Underground Meth Recipes

THE WAR ON DRUG LABS

Up to Lexington 125, feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive

Waiting for my man.''

Lou Reed, I'm Waiting for My Man.

Times have changed since 1967, when Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed wrote about the waiting game involved in scoring a heroin deal in a rundown Harlem brownstone from a slick dude ''all dressed in black, PR shoes and a big straw hat''.

The garage thrash band classic is rated by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and has been covered by dozens of bands and solo singers, from the Smashing Pumpkins and Pink Fairies to David Bowie and Vanessa Paradis (that's the elegant Mrs Johnny Depp). But the louche, edgy urban counterculture Reed wrote about more than 40 years ago belongs to history now. In the 21st century, where a Mexican drug cartel boss openly boasts of his ''signature beheadings'' of rival gang members, the 1960s phrase ''heroin chic'' is now an oxymoron.

Harlem has been gentrified and Reed's drug-den brownstone has probably been subdivided into luxury million-dollar apartments. As for the man in black, his modern equivalent is likely to be running an internet mail-order business selling ''nutritional supplements'' (energy pills billed as having ''more kick than a rodeo bronco'') and ''immune system boosters'' containing exotic (and maybe non-existent) organic herbs supposedly harvested from the Tibetan steppes.

Or maybe the modern incarnation of The Man is cruising the aisles of one of the big hardware franchise stores, stocking up on lithium batteries, pool chemicals, paint thinner, drain cleaner, lighter fluid, plastic tubing, matches and kitty litter. Hang on, kitty litter? Yes, it's used to absorb tell-tale ''cooking odours'' and reaction gases in clandestine drug laboratories.

According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report published last week, there are now more than 15 million heroin addicts across the world. The UN's latest World Drug report estimates more than 3700t of opiates (heroin, morphine and opium) were trafficked world-wide last year, with Afghanistan accounting for 90 per cent of global production. In 1980 it produced 20 per cent, rising to 70 per cent in 2000. So who is winning the war on drugs?

Crystal Meth Facts: It's Sweetening More Than Milk

     I remember growing up sweetening a glass of milk with strawberry flavored powder. How sweet it was. Today, drug pushers are adding the sweetness of this strawberry flavor to a powerful drug called methamphetamine. Drug dealers are using this concoction to target middle-school age children as their new market under the street name, “Strawberry Quick.”

     Street names for methamphetamine include: Speed, Meth, Ice, Crystal, Chalk, Crank, Tweak, Uppers, Black Beauties, Glass, Bikers Coffee, Methlies Quick, Poor Man’s Cocaine, Chicken Feed, Shabu, Crystal Meth, Stove Top, Trash, Go-Fast, Yaba, and Yellow Bam

     Methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Substance Act monitored by the Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of Health and Human Services. It’s classified as a Schedule II drug for the following reasons:

·                  The drug has a potential for abuse

·                  The drug has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States with severe restrictions

·                  Abuse of the drug may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence

     Actually amphetamine has been around since the 1930s available by prescription in tablet form and was used in the treatment of the sleeping disorder, narcolepsy, and the behavioral syndrome called, minimal brain dysfunction, which today is called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). During World War II, amphetamine was widely used to keep the fighting men going in battle.

     By the 1960s the use of amphetamine spread, as did the abuse of the drug. It was used by truckers to stay awake and complete long hauls, for weight control, for helping athletes to perform better and train longer and for treating mild depression. Intravenous amphetamines, primarily methamphetamine (crystallized methamphetamine hydrochloride) were abused by a subculture known as “speed freaks.” With experience, it became evident that the dangers of abuse of these drugs outweighed most of their therapeutic uses.

     Increased control measures were initiated in 1965 with amendments to the federal food and drug laws to curb the black market in amphetamines. Many pharmaceutical amphetamine products were removed from the market including all injectable formulations, and doctors prescribed those that remained less freely.

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