Crystal, crank, tweak, speed, chalk, glass, tina, ice, poor man’s cocaine. Methamphetamine can be snorted through the nose, smoked in a pipe or mainlined with a syringe. Those who do it are called meth heads or tweakers, due to the jittery symptoms users experience when they’re craving meth.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says there are a fair number of tweakers in this area. While in-home lab busts have been declining in Virginia due to restrictions on the sale of antihistamine (one of the main ingredients in meth), the Shenandoah Valley has the largest number of meth users anywhere in the state, according to the DEA. In Virginia last year, 13.9 kilos of meth were confiscated.
Large quantities of meth come from other countries, increasingly Mexico, and like other drugs, meth gets distributed on the street. But unlike heroin or cocaine, meth is also DIY. Anyone with access to agricultural chemicals or just an inclination to pick up the right things from the neighborhood drug store can manufacture meth cheaply and relatively simply.
These materials, when put together in the right way, will make meth. It’s illegal to possess all these items together, but knowing what’s in meth may provide a clue about why this chemical is so addictive, and so deteriorating to the human body.
Meth, the ingredients:
Gatorade jugs
Gatorade bottles
2.5 liter gas cans
filter flask
Rubbermaid “server” jug
Visionware bowl
eye dropper
fan (for cooling)
braided hose
plastic tubing
PVC spout
PVC connectors
hole stopper for flask
hose clamps
duct tape
towel
shot glass
funnel
blow dryer
heat source
candy thermometer
pH paper
Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed)
distilled water
ice/ice water
coffee filters
Metathanol (“Heet”)
iodine
Red phosphorus
Coleman’s fuel
Sodium hydroxide
(“Red Devil” brand lye)
Muriatic acid
Acetone
