Procedure:A. Purifying pseudoephedr

Procedure:

A. Purifying pseudoephedrine:

1. Take the 5 decongestant capsules, empty their contents into a small funnel with a coffee filter. Pour 50ml of cold water through the filter, and collect the liquid in a small jar.

2. Add a 1/4tsp of lye to the collected liquid. You should immediately smell the odor of ephedrine.

3. Put the resultant solution in another small jar, and add 50ml of brake cleaner, then close the lid and shake vigorously. Let stand so that the layers seperate.

4. Using a turkey baster, suck up the bottom brake cleaner layer out of the jar and put it into a small bowl.

5. Add 50ml of vinegar and heat the resultant mixure over low heat in a frying pan with 1/2 inch of water. Thus a water bath. Do not use a gas stove, since the brake cleaner vapors will produce toxic phosgene if there is contact with a flame. Instead use a hot plate or electric stove at low heat only.

6. Heat the bowl in the water bath until no more liquid is left. At the bottom will be a solid layer of a pseudoephedrine acetate.

B. Preparing the red phosphorus:

1. Scrape the red phosphorus off of the caps of the 5 flares and store for later use. You should get about 0.1g per flare.

C. Preparing the iodine/HI solution:

1. Pour the entire bottle of the iodine tincture into a small ceramic bowl. Heat on the above type water bath until no more alcohol is left. Let cool, put in a small polyethylene jar, and add 0.1ml of the H2SO4 drain cleaner. Thats about 1/4inch of liquid in the end of an eye dropper. This converts the sodium iodide to HI. You now have a solution of iodine and HI. 2. Add the red phosphorus, and heat bottle in a water bath until the purple iodine color goes away.

D. The reaction:

1. Add the pseudoephedrine acetate to the solution of HI/I and phosphorus, and heat on a water bath for 24 hours.

E: Extraction:

1. Cool the reaction solution and add 1/2tsp of lye. Take the solution and perform steps A3-A6. 2. You will end up with methamphetamine acetate that you can scrape from the bowl.

Congradulations! You have circumvented all of law enforcement and have greatly contributed to the end of the "drug war". (or contributed to the outlaw of all flares, iodine tincture, vignegar, drain cleaners, and auto store chemicals and coffee filters as will happen in the next year)

Best regards, Cousin Singe

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FAQ fodder...

If methamphetamine looks waxy or oily, it is probably contaminated with the HI salt of meth, an oily by-product of the red-phosphorous/HI reduction of ephedrine--the most prevalent method of clandestine manufacture.

The HI salt is soluble in acetone, while the HCL salt is only very slightly soluble. The HI salt could be washed out, basified, and then precipitated with HCl gas to give methamphetmine HCL.

When completely dry, methamphetamine HCL is soluble in chloroform, while ephedrine HCL is not. This would provide a convenient method of separation.

[Reference: Skinner, Harry F., "Methamphetamine Synthesis Via Hydriotic Acid/Red Phosphorous Reduction Of Ephedrine," Forensic Science International, Vol 48, 1990, pp. 123-134]