By: Vince McLeod, CIH and Glenn Ketcham, CIH
Issue: August/September 2007
What’s Cooking?
We are back with our second article on clandestine drug labs. Our first article
in the series provided an introduction to “clan labs,” provided
a little history and background on the epidemic, and briefly discussed the
three phase approach taking the site from discovery to final clean up. After
a clan lab is found, specially trained law enforcement personnel must often
deal with possible booby traps while securing the site. Crime scene investigators
can then move in and process the site for evidence. Following the securing
and processing of the clan lab we move into the next phase, which is categorizing
the chemicals and wastes and removing the gross contamination from the site.
This article discusses the different methods used to make the illegal drugs
at clandestine laboratories, the chemicals involved in those methods, and the
hazards associated with those chemicals.
In our original article we noted that
clan labs can manufacture stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and narcotics.
However, in 2004 the Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) found that ninety eight percent (98%) of seized laboratories
were producing methamphetamine.1Obviously, the health and safety concerns vary
based
on the type of drug manufactured and the production method used, but given
this fact we will focus on methamphetamine production methods.
The “recipes” for “cooking” methamphetamine are relatively
simple and unfortunately, easy to obtain, especially with the availability
of the internet. The drugs, including methamphetamine, produced in clandestine
laboratories can be made with readily available over-the-counter items and
chemicals found in drug stores and hardware stores along with common household
kitchen utensils. The huge increase in clandestine drug labs and methamphetamine
manufacture is due not only to the ease of getting the cooking recipes and
the chemicals needed, but also to the low cost of production and the potential
large profits from sale of the illegal drugs.
METHAMPHETAMINE MANUFACTURING
There are more than three hundred chemical substances used in manufacturing
methamphetamine.2 These can be divided into two general categories:
essential chemicals and precursors. Essential chemicals are the salts, solvents,
acids,
and alkalines used as reagents and catalysts in the manufacturing process.
Although essential to the production, they do not become part of the final
molecular structure of the drug. A precursor chemical is critical to the
creation of the controlled substance and actually becomes a part of its molecular
makeup. For methamphetamine there are a possible thirty four precursor chemicals,3 the
most common of which are ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, common ingredients of
over-the-counter cold medicines and diet pills.
The three hundred chemicals are
used in more than two hundred different manufacturing methods or recipes currently
in circulation.2 The seemingly endless number of
production methods come about because as regulations attempt to control precursor
chemicals new and innovative recipes are developed by simply modifying the
method for use of available substances. In addition, precursors can be synthesized
with readily available chemicals.
The different recipes are really just versions
of three basic methods. These basic recipes were developed from sources such
as general chemistry and organic
chemistry textbooks, the Journal of Forensic Science, Forensic Science International,
and counter-culture publications like the Betty Cranker Cookbook and Uncle
Fester’s Secret Methamphetamine Manufacture. The three basic methods
are P-2-P, Red Phosphorus or Red P, and the Nazi or Birch method.
In simple
terms methamphetamine production is performed in three general stages.
First is the cooking where precursors are mixed with solvents and
heated to
form the drug base. This is followed by extraction where the base is removed
from excess solvents and other undesirable substances. The final stage
is commonly referred to as salting or drying where the product is converted
to its final
usable form and then dried.
P-2-P
This method draws its name from the precursor, phenyl-2-propanone, and is sometimes
called the amalgam or mercuric chloride method because of this essential
chemical. But the P-2-P method is much less common today than the other two
methods. The reason for its drop in popularity is primarily the strict regulation
of the precursor chemical and its subsequent difficult procurement. Also,
this method takes longer to make the methamphetamine and produces a less
potent form of the drug that contains more contaminates which translate into
worse side effects.
Chemicals commonly used with this method include methyl
alcohol, methylamine, aluminum, ether, sodium hydroxide, and lead acetate
in addition to the two
already mentioned. Hazards associated with these chemicals are extreme flammability,
cor-rosivity, and toxicity. Cooking with this method will leave behind toxic
mercury and lead contamination among the other wastes.
RED P
The next most common cooking recipe is the red phosphorus or Red P method.
Red phosphorus, a component of safety matches, flares, smoke bombs, and the
like, is combined with iodine to make hydriodic acid (HI) which is then used
to reduce the precursor (ephedrine or pseudoephedrine) to methamphet-amine.
Also called the HI method due to that essential chemical, cooking with the
Red P recipe requires the use of other hazardous chemicals such as hydrochloric
acid (muratic acid), sodium hydroxide (lye), and a variety of solvents such
as Coleman fuel, charcoal lighter fluid, starter fluid, brake cleaner etc.,
most of which are very flammable. Wastes left behind from this cook include
the flammable solvents and sludges, corrosive acids and bases, in addition
to reactive yellow or white phosphorus. This method also has the potential
to produce very toxic phosphine gas if certain solvents are heated with open
flames.
NAZI OR BIRCH
This method is named because of its WWII German inventors. It is also called
the Birch Method from the chemical reaction name (Birch-Bekenser Reduction)
and the Ammonia Method from the essential chemical anhydrous ammonia, used
in manufacturing methamphetamine this way. The same precursors as in the
Red P method, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, are used. This method is rapidly
becoming the most popular recipe because of its high conversion rate, low
cost of ingredients, and high quality of finished product. It is the fastest
of the three methods Terrorism producing a batch of meth in about 45 minutes,
start to finish. Purity using this recipe approaches ninety five per- Digital
evidence Check-off lists DNA testing Case studies and cent (95%). Legal issues
16 pages of full-color
Use of the Nazi or Birch method is especially
popular in the Investigative equipment rural heartland due the readily available
liquid fertilizer (anhy-drous ammonia) found in agricultural operations. This
method
also uses
lithium metal (batteries), sodium metal, and a similar assortment of solvents
and acids as the Red P and P-2-P methods. The wastes produced by this recipe
are the familiar flammable solvents and sludges, corrosive wastes, and reactive
metals lithium and sodium. In addition, the cryogenic anhy-drous ammonia is
extremely corrosive and reactive.
SUMMARY
Cooking methamphetamine by any method creates severe hazards and large amounts
of dangerous wastes, a minimum of six times the amount of finished product
produced. Many of these wastes are flammable, corrosive, reactive, toxic,
or explosive. The chemicals and wastes left behind can harm unsuspecting
or careless individuals by being inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Health
effects can be either acute (short term) or chronic (long term). Burns, rashes,
and irritation can result from contact while headaches, nausea, and dizziness
are common following inhalation.
Although hazards decrease significantly after
cooking has stopped, extreme care should be taken until the production
wastes and bulk chemicals are properly
removed and disposed. Even so, it is likely that ingredient chemicals, spilled
solvents and reagents, unknown byproducts, and methamphetamine particles
have been left behind, deposited on walls and most surfaces. Our next article
will
discuss assessment, clean up, and remediation of these clandestine drug laboratories.
References
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/resources/redbook.pdf -
US Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, Guidelines for
Law Enforcement
for the Clean
up of Clandestine Drug Laboratories. 2005
Methamphetamines: an epidemic of clandestine labs and health risk, M.R.
Chesley, MD, Howard University Hospital, Washington, D.C., September 1999
Clandestine Drug Labs, M.S. Scott, US Department of Justice. 1999
Additional
Resource
Precursor and Essential Chemicals in Illicit Drug Production:
Approaches to Law Enforcement, J.R. Sevick, US Department of Justice, National
Institute of Justice, October, 1993.
Vince McLeod is a Certified Industrial Hygienist by the American Board
of Industrial Hygiene and the senior IH with the University of Florida’s
Environmental Health and Safety Division. He has 15 years of experience in
all facets of occupational health and safety and specializes in hazard evaluation
and exposure assessments.
Glenn Ketcham is a Certified Industrial Hygienist
with 20 years experience in the health and safety field. He is currently
the Risk Manager for the University of Florida. He has worked as a USDOL/OSHA
compliance
officer and has program management experience in general OSHA compliance,
laboratory and chemical safety, workplace ergonomics, loss prevention, disaster
preparedness,
and classical industrial hygiene.
