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Meth makers now making homemade ammonia

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BAY ST. LOUIS (AP) - Authorities say manufacturers of methamphetamines are quick to adapt to changes within the drug landscape.

Even so, Chris Russell, a drug agent with the Hancock County's Sheriff Department, said he was surprised when the newest wrinkle - homemade anhydrous ammonia - showed up so fast.

With security tightening around industrial plants where chemicals used to make methamphetamines are stored, narcotics agencies around the country have been alerted to look out for makeshift anhydrous ammonia labs. The chemical is used in the production of meth.

"It's getting harder and harder to steal (anhydrous ammonia), so they're now trying to make it," said Matt Karl, director of the narcotics division. "But people don't realize how dangerous this stuff is; it's like playing with dynamite."

Authorities believe a law surfaced Wednesday in Hancock County.

Russell said authorities got a call that a Hancock County man had collapsed in his home off Flemming Road after inhaling fumes from a bucket a friend had left in his home. A short while later, investigators found that the bucket contained anhydrous ammonia and was likely part of an illegal meth lab.

The discovery led to the arrest of a Carriere couple, who were caught by the Pearl River County Sheriff's Department later Wednesday after the meth lab was discovered.

Michael Brayson, 30, and Traci Ann Brayson, 41, were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance and possession of precursors in the manufacture of a controlled substance. Both were being held on $40,000 bond at the Hancock County jail.

Authorities said the couple was using their friend's home, which was being remodeled, to manufacture the anhydrous ammonia, which is illegal to own without a permit. The home's owner discovered the chemical Wednesday after peering into a bucket in the house, Russell said.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, immediately succumbed to the vapors and passed out, Russell said. Both the homeowner and an unidentified witness, who called police, were later treated at a Picayune hospital for exposure to the gas. They were treated and released.

July 5, 2003
http://www.leadercall.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2003/July/05-549-news09.txt
 
Making anhydrous ammonia? Where can I find more info on how this is done? I dont need an actual "recipe" or instructions as I am not so foolish as to fuck w/ such a potentialy lethal substance within the confines of my abode but I am interested in the basics of how this is done i.e. what materials/chemicals the meth heads use to make anhydrous. Thanks

Mod Edit: Please do not ask questions like that here, if you really are a farmer you can legally purchase it
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A short while later, investigators found that the bucket contained anhydrous ammonia ...
Since anhydrous ammonia is a gas, who would try to store it in a bucket?!
 
Leaving a bucket full of anhydrous ammonia on someone's doorstep would likely cause evacuation of the surrounding area at the very least.

It SHOULD be stored in emptied steel fire cylinders, as they can be used to vent NH3 as needed, more likely, he was actually in the middle of a birch reduction when caught=D

If it is decanted into a container, it will stay liquid for a while, that is how the Birch is actually done, using liquid anhydrous NH3 as the solvent to dissolve the alkali metal, if done PROPERLY, I would imagine it is safer than a red phos/HI reduction, as there isn't the possibility of lethal phosphine formation on overheating, and the NH3 gas byproduct can easily be neutralised.

When done with proper glassware that is, although I have never actually done it, if I was a meth cook though, I would rather use the birch than a LWR/push-pull, it just seems to much less, well, messy=D
 
redeemer said:
Since anhydrous ammonia is a gas, who would try to store it in a bucket?!

provably it was refrigerated beyond its BP (-33C), so it was a liquid... tho it still shouldnt have been stored in an open bucket
 
I don't even see why this is news, meth cooks have been using the Birch, well, not technically a Birch, as they don't usually use sodium metal, Li is typically scrouged from camera batteries, and making their own NH3 for years, it likely doesn't get reported as much though as less people would be caught taxing annie from farmer's trucks=D

As for how it is made, typically from ammonium nitrate, although dropping ammonia solution on anhydrous NaOH then leading the gas through drying tubes before condensing it as a liquid would work for small quantities.
 
Favorite tweaker story: Highway patrol pulls over a group of guys in a car because they're driving down the highway in the middle of winter with the car's windows rolled down and their heads sticking out. Turns out they'd decided to steal some anhydrous ammonia and thought a cooler would be a good transport container. The ammonia, of course, was slowly evaporating in the warm car, filling it with toxic fumes.

Ammonia is one of the reasons meth labs have a reputation for blowing up; the ammonia itself is flammable, and when it gets mixed with air (from evaporating) the mixture is explosive, just like a natural gas leak. (Ether being the other big risk for an explosion, for the same reasons.) That most tweakers seem to smoke doesn't help matters. :)
 
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