Se els of

Methamphetamine
l\<1anuf acture
Eighth Edition
128
\\'hen t h e w layer has been drained away. add 50 ml of clean water
to t h e sep funnel .and shae again. !hen the mi" inside the sep funnel
settles i n a few minutes you will see a nicely clear toluene layer at the top
mi"ed with floating flaes of crap.and a lightly colored water layer at the
bottom mi"ed with floating I laes of crap. #rain olf the water layer$and
pour the toluene layer through a co%ee tilter to remo& the floati ng crap.
'inse out the sep fonnel wit h w er to remo&e clinging flaes of crap from
the glassware$ then pour the tillered toluene bac i nt the sep funnel and drain
off any water which carried through the fi ltration. (hen pour the luene
layer into a clean beaer and let it set for an hour or so to shed any water
still entrained in t he toluene.)inally. pour the toluene into a clean beaer and
bubble dry %*+ gas through it to get crystals of pwudoephedrine
hydrochloride. )ilter them out with a coffee filter$ rinse them with a fresh
port ion otoluene. and spread them out on a plate to dry.(he yield in this
case w i ll be around ,-o.o f the ma"imum po ible. + n the case of + -- of the
/- mg pseudoephedrine pills$ that wi% be around a gram and a half of product.
(his &ariation isnt as good as the one using only 01% pellets. but it
does a&oid any problems
associated with getting them as it us instead 0*+ salt substitute and lye. +
tried one more &ariation on this procedure. (hat &ariation was to use water to
e"tract the pills.and then to the filtered water e"tract + added /2,3 by weight
of sulfuric acid and boiled f about 4, minutes.+ obtained the product by
maing the solution basic by adding lye to the solution when it was cool.a
nd then e"tracted the product with
toluene. washed it a couple of times with water fi ltered the toluene
e"tract .and t hen bubbled dr y %*+
gas through it. + n that instance + got lessthan ,-3 yield of a product which
was st ill d y and would need to be recrystalli5ed t used successfu ll y in
maing meth.
(his procedure wored well for a couple of years. (hen they countered it.
)irst a filter pl ugging
ingredient was put into the Sudafed pills. (his re6uired an acetone pre2soa

be

of the ground up pills to remo&e this plugging ingredient. (hen the amount of
01% re6uired to get a good hydrolysis of t he pill polymers rose rom 1-
grams per 1-- pills to 2- grams and then bey nd th (hen the boili ng time
with
the 01% rose i nto the range of roughly 4, minutes to get reasonably
complete hydrolysis. (hen something in the pills began t come through into
the product and wrec t he reaction to mae meth using hydroiod ic acid. +
don't n w what that ingredient is because the pills are now loced behind a
counter and re6uire showing +# to obtain. + am told European &ersions of the
Sudaled pills still r pond well to the boil i ng 01% treatment as of 2--8.
(he
the 7erican Southwest r 7ust alia.(he seeds can easily be fou d n
search engines u nder ephedra seeds8 and they are completely legal in the 9S.
1ne would simply start them out indoors in small peat plant<rs late in winter
using &ery l ight sandy soil and then transplant them outside i n the spring to
grow
wild. +n a couple of years they wi ll ha&e grown enough for yearly har&ests in
the fall. (he lea&eswhich
loo lie pine needl are simply cl ipped off with a shears. (hey are then
dried in the sun before they bec me mildewed. Such rot would destroy its
content of the desired ingredients.7nother way to destroy the alaloid content
of the ephed ra is to put them in an o&en and bae to dry.(he ma"imum heat
allowed fer dr ying 12- ).
(he <phedra plant is a perennial with a reasonably long life. It is considered
to ha&e hit the prime of life with year four$ but har&ests can begin on it in the
fall starting with year t wo. 7 particu larly good plant may ha&e as much as 43
acti&e ingredients in the dried lea&es$ but + or 23 is more typical. 1nly plants
grown in hot and dr y areas w i ll produce much ephed rine and pseudoephedrine
in the lea&es.
'egardl s of whether one has ephedrine pills$ pseudoephed rine pills or
ephedra$ a big challenge is to e ct the acti&e ingred nts in an efficient
manner. (he pill formulations ha&e been continually e&ol&ing o&er the
years to mae them more di fficult to e"tract by chemical means. + ha&e come
up th a way to once again defeat the latest p ill formulations. (h
method is taen from a *hinese proc ure for