---
title: "Clandestine chemistry"
chunk: 3/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_chemistry"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:27:11.015131+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

===== Methamphetamine =====
As of the early 1990s, methamphetamine use was concentrated among young white males in California and nearby states. Since then its use has spread both demographically and geographically.  Methamphetamine has been a favorite among various populations including motorcycle gangs, truckers, laborers, soldiers, and ravers. Known as a "club drug", the National Institute on Drug Abuse tracks its incidence of use in children as young as twelve, and the prevalence of users increases with age.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, most methamphetamine production in the United States occurred in small independent laboratories. Phenylacetone, one precursor of methamphetamine, became a Schedule II controlled immediate precursor in 1979.  Underground chemists searched for alternative methods for producing methamphetamine. The two predominant methods which appeared both involve the reduction of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine. 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.
In the 1990s, the DEA recognized that legally imported precursors were being diverted to the production of methamphetamine.  Changes to federal regulations in 1988 and throughout the 1990s enabled the DEA to more closely track the  ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors. Many individual States have enacted precursor control laws which limit the sale of over-the-counter cold medications which contain ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. This made it somewhat more difficult for underground chemists to produce methamphetamine.  In May 1995, the DEA shut down two major suppliers of precursors in the United States, seizing 25 metric tons of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from Clifton Pharmaceuticals and 500 cases of pseudoephedrine from X-Pressive Looks, Inc. (XLI).  The immediate market impact suggests that they had been providing more than 50 percent of the precursors used nationally to produce methamphetamine. However, the market rapidly rebounded.
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. 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. More recent reports indicate an ongoing presence of Mexican trafficking.

=== By process ===

==== Distillation ====

===== Alcohol =====

Another old form of clandestine chemistry is the illegal brewing and distillation of alcohol. This is frequently done to avoid taxation on spirits.
In some countries, moonshine stills are illegal to sell, import, and own without permission. However, enthusiasts explain on internet forums how to obtain equipment and assemble it into a still. To cut costs, stainless steel vessels are often replaced with plastic stills, vessels made from polypropylene that can withstand relatively high heat.

==== Catalysts ====

===== Pyrolysis =====

====== THC ======
Conversion of CBD to THC can occur with heat acting as a catalyst.

=== By contamination ===

==== Alcoholic drinks ====
Alcoholic drinks that are known to be contaminated.

Diethylene glycol, used dangerously by some winemakers in sweet wines

===== Moonshine =====

==== Black tar heroin ====
Black tar heroin is a free base form of heroin that is sticky like tar or hard like coal. Its dark color is the result of crude processing methods that leave behind impurities.
Black tar as a type holds a variable admixture morphine derivatives—predominantly 6-MAM (6-monoacetylmorphine) which is another result of crude acetylation. The lack of proper reflux during acetylation fails to remove much of the moisture retained in the acetylating agent, glacial acetic acid.

==== Contaminated cocaine ====

===== Black cocaine =====
Black cocaine (Spanish: coca negra) is a mixture of regular cocaine base or cocaine hydrochloride with various other substances.

===== Cocaine paste =====
Coca paste (paco, basuco, oxi) is a crude extract of the coca leaf which contains 40% to 91% cocaine freebase along with companion coca alkaloids and varying quantities of benzoic acid, methanol, and kerosene.

==== Krokodil ====
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. Its melting point is 189 °C.
Causes of this damage are from iodine, phosphorus and other toxic substances that are present after synthesis.

==== Methamphetamine ====

A common adulterant is dimethyl sulfone, a solvent and cosmetic base without known effect on the nervous system; other adulterants include dimethylamphetamine HCl, ephedrine HCl, sodium thiosulfate, sodium chloride, sodium glutamate, and a mixture of caffeine with sodium benzoate.
Although the prevalence of domestic meth labs continues to be high in western states, they have spread throughout the United States. 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. Toxic chemicals resulting from methamphetamine production may be hoarded or clandestinely dumped, damaging land, water, plant life and wild life, and posing a risk to humans.  Waste from methamphetamine labs is frequently dumped on federal, public, and tribal lands. The chemicals involved can explode and clandestine chemistry has been implicated in both house and wild land fires.