Book Review: Secrets of Methamphetamine production
First and foremost, let me tell you two things I am not. I am not a chemist, and have only a typical high-school education in chemistry, and not a lot more. I've experimented in the manufacture of explosives and incendiaries, but I have never attempted to manufacture "recreational chemicals" of any sort. I am not a drug user (of any sort) and have absolutely no interest in making or using recreational chemicals of any sort, and hopefully I never will.
Needless to say, when I stumbled upon a copy of "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture, 3rd Edition" by "Uncle Fester", I was hit with mixed feelings of curiousity and abhorrance - but in the end my curiousity got the better of me. What I found that this was an extremely informative booklet that explains step by step in reasonably-layman's terms. What I mean by this is if you have a basic knowledge of chemical apparatus and the compounds, you would know enough to be able to understand the processes involved. Whether or not you would understand enough to practically carry everything out or not, well that's a matter outside the scope of this review.
Is the book well written? Well actually, the jury is still out on that one. As I said, you can understand it quite easily - but some of the paragraphs have a tendency to run-on and overwhelm you, and some of the more repetitive processes are detailed "unrolled", rather than simply explaining that the processes are repeated.
On the whole though, I think the book does a very good job of walking a fine line between detail and readability - it's not dumbed down to the point where you lose pertinent information, yet it's written in a language that one can understand and learn the processes involved.
Aside from the obvious "cookbook" appeal of this publication, I would have to say one of the far less appreciated facets of this book is the historical aspects - in every other quick-review of this book that I have seen, no one mentions the fact that it includes various detailed accounts of how certain methods were discovered, and the importance of them to those running labs.
The book also gives various accounts of how various reactions are used in practical chemistry - of course all these reactions are by no means exclusive to the production of drugs, but they serve as a resounding answer to any chem student asking "when in real life am I going to need this shit?". There is also the remote possibility that reading this book may help you understand various difficult to learn aspects of a chemistry course you are taking - learning is always easier given the proper motivation.
Amazingly, towards the end of the book the author takes a turn for the responsible, in which this excerpt from a paragraph regarding the meth-variant "ice" explains:
"I am not going to endorse or encourage the foolhardy practice of smoking meth. Seeing firsthand what this stuff does to rubber stoppers, razor blades, and corks, I can only imagine what it does to lung tissue. However, since the godless importers of this material have already made a market for it, it is only right that I help American technology catch up."
I've found this paragraph indicative of the brutal honesty that the author uses throughout the book, but yet most others who comment on the book seem to ignore. This book is not emotional one way or the other, with the exception of calling various individuals "narco swine" - the book is merely stating an abundance of facts, which a dedicated learner could easily get elsewhere.
I believe the good deeds books such as these do by educating people who are naieve far outweighs the possibility of a couple of teenagers cooking themselves a batch of crank in the basement - the process simply doesn't work like that.
The only thing I found missing in this book is a rebuttal and commentary of common conceptions about the ill-effects of amphetamine use/abuse. There are a lot of hellish stories out there, some of which may be true and others may not - the fact that the book entirely dodges the issues completely instead of analyzing them with such zeal as the rest of the book contains was a little disappointing.
On the whole I'd recommend this book to anyone living in an environment where speed, crank, and other amphetamine-related compounds are used/abused, and who are rather clueless about how it all works. Information is power, and chances are rather good you might be surrounded by more than one amphetamine user and not even know it. If you're lacking something to do for a few hours, read this book.
Links
- Buy this on Amazon.com
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- This review is also posted on Epinions.com.