May 04, 2005

"Then you'll have a little bit down at the bottom, the white stuff, and that's your meth."
posted by orococo 19 years ago
  • Dude - dude! That's totally not mine. Seriously.
  • With or without school demonstrations, the meth labs seem to running just fine. Maybe if pot were legal, the rual kids would have jobs growing legal dope instead of singing their eyebrows in nasty ketamine labs.
  • Dude - these parents need to chill. Christene is asked, "So you think you learned how to make methamphetamines because of this demonstration?" Christene answered, "Yes. I just don't know how to mix it all together." So - the students don't know how to make methamphetamines. The parents do realize that if these kids really wanted to know how to make just about anything, that they can find it on the web, right?
  • Shh...
  • Great. Now everybody knows. Thanks MsVader! *sulks*
  • Even if the instructor was handing out the list of regents and detailed instructions on how to mix them it wouldn't help the student looking to mix a few batches up at home. The precursers the instructor would have used are all proscribed lists. You just can't go down to the WalMart and pick this stuff up. That's why many OTC drugs have limits on how many you can buy.
  • I'm a bit confused as to just why they need a demonstration if all they're trying to get across is the fact that backyard labs are dangerous. Seems a bit silly or gimicky or something. Everyone knows google and the twisted students know erowid. Attention holding? Shock? Stupidity? Superfluousness? *sigh*
  • What possible educational benefit can this meth-making demonstration hold over some other one, say making soap or plastic?
  • If you make the meth first, after that you can make A TON of soap or plastic. And then clean your room. And then the house. And then the roof. And then finish your novel. And then...
  • Oops. Did I say that last part out loud? Sorry guys... *shrinks into a corner*
  • For tomorrow's assignment please bring to class something absorbent such as a sugar cube, square of filter paper or a vitamin C tablet. I think you wil find the class most mind opening.
  • TYLER With enough soap you could blow up the whole world.
  • any monkeys know a good way to trick Mofi into marking up something centered? the center and div tags don't work.
  • Sounds like a fun chem lab project. There are some others they might like to try. Nitroglycerine, perhaps? CH2NO3CHNO3CH2NO3. Stir carefully. Black powder was a neat trick, back in the day.
  • techsmith: What possible educational benefit can this meth-making demonstration hold over some other one, say making soap or plastic? One is a heck of a lot more interesting to some students. And interested people are better learners.
  • ..interested people are better learners.. Ahh...so they were profiling.
  • Man, if only we had learned how to make meth in high school. I would have gone for a chemical engineering degree in college! (Instead, all I know is how to edit in the AP style... And that doesn't get anyone high!)
  • Don't sell yourself too short, js. AP style probably gets Safire high.
  • Wow!!! No wonder we used to kick Elma's ass in high school football back in the day. Now I know why their heaviest lineman only weighed 110lb. But man, they had a clean school.
  • Here in Iowa the ability to make meth is a high school graduation requirement.
  • I wonder how different meth is from any other synthesis? (Anyone else make aspirin?) If you get over the shock value, there's so much you can teach there.
  • Making meth generally involves a reduction, which is pretty advanced for most beginning chemists. A better reaction to show high-schoolers would probably be turning GBL into GHB. One could demonstrate acid-base equilibria, hydrolysis, solubility, salts, all kinds of stuff.
  • Ah. Too right. Thanks, orococo.
  • I'm still curious what the actual point is to showing kids how meth is made. If my kids were shown that, I'd be furious. As a parent, no, I won't chill out.
  • pianistic, orococo --- I love chem too. This guy was a cop, not a chemist. Wtf is a cop doing teaching chem. We should probably be equally outraged because they were no doubt taught the wrong things.