Neighbor found strange “trash” in the alley behind my house and showed it to me today. A blackened, melted pile of pop bottles, plastic tubing, and blister packs. She figured it out before I did (and I was even argumentative about it), but gee, I consider myself well-read and had no idea stupidity had reached another low.
So, did absolutely everyone but me know you could put cold medicine and chemicals in a soda pop or sports drink bottle and carry it around with you, shaking it up to speed up the process, and make meth on the go? Apparently the idiots who tried it behind my house had one or more of the obvious adverse results: toxic fumes, explosion and fire. Probably also a connection to the recent rise in burglaries in my well-established, working-class, small midwestern city neighborhood. Just … dangit!
Well, thank you for that then. And I see I titled my thread arrogance instead of ignorance, which may be appropriate because I tried to tell her it was kids siphoning gas and the plastic melted. Dur.
IIRC that’s called the “Shake and Bake” method. It’s not so much that it’s a mobile meth lab, it’s that it’s a way for someone to make a very small batch very quickly and without attracting a whole lot of attention.
Actually, I thought it was important that the Shake and Bake method be mobile. Apparently, it’s the easiest way to disperse the toxic fumes. People make it in cars and even on bicycles!
Apparently it is important that you unscrew the top a bit to avoid those pesky, lung-damaging, explosive toxic fume buildups. I now know too much about something I wish didn’t exist.
We’re having a city-wide cleanup day soon. I hope the local news runs a story about avoiding abandoned backpacks, for more than one reason.
I found a site explaining how to do this. Really informative. It gives you all the ingredients and procedures. It also explains all the possible ways it could hurt you. I counted ten and that doesn’t include getting arrested or using the resulting meth.
I think I found out about the shake-n-bake method a couple of years back. In the context of a warning about the possibility of explosions. Either on fb or one of those forward to everyone you know emails.
On a not-so-mobile note. Several years back I drove by a trailer that had all the seams and windows burst out in one end. Wonder what was going on there… :rolleyes:
I wasn’t aware of the meathod, either. I’m kind of curious about it. Apparently, sometimes the thing you’re shaking explodes, which is fun. What keeps it from exploding when it goes well? Seems a bit risky.
One of those addiction shows a few years back had a guy using that method. He sort of explained it within the confines of television, and used a plastic water bottle. IIRC, he was indoors in a bedroom or hotel room, and I think he set it on a side table or ledge or something, with the contents swirling away. I thought the documentary crew was brave and crazy for sticking around.
On a not-so-mobile note. Several years back I drove by a trailer that had all the seams and windows burst out in one end. Wonder what was going on there… :rolleyes:
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RVs have a number of propane appliances in them. A propane leak and a spark can do pretty much what you describe, I saw the result once. The guy that was living in the RV was a boyscout type trying to build time and eventually land an airline pilot job, so I doubt he was cooking meth, though that pays better than dragging gliders, at least according to what I saw on TV. He got bruised up a little, but was otherwise unhurt.