Clandestine chemistry
The term clandestine lab is generally used in any situation involving the production of illicit compounds, regardless of whether the facilities being used qualify as a true laboratory.
Prepared substances (as opposed to those that occur naturally in a consumable form, such as cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms) require reagents.
In response to stricter international controls, drug traffickers have increasingly[citation needed] been forced to divert chemicals by mislabeling the containers, forging documents, establishing front companies, using circuitous routing, hijacking shipments, bribing officials, or smuggling products across international borders.
[1]: 8–9 Over the past decade, key international bodies like the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the U.N. General Assembly's Special Session (UNGASS) have addressed the issue of chemical diversion in conjunction with U.S.
[1]: 16 Many nations still lack the capacity to determine whether the import or export of precursor chemicals is related to legitimate needs or illicit drugs.
The problem is complicated by the fact that many chemical shipments are either brokered or transshipped through third countries in an attempt to disguise their purpose or destination.
[4]: 68 They hope to prevent the diversion of chemicals used in the production of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), including MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine.
[4]: 23 In June 2015, the European Commission approved Regulation (EU) 2015/1013 which outlined for the monitoring of drug precursors traded between the Union and third countries.
The Regulation also establishes uniform procedures for licensing and registration of operators and users who are listed in a European database tracking drug precursors.
Operation Purple is a U.S. DEA driven international chemical control initiative designed to reduce the illicit manufacture of cocaine in the Andean Region, identifying rogue firms and suspect individuals; gathering intelligence on diversion methods, trafficking trends, and shipping routes; and taking administrative, civil and/or criminal action as appropriate.
Critical to the success of this operation is the communication network that gives notification of shipments and provides the government of the importer sufficient time to verify the legitimacy of the transaction and take appropriate action.
Increased interdiction of chemicals in Peru and Bolivia has contributed to final product cocaine from those countries being of lower, minimally oxidized quality.
As a result, Bolivian lab operators are now using inferior substitutes such as cement instead of lime and sodium bicarbonate instead of ammonia and recycled solvents like ether.
Authorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan routinely seize ton-quantity shipments of diverted acetic anhydride.
[6][7] Prior to this, amphetamine sulfate first became widely available as an over-the-counter (OTC) nasal decongestant inhaler in 1933, marketed by SKF under the brand name Benzedrine.
[13] At the time, neither was a watched chemical, and pills containing the substance could be bought by the thousands without raising any kind of suspicion.
[8] Many individual States have enacted precursor control laws which limit the sale of over-the-counter cold medications which contain ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.
[8] The methamphetamine situation also changed in the mid-1990s as Mexican organized crime became a major player in its production and distribution, operating "super-labs" which produced a substantial percentage of the drugs being sold.
[8] According to the DEA, the seizure of 3.5 metric tons of pseudoephedrine in Texas in 1994 revealed that Mexican trafficking groups were producing methamphetamine on an unprecedented scale.
Illicitly produced desomorphine is typically far from pure and often contains large amounts of toxic substances and contaminants as a result of being "cooked" and used without any significant effort to remove the byproducts and leftovers from synthesis.
Injecting any such mixture can cause serious damage to the skin, blood vessels, bone and muscles, sometimes requiring limb amputation in long-term users.
[15] It has been suggested that "do-it-yourself" meth production in rural areas is reflective of a broader DIY approach that includes activities such as hunting, fishing, and fixing one’s cars, trucks, equipment, and house.
Missouri has reported some of the highest rates of meth-lab arrests in the country, and has pursued an aggressive and highly publicized policy of policing meth labs.
However, many of the cases reported involved meth users making small amounts of the drug using a crude and dangerous "one-pot method".
[25] The DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center data from 2012 to 2014 is showing a downward trend in the number of clandestine methamphetamine labs; down from a high of 15,196 in 2010.
This creates guidelines for States and local agencies to improve "our national understanding of identifying the point at which former methamphetamine laboratories become clean enough to inhabit again."
Making a former meth lab site safer for habitation requires two basic efforts: MPTP may be accidentally produced during the manufacture of MPPP.
Of the explosives manufactured illegally, nitroglycerin and acetone peroxide are easiest to produce due to the ease with which the precursors can be acquired.
