SPECIAL FEATURE

Cooking a Dangerous Drug 

(Editor’s Note: this article first appeared in the December 2009 issue of America’s Pharmacist, official publication of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and is reprinted here with written permission of the NCPA and the author.)

By Richard Logan, PharmD

In the early to mid-1990s, the clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine was rapidly becoming the scourge of rural America. That is, in fact, what led me into law enforcement. Our local sheriff requested help from several members of the community. He was battling a wildfire with a pitchfork. Those who responded to his request attended law enforcement academy, became law enforcement officers, and spent a lot of time fighting meth. 

It was a losing battle. Oh, we had successes. We started a local education campaign. We enlisted the aid of, and educated local retailers, pharmacists, and the public about methamphetamine and what it took to make it. We had a network of businesses and individuals that would call law enforcement when they noticed suspicious purchases. We trained the public in what to look for in a meth lab, and to call the cops if they ran across one. 

Using this information base, we made regular arrests. I personally served on search warrant teams that busted many active labs. We sent out news releases with each arrest or lab seizure to help spread the word. With each arrest, there seemed to be more meth labs popping up. We were fighting, but we could not get ahead. We continued to see more lives ruined by this dangerous drug. 

Then we got some help from our state government. Knowing that Missouri was the number one methamphetamine producing state, our legislators enacted a law that made the possession of methamphetamine lab paraphernalia and precursor chemicals illegal. This gave us another tool in our arsenal, and led to even more arrests, which seemed to lead to even more meth labs. 

Most of the labs we saw in our area were “Nazi Meth” labs, also called the Birch Reduction Method. It involved the use of agricultural chemicals which are readily available in our area, lithium or sodium metal, acid, and other chemicals. This method requires glassware, tubing, multiple steps with solvents, lithium or sodium metals, heat evaporation, precipitates, gas generators, filtering, and drying. The yield is good with this method but it is a time consuming process. Many times we would find a complete lab placed in a hiding place waiting on the next step in the process, evidence of the length of time necessary to produce a batch. 

Fast forward to the Combat Methamphetamine Act, national legislation based on an Oklahoma state law. U.S. senators from California and Missouri introduced, and got passed, a law aimed at controlling the chemicals involved in the clandestine production of methamphetamine. Of the things included in this law, besides money for law enforcement, was a provision with which pharmacists are all to familiar. It restricted wholesaler distribution of the methamphetamine precursor chemical, (pseudoephedrine) to pharmacies, and it limited the amount of pseudoephedrine that could be purchased by any one individual. With the implementation of that law, we saw an immediate decrease in the number of clandestine labs producing meth. That’s not to say that the “meth-heads” stopped using; it just wasn’t as easy to come by. Law enforcement ¾ at least our local agencies ¾ were able to take a breath. What we didn’t count on was the ingenuity of dopers.

“Smurffing” 

Starting around 2008, local pharmacies and law enforcement began to notice an increase in local “smurffing.” Smurffing, for those of you not into cop lingo, is the act of multiple people visiting multiple pharmacies in search of “legal” amounts of pseudoephedrine. The “smurfs” (or runners) sometimes travel long distances and visit many pharmacies to procure the product. This activity is much more difficult  in states that have electronic reporting of pseudoephedrine sales. Sometimes it takes many “smurfs” to make a batch. 

With the increase in “smurffing”, we began to hear about the “shake and bake” method of making methamphetamine. Local law enforcement was not familiar with this method, so we did what cops do. We investigated. It seems that dopers are quite inventive. They had discovered a more efficient way to produce meth. The shake and bake method transformed a multi-step and time-consuming process requiring elaborate laboratory-type paraphernalia into one-bottle-one-hour-or-less method. 

This new process requires only ingredients that are readily available. With an empty one liter soda bottle, some lithium batteries, camp stove fuel, instant cool first-aid packs, drain cleaner, coffee filters, and some pseudo, you’re ready to make meth. No longer do dopers have to go out of their way to steal anhydrous ammonia from farm supply stores. They can walk into any camping supply store and pick up everything they need. 

With the old methods of making meth, either the red phosphorus or Nazi method, there were always dangers. During part of the process, you had to evaporate volatile chemicals such as ether or alcohol with heat. That led to an occasional fire or explosion. We served a search warrant late one cold winter night on a lab in a building heated with a pot-bellied stove. When the suspect heard us at the door, his first reaction was to throw the evidence into the stove. That might have worked, except he was using ether as a solvent. The stove exploded and the first thing we had to do was extinguish our suspect. This new shake and bake method makes that scenario look safe.

“Cooking” Dangers

According to those who “cook” (the name given to meth makers) with this new method, all of the ingredients have to be added in a specific order, in tightly controlled amounts. The final ingredients are lithium metal, stripped from the batteries, and water. That combination, if you remember your chemistry, is explosive. Also, considering that one of the other ingredients is camp stove fuel,  what you have, basically, is a potential Molotov cocktail used to make methamphetamine. That violent exothermic reaction is “controlled” by “burping” the plastic soda bottle so that it doesn’t explode. As a result of faulty technique, imagine your local meth addict not being able to follow lab procedures. Because of this, we have seen numerous explosions and injuries. The portability of this method lends itself to mobile meth making, with “cooks” making batches while driving. That’s worse than texting while driving. We have had one case of a vehicle exploding with resulting serious burns to the cook. It seems that every cook has a story of a reaction getting out of control and causing a fire. This method is an extremely dangerous way to make an extremely dangerous drug. 

Law enforcement is fighting this problem. Officers are educating themselves in the nuances of this manufacturing method, hoping to ensure both officer and public safety. We’re planning public education campaigns and news releases, and businesses have been enlisted to help. Arrests are being made, but the “labs” keep coming. It seems to be déjà vu. Methamphetamine addicts seem to be willing to risk everything for their drug. Long-term addiction means they are in it for the long haul. So is law enforcement. 

As pharmacists, we have been designated to monitor the sales of pseudoephedrine 

for the express purpose of reducing the production of methamphetamine. Law enforcement needs our help. We need to keep an eye on unusual requests for the chemical. Several requests at once from people traveling together should raise the “smurf” flag. Make sure the decongestant is for a patient, and not an addict, by performing your duty of care and talking to the person standing over the counter.  

Help your patients, not the addicts, and don’t hesitate to call the cops.  

 03/24/10

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