and what is left is meth. One guy didn't want to wait for the ether to
work, so he put the whole thing into the oven. He got caught because
of the resulting explosion.
The newest method, called the Nazi method, calls for using anhydrous
ammonia, dry ice and acetone. This type of lab also uses ephedrine or
psudoephedrine as the precursor. Conversion to methamphetamine involves
two common precursors that are easily obtained and can be purchased legally
from any chemical outlets. This method produces a high yield and takes
only 30 minutes to convert an ephedrine/psudoephedrine into methamphetamine.
However, one of the precursors is extremely water reactive and explodes
upon contact with water, or to an abundance of moisture in the air. This
type of lab also produces strong odors and dangerous gases that can be
dangerous to the public if they are exposed to them.
Though the ammonia can be a problem, this is much better for the environment
because everything evaporates so quickly. But, it is much harder on law
enforcement agencies. The method can yield a batch of meth in less than
an hour, as opposed to several days with the older methods, making it
much harder to catch the criminals.
A few years ago a senate bill was passed banning commercial sales of
hidriotic acid. This put a major dent in the domestic manufacturing of "crank,"
until the laboratory operators determined that hidriotic acid can be
manufactured using iodine crystals. Iodine crystals can be purchased
legally through any chemical distributor however, the sale of iodine
crystals is reportable to the DOJ. Veterinarians and people who shoe
horses use iodine crystals to make their own slurry of iodine to be used
as an antiseptic; this is the only known legitimate use for iodine crystals.
Red phosphorus is used in the commercial manufacture of fireworks and
similar incendiary devices.
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