Clandestine Chemistry Primer & FAQ

7/31/2019 Clandestine Chemistry Primer & FAQ

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alt.drugs Clandestine Chemistry Primer & FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions)

Version: 2.7 (c) 1995 Yogi Shan

"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

------------------------------

Subject: 1. Introduction and Miscellanea

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: adynamic synthesis of human knowledge, thought, and understanding.Where else but on the 'Net could I post a comment about an obscureline from the SF cult movie "Blade Runner" in the evening, andfind half a dozen follow-up posts from fellow aficionados scatteredacross the globe, by the next day?

But as the human spirit soars to unimaginable heights, so does itwallow in the gutter of depravity with equal, if not greater joy.

As a high traffic newsgroup, alt.drugs generates about 130 posts aday. And according to news.lists estimates (Jan. 1995), has 120,000daily readers, a possibly conservative figure.

A topic of continuing interest -- enough to result in the 1994spawning of its own subgroup, alt.drugs.chemistry -- is the subjectof "underground" or "clandestine" chemistry: the covert manufactureof illicit drugs.

In an undoubtedly vain attempt to stem the flow of wasted bandwidtharising from idiotic "How do you make ?" questions on

the alt.drugs* and sci.chem newsgroups, I have assembled this FAQ/Primer.

Copyright Notice----------------

This document is Copyright (c) 1995 by Yogi Shan. This text, inwhole or in part, may not be sold in any medium, including but notlimited to electronic, CD-ROM, or print, without the express writtenpermission of Yogi Shan.


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Permission is granted to reproduce for individual, personal, non-commercial use, in electronic form *ONLY*, provided that no partof this document is modified in any way, including this notice.

I reserve the right to revoke this permission at any time (thoughI don't presently anticipate doing so).

Any commercial, organizational, institutional, or governmental useis expressly forbidden without prior written permission.

REWARD OFFERED!: If you know of any violation of this copyrightnotice, please show your gratitude to the author for makingavailable this document, by letting him know. As well, I'll giveyou 25% of any damage award (net) I get from legal action.

If you have found this document of use, a $5 donation is requestedto any of the following: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),Amnesty International, or any schizophrenia/mental health charitableorganization. Please let the author know if you havemade such a donation. It will truly brighten his day. Thanks!

Where To Find This Document---------------------------

Revision History----------------

Initial Draft...............................v. 1.0 950319

Major Revision............................. v. 2.0 950419

Added Synthetic Heroin and AmphetamineImpurities Sections.........................v. 2.5 950518

Acknowledgements----------------

Thanks to Malcolm, Lamont, Pearl, KMH, and especially Denni,for their comments and input.

Disclaimer----------

Nothing in this document should [obviously] be construed asadvocating 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 doingsomething alluded to in this document.

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Subject: 2. Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Miscellanea

2. Table of Contents

3. Net.resources

alt.drugs alt.drugs.chemistry sci.chem misc.legal & misc.legal.moderated Anon Remailers

4. Books: The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly

Psychedelic Chemistry PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story Marijuana Chemistry The Anarchist Cookbook

Other Books Popular Culture

5. So You Want to Make

The Merck Index Chemical Abstracts

6. Historical References on Underground Chemistry

"No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Speed Labs LSD Manufacturing: Boys -- and Girls -- in the 'Hood A Selected Bibliography on Synthetic Heroin

7. "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?

8. The Law: Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200,000

9. Morality & Ethics

------------------------------

Subject: 3. Net.resources

"It's propping up the governments, In Colombia an' Peru, You ask any DEA man, He'll say, 'There's nothin' we can do.'
http://www.erowid.org/library/books/psychedelic_chemistry.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/library/books/pihkal.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/library/books/merck.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/library/books/pihkal.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/library/books/merck.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/library/books/psychedelic_chemistry.shtml


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From the Office of the President, Right down to me an' 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:

Other World Wide Web and other Net sites are:

[a library of drug information] [an "entheogen" group]

[another "entheogen" group][U.N. Drug Control Program]

[the U.S. DEA] [Owsley Stanley's artwork]

There are a variety of FAQs and other documents, which range fromexcellent to not-so-excellent, available at the "official" alt.drugs sitehyperreal.com (now archived at erowid.org ). In case it changes (making thisreference stale), the pointer to the site is regularly posted toalt.drugs as the alt.drugs FAQ and the Net Resources FAQ.

The " Australian Natural Highs FAQ " and "Chemical Extraction FAQ" areparticularly note-worthy, since extraction of botanical drugs is theprocedure most likely to be successful for the amateur. The chemicalsynthesis section of "PIHKAL" (infra) may also be found aterowid.org .

The book " E for Ecstasy " (1993), by the Englishman, Nicholas Saundersis also available at hyperreal.com

There's an interesting piece in the Notes section (at the end),describing the trials and tribulations of clandestine MDMAmanufacture as experienced by some English entrepreneurs. Theappendix (by Alexander Shulgin) lists a number of synthetic

references for MDMA, though it is incomplete. The MDMAFAQ at hyperreal.com has a good chemistry section too.

Email for a regular e-mail reportsummarizing an extensive variety of newspaper reports on issuesof drugs and drug control. Focus is on European newspapers bythe anti-prohibition group. Not really clandestine chemistryrelated, but interesting nonetheless.

As well, some very high quality chemical and pharmacologicalinformation is occasionally posted by some readers of alt.drugs.
http://www.erowid.org/http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/faqs/faq_natural_high_australia.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/pihkal/http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/e_for_ecstasy/e_for_ecstasy.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/faqs/faq_natural_high_australia.shtmlhttp://www.erowid.org/pihkal/http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/e_for_ecstasy/e_for_ecstasy.shtml


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However, the signal-to-noise ratio is very low (< 1:100), so youhave to pay close attention. Even worse are the idiots who haveread a book or two and now fancy themselves as experts. They arenot.

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 toignore the previous statement.

Though the focus is on "smart" drugs, alt.psychoactives is a relatedgroup with a much lower traffic level that you might want to checkout/post to. Ditto for alt.drugs.psychedelic.

alt.drugs.chemistry-------------------

Make it easy for the DEA: post your chemistry questions here. Afterall, we wouldn't want them having to wade through a lot of silly "I'mreally baked! (Hi, Mom!)" posts.

Less well propagated on the net (by half!) than alt.drugs, for obviousreasons. In order to maximize your audience, cross-post to alt.drugsif 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 meanenlightenment, by posting thinly disguised drug manufacturingquestions to sci.chem. Usually related to the manufacture ofmethamphetamine, these queries generally fool only the totallynaive.

The questions are generally phrased around the topic of reducingagents, reduction of benzylic alcohols, reductive amination, orthe ever-popular benzyl methyl ketone/phenylacetone, the archaicpre-IUPAC names for P-2-P, the notorious (and scheduled) amphetamineprecursor. (P-2-P was mentioned briefly in the Harrison Ford movie"Witness".)

Such questions seldom produce the desired result, though I supposethere'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 synthesisquestions successfully run the gauntlet without detection.

Posting anonymously tips off many people to the true nature of your(nefarious) motives, by the way.

misc.legal & misc.legal.moderated---------------------------------

Get all your legal questions answered NOW. There's no Newsfeed in


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Leavenworth.

Anon Remailers--------------

Anon.penet.fi is no longer available, but the many U.S. cypherpunksanon remailers are even better, and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), for

encrypting e-mail, should be _de rigueur_.The fact that these utilities are easily available (check outalt.security.pgp, alt.privacy.anon-server, alt.anonymous, andsci.crypt; or wait for the two different PGP FAQs to appear innews.answers or alt.answers; ask around if you need help!), butnot widely used, is _de facto_ evidence that drug use impairs goodjudgement, if not the mental faculties, in general.

For a current list of various anonymous remailers:

or alternatively: finger

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Subject: 4. 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 his profession

As with the Net in general, there is a paucity of accurateinformation available on the subject of illicit drugs. Eventhe fact of publication is not necessarily a guarantee of anysort of technical legitimacy, particularly, though not limitedto, "counter-culture" efforts.

There are many reasons why people write books, but making moneyis one of the biggest. When the subject is of an illegal nature,the likelihood of inadequate, incomplete, or blatantly wronginformation is even higher than usual.

Companies like Paladin, Delta Press, and Loompanics are typicalpurveyors 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 drugbook realm, was the "Cocaine Consumer's Handbook" by one DavidLee (Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1976). In it, Mr.


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Lee flogged the notorious "Clorox [bleach] Test" for cocaine.This test, described in excruciating detail, and complete withcolor photographs, purported to detect not only eight differentadulterants and diluents, but the relative percentage purity ofthe cocaine itself.

Alas, several years later, the test was finally unmasked as utter

nonsense by PharmChem, a reputable Menlo Park, CA street druganalysis organization. Their testing established that the orangecolor produced when lidocaine is present in the sample being testedwas the extent of the Clorox Test's scope and usefulness.

Undeterred, Mr. Lee -- shameless scallywag and possible shill forthe Clorox Company -- came out in 1981 with a brand new book, "TheCocaine Handbook: An Essential [sic] Reference." Alluding coyly tothe PharmChem "controversy", Lee continued to include the CloroxTest (now illustrated with black & white photos), but added anequally useless "foil burn" test (with color pics), along with thedetailed procedure for home manufacture of freebase ("crack") cocaine.

Cocaine use had by now begun to lose its cachet, as well as more thanthe occasional user, so the ever-helpful Lee covered his bases andassuaged his seemingly bullet-proof conscience by including a thirteenpage (!) list of addiction service agencies.

So it goes.

There are many other such errors large and small that have made itinto print. Books like the "Anarchist Cookbook" (infra) are riddenwith 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 ScottFrench. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart (1976)) are all complete bunk.

Militating against the writing of quality books is that the fact ofthe matter is that if you gain enough knowledge to be a competentunderground chemist, you can snag good paying employment -- and notrisk your freedom and mortal soul through involvement with the drugtrade.

(Then again, there's the infamous case of Michael Hovey, the young DuPont chemist gone feral ["Chem. & Eng. News",

851223 & 860310].

Working at DuPont's Delaware research facility in quietdesperation, and apparently inspired by lurid mediaaccounts of Fentanyl analogue manufacture, out of theblue he decided to go into the synthetic heroinbusiness.

Unfortunately for him, he had no contacts for distributinghis 3-methylfentanyl product. In a hopelessly amateurish

attempt to make such contacts -- he approached a blackDuPont janitor -- he was promptly turned in, arrested,


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convicted, and sentenced to an 18 year Federal prison term(Ouch!). For apostasy, more than anything else.

Needless to say, Dr. Hovey was also promptly fired.

Cf. "New Scientist", 930807, p. 21-22, for a differentcase at Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals in England.)

Nonetheless, reliable books on clandestine chemistry have beenpublished. Below are some of the more accurate efforts I have seen.

It is no coincidence that the "good" ones originate from the SanFrancisco Bay area, a center of politically-motivated undergroundchemistry since the early Sixties.

These books may be "illegal" and/or subject to confiscation bypostal/customs authorities in countries such as Canada and Australia.

"Psychedelic Chemistry"----------------------

M.V.Smith. Port Townsend, Washington: Loompanics (1981). (P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368).

Largely abstracted from the specialist literature, PC is thehands-down leader in a very small field. It's a classic. LSD,mescaline, psychedelic amphetamines, and THC are thoroughlycovered, among others. One of the more interesting "recipes"is an actual underground one for the large-scale production ofLSD; to wit, a two million (!) dose batch.

M.V. Smith (a reference to the Martian messiah in Robert Heinlein's'60s SF classic, "Stranger in a Strange Land") is a pseudonym forMichael Starks, author of "Marijuana Chemistry" (infra). PC wasoriginally published by San Francisco's RipOff Press, and --unfortunately for the budding felon -- requires a thorough groundingin organic chemistry to make heads or tails of. Though out of date,it is generally accurate.

There are two known serious mistakes. The first is an MDA synthesiswhere hydrogen peroxide is substituted for water, with possiblyunfortunate results. This mistake was copied from the "ChemicalAbstracts" (infra) abstract that was the source of this entry.

The second error is the extension of the Ritter Reaction to MDA.

According to a 1958 _Bull. Soc. Chim. Fr._ paper and others,apparently ring-substituted allylbenzenes will cyclicize to the3,4-dihydro-isoquinoline.

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 chemicalextraction procedures. [See the hyperreal.com web site for two


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reviews of DeKorne's book, as well as the two previously mentionedalt.drugs FAQs which are not only better, but free to boot.]

"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 (hisnon-chemist wife is co-author), PIHKAL thoroughly outlines thesynthesis of a couple of hundred psychedelic amphetamines (N,a-alkylarylethylamines and congeners), including MDMA.

Many of these compounds, such as STP, were first synthesized,and/or pharmacologically noticed, by Shulgin himself, beginningin the mid-60s while working for Dow Chemical (Smith & Luce,infra). _PIHKAL_ was Shulgin's "going public" with the factthat his work continued long after government funding was shutoff, Schedule I classification, and finally, the Analogue Act,had strangled the field this Ghost in the Machine advocated.

PIHKAL is an expanded and metamorphosed version of a lengthychapter by Shulgin in the "Handbook of Psychopharmacology" (11:243-333 (1978)).

Like PC, you have to be a chemist to understand the syntheses,since explanations of the synthetic routes are either sparseor non-existent. The "recipe" section is available at thehyperreal.com site.

It is believed that Dr. Shulgin is less respected -- in more staidcircles -- since publication of his _magnum opus_.

In 1995, the U.S. DEA, in likely retribution, and displaying theirtrademark sense of humor, raided his Lafayette, California lab,stripped him of his license to handle Schedule I ControlledSubstances, and fined him $25,000.

"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 mostthoroughly persecuted peasant inebriant. Extensively covers potencyissues 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 Starksalso wrote. Originally published as "Marijuana Potency" (And/OrPress, 1977).

"The Anarchist Cookbook"


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-----------------------

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.A veritable grab-bag of techniques for psychedelic urban guerrillawarfare, the AC contains recipe-style, how-to sections on the homemanufacture of drugs and explosives, demolitions, weapons, andelectronic eavesdropping, making the AC the first mass marketpublication created with the express purpose of subverting moderntechnology 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 anhydrousdimethylamine, not the 40% aqueous commercial solution that the ACimplies), for instance, Aldrich won't sell you trimethoxyphenylaceto-nitrile, and the "bananadine" and peanut skin recipes are nonsense.

Thus, I cannot recommend the AC except as a curiosity, a steppingstone to more serious works, or to impress cheap dates with your hipness.

But then again, with its healthy dollop of revolutionary leftistideology, I think that the AC was never meant to be so much an endin itself, but more a beginning.

Other Books-----------

"Cannabis Alchemy" (by D. Gold), "Dr. Atomic's Marijuana Multiplier"(a comic by Larry Todd), "Basic Drug Manufacture", and "The Book ofAcid" (by Adam Gottlieb) are several old, but reasonably accuratereprint pamphlets.

Though technically accurate, they sprang forth from a time whenchemical sales were much less strictly controlled. Use at facevalue is pretty much guaranteed to end you up in jail, rankamateur status notwithstanding.

They are available from a number of '60s reprise, counter-culturesuppliers (such as FS Book Co., P.O. Box 417457, Sacramento, CA95841) that advertise in such drug publications as the mass-market"High Times"and the smaller, shoestring-budget "Psychedelic Illuminations"

or (P.O. Box 3186, Fullerton,California 92634).

There are other books available from Loompanics that I have seenmentioned in alt.drugs, however I off-loaded my rakish friends many


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years ago, and so haven't had the opportunity to borrow and reviewthem (donations cheerfully accepted!).

These include "Recreational Drugs" (by Prof. Buzz), "Secrets ofMethamphetamine Manufacture" (4th ed., Uncle Fester), and "TheConstruction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories" (JackB. Nimble). No word on whether a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card

comes with purchase. The imaginative pseudonyms may give you someclue as to the quality of these books, which is quite uneven.

Fester seems to focus on the Leuckart reaction, which though simpleto do, has a rather low yield. It's obvious he was clever enough tolocate the "Org. Synth. Collective Volumes", though this is notparticularly clever, in my mind. He repeats the Ritter reactionerror mentioned previously.

Fester has also written "Practical LSD Manufacture" which is aninteresting title given that unlike his amphetamine book, itseems highly doubtful that he has any actual practical experiencein this area. His horn-tooting about having discovered theinfamous "Operation Julie" LSD formula (Lee & Shlain, infra,p. 288) is utter nonsense: propionyl anhydride is a reportableprecursor due to its utility in reversed ester synthetic opiateproduction.

Popular Culture---------------

The underground chemist as pop icon. The incorporation of theclandestine chemist into popular culture has been limited withthe unfamiliarity of the public -- and indeed the authors andscreen-writers that entertain them -- with the highly technicalnature of their work.

With _shlock_ and mediocrity the norm, verisimilitude has certainlyalways been a rather rare commodity on the big screen, butparticularly so in the case where technocriminal activity isportrayed.

On the other hand, notable high-points in this genre are worthmentioning, since some of the scenes are quite memorabletechnically, with their own cult following amongst those inthe know.

They include "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) with Robert Redford

and Faye Dunaway (phone phreak/wireman/assassin); "Thief" (ca. 1980)with James Caan as the safecracker with the thermal lance; and "ToLive & Die in L.A." (1985) directed by William Friedkin, and starringWillem Dafoe as the deviant master counterfeiter (the legal info isinaccurate, the offset photolithography is bang on.).

The first portrayal of an underground chemist in the mass mediathat I've seen, was in the 1971 Academy Award winning movie, "TheFrench Connection" (also directed by Friedkin), a fictionalizedaccount of an actual N.Y. City Police investigation that is more


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popularly remembered for its excellent car chase scene.

Pat McDermott plays Howard the junkie chemist, making two briefappearances to test, for New York gangsters, the 60 kg. heroinshipment from Marseilles that is the subject of the film.

In the first test, the chemist performs a "Thiele tube melting point

test" to determine the purity of the heroin. An archaic, low-tech,but quite effective testing method for relatively pure organics,this test utilizes the fact that 100% pure heroin hydrochloride (aka"China White") melts at precisely 243-244 deg. C.

The more "cut" (diluted) or impure the heroin, the wider the temper-ature range from initial to complete melting, and the lower theinitial temperature of the melting range.

In the scene, Howard fills the Thiele tube with mineral oil, placesa tiny sample of the heroin to be tested into a capillary tubesealed at one end, and immerses it, tied to a thermometer, into theoil bath.

The oil bath temperature is then slowly raised by heating with an old-style chemistry set alcohol burner as the chemist watches for thecrystalline sample to begin melting, while he simultaneously monitorsthe temperature.

His running commentary on the heroin's purity begins at an arbitrarybaseline ("blast off") of 180 degrees Centigrade:

"Blast off! ...One-eight-oh...Two Hundred: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval...Two-ten: U.S. Government Certified...

Two-twenty: Lunar trajectory; Junk-of-the-Month Club sirloinsteak...

Two-thirty: Grade A poison...

"Absolutely dynamite. [It's] 89% pure 'junk' -- best I've ever seen. If the rest is like this, you'll be dealin' on this load for two years."

In Howard's second appearance, he performs the crude but quickMarquis Reagent spot test as a final, last minute check before thesmack shipment and buy money change hands. The Marquis Reagent, aformaldehyde/sulfuric acid mixture, turns purple on contact withopiates. [In at least some home-video versions of the movie this is

not clear, and the purple color looks orange.]A sleazy, underwear-less biker "cook", replete with triple-necked,ground-glass jointed flask, is portrayed as a minor character in the1991 movie, "Rush". He's the one that coerces the female undercovernarc [Jennifer Jason Leigh] into dropping some sort of psychedelicfollowing a drug buy. (The reason he French kissed her at the end ofthis scene, by the way, is to make sure that she had really swallowedthe pill. She had -- rather than holding it under her tongue likemost narcs would -- which no doubt saved her from some immediate


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grief.)

"Beyond the Law" (1993, released in Europe as "Fixing the Shadow")stars Charlie Sheen in this somewhat cheezy "true story" of a narcinfiltrating some bikers running a speed lab.

In the fiction book category, "The Alchemist" by Kenneth Goddard

(N.Y.: Bantam, 1985), is a cliche-ridden potboiler about a manufac-turer of PCP analogues. Gives the whole business a bad name [thefiction book business, that is].

A nice color poster showing a submachine-gun-totting, ninja-ed outraiding party member sporting a "DEA Clandestine Laboratory EnforcementTeam" patch is available from Delta Press for$11.95 + 3.75 S&H.

------------------------------

Subject: 5. So You Want to Make

"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.drugsby merely leafing through the copy I have at home of this exceedinglyuseful book. It's truly the chemist's bible. The Merck is adictionary of thousands of chemicals, listing their structure, basicchemical and pharmacological properties (though the angle seems tobe more along the lines of a medicinal chemist), and pointers tosynthesis and more detailed info.

"The Merck" -- as it's referred to by those in the know -- will be inthe 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 windowto the scientific specialist literature. Expect to have to learn somechemistry to use it effectively. Your librarian can help you onlocating the journals referenced. (Don't worry, I doubt she'll havethe slightest clue what you're up to.) Most of the articles you seekwill be well-thumbed. Some will have been razored out of their volume:living testimony to the "thermoplastic" morals of many a drug user,unaware that desecrating books is the mark of low-born barbarians,


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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 thishappening was rejected by the mainstream medical journals(it was finally published in a new and obscure journal,

"Psychiatry Research", where it languished unnoticed).]

Have no fear, Chem. Abs. is here!

Though the actual paper is *always* best, abstracts of U.S. andforeign chemical patents and journal articles can also be found

in this invaluable journal. Any chem student, or the referencelibrarian, can show you how to use it. You'll have to learn evenmore chemistry to effectively use Chem. Abs. (Hint: Me = methyl,Ac = acetyl).

Chem.Abs. is also good if you only read English, providing aconvenient translation of foreign language papers. (Personally,I have found that being able to translate German -- as well asthe occasional French and Italian paper -- extremely useful inmy forays into the literature).

------------------------------

Subject: 6. 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."There is a dearth of historical information available on the subject ofunderground/clandestine chemistry. Considering the shadowy and covertnature 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 analogues), but for reasons ofbrevity, I won't (except for a selected bibliography on synthetic


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simply failing, a white, crystalline -- and toxic -- solidwill still be produced ("Microgram" (1980), DEA, unpublished).

Apparently the unusual step of open source publication wasauthorized with the knowledge that the information would reachclandestine chemists, and thereby avoid some potential deaths.

No doubt this departure from the DEA's normal caginess musthave 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" (1981)

The amphetamines occupy a unique position in the world of undergroundchemistry, in that they are highly marketable, profitable, as wellas easy to make, chemically-speaking.

The rise of the speed lab during the early 60s is documented in"Love Needs Care" (David E. Smith & John Luce. Boston: Little, Brown,1970), a chronicle of the travails of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinicduring the 1967 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 workswell worth locating for anyone interested in the sociological as wellas the pharmacological and forensic aspects of drug use in society.

The years 1979/1980 ushered in an explosion in the number of clandestinespeed labs, and an eleven-fold increase in speed lab busts, as the DEAand State narcotics enforcement agencies became proficient in trackingthem down (U.S. General Accounting Office Report GGD-82-8 (1981) andFrank (1983), supra).

February 1980 saw the U.S. scheduling of the main clandestine precursor,phenyl-2-propanone (aka P-2-P). Within a few years the unregulatedchemical l-ephedrine had replaced P-2-P as the main methamphetamine

precursor, and was being openly advertised in drug magazines suchas "High Times" by 1983. Since P-2-P produces the racemic mixture(i.e., dl-methamphetamine), and l-ephedrine the more potent d-isomer,this was actually a step backward, from a law enforcement and publichealth perspective.

Tandem legislative efforts culminated in a 1989 Texas State Law (TexasHealth & Safety Code 481.080 - .81) making it a felony to purchase around-bottomed flask (and other glassware) without a license ("Science",263:753 (1994) and "New Scientist", 941022, p. 88).


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As a result of the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, which appearsto be centered in California and Texas, and is strongly correlated withthe Big Four bike gangs (HA's, Bandidos, Pagans, and Outlaws), who bothfinance the labs and run the distribution network, what I call the"Golden Age" of underground chemistry (the period of time when outlawchemical and logistic skills had matured, but before law enforcement

tactics had had time to catch up) -- the late 60s to mid 70s -- is over.[One story I've heard was an HA method from the old days in NorthernCalifornia. A 55-gallon steel drum would be filled with a mixture ofP-2-P, methylamine, aluminum foil, etc. The lid was quickly sealed,and the drum rolled into a mountain stream for cooling. On returningafter three days, if the drum had not exploded, it would now be filledwith raw methamphetamine ready for purification.]

The Sixties bred a generation of "hippie" chemists, smugglers, andhigh-level dealers at least superficially motivated by idealism andthe radical rejectionist politics of those turbulent times.

This change in attitude was not lost on the pursuers. As one DEAforensic expert commented with typically dry understatement: "Itappears that the illicit production of dangerous drugs has becomean intellectual and professional challenge to many individualsassociated 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 tocounter the drug threat invariably elicited a "changing of the guard",as these idealists retired or were busted, and their organizationsdismembered.

In a form of negative evolution, the idealists were replaced by commoncriminals, motivated solely by opportunism, and attracted from theirnormal anti-social pursuits solely by the easy, and outrageously highprofit margins of drug trafficking, and frequently schooled in jail bythe imprisoned old-timers.

Ironically, the problem had been metastasized by the very efforts ofsociety to stamp it out.

The end result was an amoral business aggressively pursued by thegovernment, 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 internecine

violence, rip-offs, and government-front chemical company stingoperations.

[For a detailed and eye-opening snapshot of the "negative evolution" paradigm, elaborated with respect to marijuana cultivation in Northern California during the '80s, see

Yves Lavigne's "Good Guy, Bad Guy: Drugs and the ChangingFace of Organized Crime". NY: Random House (1991)]

The wary should note that the mere purchase or attempted purchase of


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laboratory equipment and/or chemicals of any type can be considered"suspicious" unless through an established, legitimate company oreducational institution. The take-down from time to time of labsrun out of university Chemistry Departments -- sometimes even byfaculty members -- testifies to the danger of this sort of shenaniganeven with access through legitimate channels.

Sorry kids, trying to buy chemicals with cash or a money order, orusing a fake letterhead just doesn't cut it anymore. It hasn't foryears.

As a result, the manufacture of controlled substances within the U.S.is almost exclusively controlled by organized professional gangsequipped with the financial resources and sophisticated logisticsnecessary to successfully challenge the government. The days of thebasement cowboy chemist are long gone.

Between 1977 and 1984, over a dozen papers -- mostly originatingin Europe -- appeared in the literature (_J.For.Sci._ 22:842 (1976),_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 clandestinely-manufacturedamphetamines.

Focusing mainly on the Leuckart reaction, which is easy to find inthe literature, and thus popular as a synthetic route, this researchsought to "fingerprint" the output of these labs.

A forensic technique first applied to illicit heroin, the idea is toquantitatively analyze impurities with a view to determining thesource (ideally by batch, though in practice usually limited only tosynthetic route or geographic locale) of the drugs.

It was determined that the Leuckart reaction in particular was averitable witch's brew of incomplete and side reactions, comprisingup to 25% of the final reaction mixture: amphetamine dimers,pyridones, pyrimidines, pyridines, polycyclic compounds, and N-formylderivatives.

Unfortunately, the same legal pressure on precursors that seeks toroot out clandestine production makes the large quantities of organicsolvents necessary for proper purification harder and more dangerousto get, and forces the use of unsafe procedures, or short cuts thatmake use of the final product even more medically dangerous than itshould be.

LSD Manufacturing: Boys -- and Girls -- in the 'Hood-----------------------------------------------------

"Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals."

-- graffito

The clandestine manufacture of LSD is logistically complex,


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requiring a variety of difficult to obtain "watched" chemicals,and a comparatively sophisticated lab setup. Notwithstandingthe previous statement, like any of the illicit syntheses Ihave examined, the reaction, if done in a typical organic chemlaboratory, 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 levelof the LSD trade, and acid chemists and dealers (and many users)typically have a semi-mystical, proselytizing reverence for thesubstance (cf. PIHKAL). As a result, laboratory busts are rare,and though user demographics have changed considerably, overallconsumption has remained more or less steady (in the tens ofmillions of hits per year), since the late Sixties.

The only detailed discussion I have found on LSD pharmacology froman illicit chemistry perspective, is "LSD Purity",

an entirely speculative January 1977 "High Times" piece by BruceEisner , whose major flaw is its lack of harddata.

Augustus Owsley Stanley III (also known as "Owsley", aka "Owl",aka "Bear"; he eventually changed his name legally to "OwsleyStanley") was the first major "acid chemist", and he is considereda legendary figure from that era by some. His quite colorfulstory is chronicled in "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by TomWolfe (Bantam, 1968).

Other substantial pieces on Owsley worth checking out are "TheCreator" ("Newsweek", 680108), and, more recently, "Owsley & Me"("Rolling Stone", 821125), as well as the chapter, "The Alchemist"in "Storming Heaven" (infra.).

A recent and fairly lengthy interview with Owsley, in which hecriticizes the accuracy of both "Storming Heaven" and the '82Rolling Stone piece, may be found in "Conversations with theDead: the Grateful Dead Interview Book" (David Gans, N.Y.:Citadel Underground (1991)). This interview mostly concernsOwsley's musical background and association with the Grateful

Dead as their soundman and financial patron in their early daysin the '60s.

Another Owsley interview (haven't seen this one) may be foundin the Dead fanzine, "Dupree's Diamond News" No. 25 (August1993) and No. 26.

Owsley, who first burst onto the public stage when his name wassplashed across the front-page of the "New York Times" (670628 &670803), was put out of business by his December 1967 arrest at


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his suburban Orinda, California lab site with a quarter of amillion 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 mysteriousRonald Stark.

All three were involved with supplying psychedelics to theBrotherhood of Eternal Love, a loosely-based California hashsmuggling and LSD distribution ring founded in 1966.

ALD-52, 1-acetyl-LSD, was actually the first major "designer drug",though it being technically legal did not save Scully and Sandfrom 20 and 15 year federal prison terms respectively, in 1974.

As disclosed in a 1952 U.S. Patent to Sandoz Pharmaceuticals bythe team of Stoll, Troxler, and (Albert) Hofmann, lysergic acidis first converted to the diethylamide (LSD) by any of the knownroutes, and then acetylated to synthesize ALD-52:

acetyl'n Lysergic acid --> LSD --> 1-acetyl-LSD

With a published potency of 90% of LSD, but at the time completelylegal to possess, Sand and Scully came up with the tentativelybrilliant idea of simply reversing the reaction order in order tomake manufacture legal as well (Tendler & May (infra); "Interview:Michael Kennedy" [Sand and Scully's lawyer], "High Times" (Jan.1977)).

By performing the acetic anhydride acetylation first, followed bythe preparation of the diethylamide, they avoided the illegal LSDintermediate:

acetyl'n Lysergic acid --> 1-acetyllysergic acid -> 1-acetyl-LSD

Though such reaction flipping is in general of uncertain utility(it's completely reaction and reactant-dependent), in this case itworks (cf. Johnson (1973)).

And as an unpublished route, effectively Sand and Scully had comeup with a new synthesis of ALD-52 -- which they soon put to use bymanufacturing large amounts of it at a farmhouse lab in Windsor,

California in 1969.Millions of "Orange Sunshine" hits later, at their 1974 trial in SanFrancisco, initially incredulous government chemists quickly recoveredfrom their shock at the duo's inventiveness, by countering that evenif they hadn't:

1) made LSD, or2) made LSD at some stage in the reaction,

since ALD-52 was extremely unstable to moisture, and would decompose


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to LSD soon after tableting (and, of course, on intake), they werestill criminally liable.

(Though this might seem to be paradoxical to the 90% potency claim,it isn't if you consider that the Molecular Weight of LSD tartratedivided by the M.W. of ALD-52 tartrate is about 90%.)

Either way, the Judge promptly threw the book at the hapless pair.(See Burton Hersh, "The Mellon Family". N.Y.: William Morrow (1978),p.480-495, for a detailed account of Sand, Scully, Billy Hitchcock,and his Millbrook estate playground for Timothy Leary).

Like many 60s counter-culture luminaries, Owsley, and later Sand,allied themselves with fellow outsiders the San Francisco Bay AreaHells Angels, providing the motorcycle gang with their start in thelucrative business of synthetic drug wholesaling, and ultimatelymethamphetamine manufacturing as well.

The move was quite propitious for the previously aimless sociopathic

group, motorcycle gangs being hierarchically, sociologically, andlogistically ideal for the purpose of large scale drug trafficking.

The first to recognize and exploit this possibility was George "BabyHuey" Wethern, Vice-President of Sonny Barger's infamous Oaklandchapter of the HAs. Wethern turned state's evidence in 1972, andtestified at the '74 Sand/Scully trial among others. (See thesomewhat self-serving "A Wayward Angel", by George Wethern & VincentColnett. NY: Richard Marek (1978); see also the Michael Kennedyinterview (supra)).

I know of only two books devoted to the nether-world of illicit LSDmanufacturing:

"The Brotherhood of Eternal Love", Stewart Tendler & David May.London: Panther Books (1984). Out of Print. (I haven't been ableto get my hands on anything but brief excerpts of this book [and wouldlove to hear from anyone who has a copy], but see "Acid Dreams" byLee & Shlain. NY: Grove Press (1985) and "Storming Heaven", by JayStevens. N.Y.: Harper & Row (1987)).

(Tendler covered the "Operation Julie" bust (infra) for the[London Sunday] "Times", but the "Times EducationalSupplement" (840706, p. 23) roundly criticized this bookas a shallow, simplistic, and inadequate effort.)

(See also: "The Strange Case of the Hippie Mafia", "RollingStone", 721207 & 721221 and "The Brotherhood of Eternal Love:The Senate Report", "High Times", Fall 1974 for opposingviewpoints on the scope of the Brotherhood conspiracy.)

"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 thepost-indictment remnants of the BEL. The Kemp ring allegedly


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manufactured 60% of the world's LSD at the time, amounting to tensof millions of hits over a several year period.

The motive of the ring's leadership was the expectation thatwidespread use of LSD by Britain's youth would catalyze leftistRevolution, leading to the overthrow of the aging and morallybankrupt _ancien regime_.

For the temerity of admitting this to post-arrest police, sentencestotaled 170 years in prison.

Their bust was immortalized in the delightful electric guitar/pianomedley, "Julie's in the Drug Squad" by the Clash (on the "Give 'emEnough Rope" album).

(For newspaper reports on the raid and ensuing trial, seethe [London Sunday] "Times" 770328, p. 2, and especially780309, p. 1, 8 & 17.)

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: 1.5million dosage units bought over a four year period.

Consistent with the unusual patterns associated with LSD trafficking,not only did the distribution ring consist entirely of women, includinga grandmother in her fifties, but all refused to testify in exchangefor reduced sentences.

A Selected Bibliography on Synthetic Heroin-------------------------------------------

"T-Bird an' Georgie let their 'gimmicks' go rotten, So the died of hepatitis in Upper Manhattan, Sly, in Vietnam -- bullet in the head, Bobby O.D.ed on Draino on the night that he was wed. They were two more friends of mine, Two more friends that *died*.

-- "People Who Died" Jim Carroll Band (1980)

While speed lab busts were peaking at the end of the '70s, almostsimultaneously two entirely new and different forms of "syntheticheroin" (synthetic opiates, actually) began appearing commerciallyin California, making their presence felt as junkies began dropping

like flies for unknown reasons.A major public health threat had opened simultaneously on two fronts,and the term "designer drug" entered the vernacular of a horrifiedpublic.

The "original" China White fentanyl analogue was alpha-methylfentanyl,which the DEA initially thought was the more potent 3-methylfentanyl.

Fentanyl Analogue Refs:


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"Chem. Eng. News" 59:71 (1981) [before they realized it was alpha and not 3-methyl]

"Fentanyl Program", GFR1-81-4044, DEA (1981), unpublished.

"Control Recommendation for a-MethylFentanyl", DEA (1981)

"Federal Register" 46:46799 (1981) [Notice of Scheduling: Final Rule]

"Anal. Chem" (Oct. 1981) "Behind the Identification of China White"

"Science" 224:1083 (1984)

"Science 85" (March 1985)

Baum, "Chem. Eng. News" 63(36):7-16 (1985), excellent cover story on designer drugs including fentanyl & MPPP.

"JAMA" 256 (22): 3061-3063 (1986); fentanyl & MPPP.

References on the even higher potency 3-methylfentanyl, whoseinitial appearance was in Pittsburgh, and which appeared separatelyand much later, than a-methylfentanyl, and also caused some O.D.s(and a 45-year sentence for the chemist).

3-methyl fentanyl was also the narcotic later made by both MichaelHovey and George Marquardt.

Monastero in "America's Habit". President'sCommission on Organized Crime (1986)

"New York Times", 881225.

"Eagle", lengthy Marquardt series

"Newsweek", 930621, p.32, Marquardt

Literature cites on MPPP, of Parkinson's Disease fame:

"Psych. Res." 1:249 (1979) [the originalpaper, rejected by JAMA & NEJM]

"Science" 219:979 (1983)

Langston, "The Sciences" 25(1):34-40 (1985) "The Case of the Tainted Heroin" [by the

guy who tracked it down]

"The Case of the Frozen Addict", PBS "Nova", (1986), transcript of show

Sanford Markey, ed. "MPTP - A Neurotoxin


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Producing a Parkinsonian Syndrome" Orlando,Fl.: Academic Press (1986) [haven't seen

this one; book based on Centers for Disease Control investigation]

"The Case of the Frozen Addicts" Langston & Palfreman. NY: Pantheon (1995). [You've

seen the PBS show, now read the more detailed book!]

There are lots of other scientific papers available, butthe above-listed are some of the main ones of interest.

------------------------------

Subject: 7. "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 thecivilized world, getting together to discuss whatever strikes theircollective fancy. Professors and academics, engineers and scientists,polymaths, and intelligent people everywhere, getting together to kickideas, information, and scurrilous personal attacks back and forth. Asynthesis of great minds and intellects, altruistically donating theirtime and effort in glorious cosmic synergy.

However, it's sad to say that, as more and more people go online, the Netis beginning to reflect the tawdry conglomeration that is society at large.One mammoth, lowest common denominator, vainglorious, pseudo-intellectualwhore-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 meananyone's going to answer it. Or in particular on alt.drugs --a newsgroup dominated by drug burn-outs, trollers, poseurs, andwannabes -- answer it correctly.


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You may get an answer to your question, but you can'trealistically expect it when it amounts to a tradesecret. Someone who poses such a question obviouslyhas a recipe for making MDMA, aka E. The recipe requiresoil of sassafras, or another source of safrole. Needlessto say, the government is aware of this too, and it'ssomewhat 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 onthat source of supply. Why on earth would you expectanyone 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 inCanada, Australia, and elsewhere. Someone was sellingsuch a recipe for thousands of dollars in New Zealand afew years back. So why would someone give it to youfor 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 somethingsuch as extracting codeine from OTC medications, withinthe year, codeine would be prescription-only everywhere.

But then dopers -- being the narcissistic morons that theyare -- 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 enoughto explore the matter.

The fact of the matter, however, is that widely publicizingcertain things -- and the Net is as wide as it gets --inevitably results in their negation through governmentaction. I don't say this to stifle people from postinginformation, but there is such a thing as discretion, ya know.

[I'm reminded of Abbie Hoffman's omission in his 1970classic, "Steal This Book", of the "dead baby birthcertificate" method for obtaining false ID. Hoffmanfeared that widespread publicity would spur governmentaction to close what he viewed as an escape hatch forfugitive radicals. Indeed, by early 1974, Hoffman washimself on the lam from a cocaine trafficking beef.

Hoffman's self-censorship only delayed the inevitablehowever -- the scam was out only a year later in


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Frederick Forsyth's 1971 best-selling thriller, "Dayof the Jackal", and a more detailed underground how-to

version, "The Paper Trip" by Barry Reid (Eden Press).

Interestingly, a quarter century later, this lattervolume is still available -- along with a host ofsequels and imitators trying to cash in on the

corrupt and the gullible -- even though the methodis more-or-less defunct.]

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 wouldanyone 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 tostick around long enough to wade through the regular traffic.

Along with "tell me everything about "because you have a homework assignment due tomorrow and aretoo dumb or lazy to use the library, this probably ranks asone 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 towhatever minuscule thought percolates through your tiny, 1/4 wattcerebrum. That's Lamont's job.

Ever hear of a library? It's an amazing place. Medicinalchemistry is around RM315 if you've graduated past the DeweyDecimal System.

I started posting to the Net on the premise that I should putback in, for what I've gotten out of the Net. Inspired by thevenerable 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 apost interests me, time-permitting, I *may* respond. If itdoesn't, I don't. _C'est la vie_.

You're a lot more likely to get a response if you show you'vedone your homework -- made some sort of preliminary effort toinvestigate the question yourself. I think I first got fedup with the intellectual parasites that infest alt.drugs (andmuch of the rest of the net) when during a lengthy thread onpetroleum ether, some nitwit posted the very same questionwe had just finished discussing.

Yes, indeed. A fool's thoughts: the briny well that never


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runs dry.

Is the DEA on the Net?----------------------

The Internet is what the government-constructed and ownedARPANET has evolved into.

Of course they're on the Net, fool!

This was definitively confirmed in December 1994 by Lamont. Nosurprise here, except among the drug-addled.

Of course, it is also the height of narcissism to think that theDEA gives a hoot whether you are a dope-smokin' degenerate.Believe me, they have more important things to worry about.State and local criminal investigators might, however, be adifferent 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 factthat it's quite probable that someone somewhere is archiving *all*net traffic, and that in ten or twenty years when you do care, itmay 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 itsbane, as well as its beauty. The nature of alt.drugs makesit particularly vulnerable to inaccurate, incomplete, anddownright erroneous answers from an assortment of flakes:poseurs trying to elbow their way to the front of the intell-ectual line, wannabe-criminals trying to attract sponsorshipby exaggerating their expertise, and pseudo-experts trying topump up their flagging egos by marking a corner of the InnerCircle.

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 lackingthe appropriate caveats.

Elevating irascibility to an art-form, I've made it a personalcrusade to flame such net.idiots on general principles alone.

On the other hand, past and present alt.drugs Hall-of-Famers suchas J, [St.] Anthony Ankrom, andLamont Granquist (with an honorable mention to Steve Dyer, EricSnyder, Howard Black, Pierre St. Hilaire, Malcolm, and Eli Brandt),can usually be counted on to provide interesting, useful, and


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accurate chemical information.

Their selfless dedication to, and pursuit of the Truth is trulythe 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 independentconfirmation from a reliable source, you do so at your own peril.

'Nuf said.

------------------------------

Subject: 8. The Law: Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200,000

"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 a serious crime everywhere to makeand distribute drugs. Even less surprisingly, this has failedto make much of a dent in the manufacture and traffick in suchsubstances.

Since the U.S. is at the forefront of the War on Drugs, I willconcentrate on U.S. statutes only. I no longer follow U.S.law particularly closely, so some of this information may beout 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 SubstancesAct (listing all banned and federally regulated drugsand precursors) are in Title 21, Sections 800-900 (21

USC 800-900).(Interestingly, first offense drug possession is a misdemeanorin the U.S. under Federal law. Unfortunately, minoroffenders are typically prosecuted under State Law, whichusually makes drug possession a felony.)

Other related Federal criminal statutes are CCE (ContinuingCriminal Enterprise, 21 USC 848), RICO (Racketeer Influencedand Corrupt Organizations, 18 USC 1962), and the ControlledSubstance Analog Enforcement Act (21 USC 802.32).


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RICO and CCE are the legal bludgeons the Feds use againstdrug rings that achieve any sort of success. They arequite draconian in both scope and harshness.

State law is an entirely different and separate affair fromFederal law and jurisdiction. Each of the fifty states has

its own body of laws, and you can be prosecuted under _both_federal and state statutes, double jeopardy notwithstanding.

California and Texas are two states which, in tandem with thelevel of local lab activity, have a fairly well developedbody of statutes in this area. In particular, state precursorcontrol laws preceded that of the Feds by well over a decade.

For California State Law (the Health and Safety Code coversdrug-related laws), see:

The long-predicted (Maclean & Pournelle, unpublished (1972) &Brecher, supra)) rise of synthetic heroin analogues precipitatedthe passing in 1986 of the federal Controlled Substance AnalogueEnforcement Act. This closed what had become a major loophole inprior legislation, the so-called "designer" drugs (pharmacologi-cally similar, minor chemical variants of banned drugs). Analogues,however, were not a recent problem. The first open source mentionwas Gunn et al. (1970, supra) (cf. Baum (1985), supra).

Finally, the 1988 Chemical Diversion Trafficking Act (21 USC 802.33 -802.40) placed mandatory import/export/sales reporting requirementson a slew of precursor chemicals.

Other legal manifestations of the politics of contraband includelaws making money-laundering (18 USC 1956, including failing toreport large cash transactions), and the transportation ofdangerous chemicals on airplanes Federal felonies, as well ascivil forfeiture (21 USC 853 & 881), allowing for the summaryconfiscation of a suspected drug dealer's assets with or withoutany related criminal conviction. Income tax evasion, and using the phone (or the Net) to violatethe drug laws are also Federal crimes.

However much you think that drugs are plentiful and peachy-

keen, you would be well-advised to note that manufacture andorganized trafficking are not looked upon kindly. Prosecutionis vigorous and aggressive, and these people don't fool around.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Additionally, the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rightswas gutted by the Bail Reform Act of 1984 (upheld by the U.S.Supreme Court in _U.S. v. Salerno_ (1987)), to allow for pre-trial detention on the basis of "being a danger to the commun-ity", against the previous legal standard of mandatory bail


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except when there was "risk of flight".

The USC is net.available:

or as gzip compressed files (by Title):

Additions to the list of contraband drugs are announcedin the "Federal Register", a U.S. Government periodicalfound in any U.S. or Canadian law library, as wellas any U.S. "Federal depository" public library, oron-line:

Updated schedules and ancillary drug regulations may befound in Title 21 of the CFR, the Code of Federal Regulations.

A current list of proscribed drugs may also be obtained by writing:

Drug Enforcement Administration Attn: Drug Control Section 1405 "I" Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20537

------------------------------

Subject: 9. 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, theless and less happy I've become with the morality of it all.

I've even begun to question the value of that relativelybenign class of substances known as the psychedelics. (Whatwas it that Ram Dass once said? "Psychedelics have a messageto give, but once you get the message: hang up.")

With the rest, however, -- narcotics, ups, and downs -- theanswer is quite clear. And it ain't a good one.

For no matter how delightful you find the chemistry or theprospect of easy money and free dope, the fact of the matter


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is that the drug business is a sordid, tawdry, and immoral one.

Driven almost entirely by greed, it comes with its own grimtoll of dead, destroyed, addicted, imprisoned, or impoverishedhumans: a constellation of suffering and misery which nodecent 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 yourcrank lab?

No matter how you rationalize it, there is no way to escapethe cruel reality that drugs are about two things: money andpower. Amassed through the corrupt exploitation of humanweakness.

And if they catch you -- and the odds are very muchin favor of that -- you can expect no sympathy at all.

Rank amateur or not, they *will* crucify your sorry ass.

It's a looking glass world, with the dealers and chemistson one side, and an array of shameless, moral cowards:the demagogic Republican slime politicians, crooked andbrutal cops, sleazy parasite lawyers, and hypocriticaljudges on the other.

And they *all* profit to the detriment of society.

Now, don't get me wrong: criminal sanctions against drug*users* are clearly not just wrong-headed, but moreimportantly, counter-productive. It is fairly obvious, asthe Dutch and Swiss governments, and the highly respected"Economist" magazine see it, that drug use is a socialproblem and public health issue that should be dealt withas such.

Unfortunately, too many have too much invested in the statusquo.

Sound public policy is built not through the cynicalmanipulations of politicians and two dollar moralists,but through a careful balancing of harm minimizationto the individual, _as well as_ society at large.

Until society comes to grips with that, the non-medicaluse of drugs will remain an intractable scourge thatdistorts entire economies, corrupts our institutionsto the core, and frays the social fabric.

However, the base hypocrisy of society cannot and doesnot provide moral justification for the manufactureand distribution of illicit drugs for personal profit.

Sorry.


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Clandestine Chemistry Primer & FAQ

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