LOW COST ATTRACTIVE TO METH MAKERS

What makes methamphetamine appealing to many is the low cost of making it
themselves.

Agent Jerry Orr of the Fifth Judicial Drug Task spoke in general terms about
how the drug is made and what ingredients are used into the process.

Orr read off a list of ingredients that commonly are used to make
methamphetamine.

``You've got to have cold pills -- pseudoephedrin,'' he said. ``They'll
grind the cold pills to powder, put it in a solution and it separates the
ephedrine from the binding that holds the tablet together.''

Other ingredients needed include Drano, muratic acid, rubbing alcohol,
lithium strips off lithium batteries, starter fluid or Coleman camping fuel,
Red Devil lye, aluminum foil, rock or table salt, distilled water, potassium
or sodium metal, denatured alcohol, Heet (used to prevent fuel line freeze),
iodine used by farmers and red phosphorous from match books.

``They'll soak the matchbook in solution and extract the red phosphorous,''
he said.

``It's a two-step process, they'll heat the iodine till it turns into
flakes, strain it, and that's when they'll add the different ingredients
involved in each step,'' Orr said.

Once the cooking-mixing stage is complete, the liquid solution is agitated.

``It forms a gas which turns the liquid into a crystallized substance, which
is methamphetamine,'' Orr said.

Usually when red phosphorous is used in the process, it takes anything from
four to 10 hours to get a finished product, he said.

If anhydrous ammonia is used, this cuts the cook time to about a third of
that time, Orr said.