New Meth Recipe - a/k/a Easter Bunny Meth

I've had a couple of clients independently tell me about a new kind of methamphetamine. I'd never heard of it before, and it didn't make sense.

Its effects are supposed to be physiologically identical to meth, but the substance will not test as meth, either in a Narcopouch test or in a GC/MS.

It's made by mixing 1) household ammonia (more accurately, ammonium hydroxide (aq)) 2) crumbled charcoal (carbon) and 3) gun bluing (Selenious Acid, Cupric Nitrate, Nitric Acid, Phosphoric Acid and water [MSDS here]) in equal parts. Then the mixture is buried in a sealed fish tank or cooler. Some recipes call to suspend strings from the top of the container into the mixture. (hence the occasional name "string dope") Then wait a month. By then crystals will have formed; the crystals are [meth] ice.

However, this is not really meth; it's alive. It is a fungus that keeps growing inside your body long after you ingest it (by shooting or smoking) That's why addicts scratch and get open sores; it's the ice forming new crystals in a person's skin. These are called "meth bites." (locally, "ice bites" - assonance is important to addicts, too) On top of all that, it has a "half-life" of only a few days after removal from the ground; within two weeks, it will be pharmacologically inert.

The problem is, this recipe is all a bunch of crap; even the DEA knows it. (at 11)
On a more basic level, you just can't get there chemically. Period. There is no organic compound in the recipe, so you're not going to get anything remotely similar to the organic compound methamphetamine. You need an organic compound like an amine - as in meth-amphet-amine. Pseudoephedrine is an amine, and is used in both the red phosphorus/Hydrogen Iodide and Lithium/anhydrous ammonia cooking methods.

The base (ammonium hydroxide) and any of the acids (from the bluing) will react, and form a salt, which may form crystals, but it's not going to be chemically or pharmacologically anything like meth.

Another thing that had me skeptical was that none of my searches were getting hits on any of the drug information clearing houses; Erowid, Rhodium (now defunct), or Lycaeum.

But Erowid eventually came through; the recipe is "complete bunk" - the idea was dreamed up in the 1970's by a guy named Scott French and published in a book, the "Complete Guide to the Street Drug Game."
as explained by the erowid article's author,

As with the Net in general, there is a paucity of accurate information available on the subject of illicit drugs. Even the fact of publication is not necessarily a guarantee of any sort of technical legitimacy, particularly, though not limited to, "counter-culture" efforts.

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

Companies like Paladin, Delta Press, and Loompanics are typical purveyors 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.

I'm amazed that people will believe this crap; a living crystalline fungus that will continue to grow new crystals underneath the skin, even after being smoked. (but see gout; crystalline, yes, but not organic, not fungal, and not alive) I'm even more amazed that, armed with this erroneous but alarming information, people still use the stuff!

Jack