Posted: 7/3/2004 11:40:41 AM EDT
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Friday at about 9:30 AM a couple of desperados pulled into the local FS fertilizer plant, hooked a tank wagon of anhydrous-ammonia to their pickup truck and took off down the road before anyone could ask WTF they thought they were doing. The manager called the police and he and another employee took off in pursuit (or maybe he took off in pursuit and then called the police). The chase proceeded down country roads at a high rate of speed (I’m not sure how fast you can go with a tank wagon loaded with a couple tons of liquid). Soon it became clear to the cunning thieves that they would not be able to make their get-away towing the booty so they drove into a corn field and unhooked the wagon (sometimes even the best laid plans go wrong). In the confusion, which is the normal state of the meth-saturated mind, one fellow got left behind while the other made good his escape. My son saw the guy on foot a short time later near another road (he had walked about a half mile) and noted that the guy was undoubtedly up to no good though he did not investigate since my grandson was in the truck (good call there). When one of the FS guys stopped to tell my son what had happened my son told him where to find the bad guy. By this time the County Drug Taskforce guys were on the job. Last I heard, they caught the dude on foot and knew who the driver was. Druggies are stupid but these meth-heads are in a class by themselves. |
Understood, but the druggies are at least prepared to handle NH3 (usually). I don't know shit about a meth lab, but I'd assume they'd use some sort of respirator so they don't breathe NH3, right? That means they wouldn't smell anything wrong with the "new and improved" recipe.  Of course, I could simply be talking out of my ass, since I have no real idea how this stuff works. |
Understood, but the druggies are at least prepared to handle NH3 (usually). I don't know shit about a meth lab, but I'd assume they'd use some sort of respirator so they don't breathe NH3, right?  You would think so, but you haven't fried your brain....yet. If you don't know, NH3 is liquid ammonia, under pressure, like LP gas. One of those tanks is like a big chemical bomb. Though the NH3 is hazardous, the tanks are relatively safe because they are built to be safe. |
I don't know how to make METH, but they use ammonia, cold tablets and batteries so that shit has to be good to eat, RIGHT? |
OK, OK. I got a meth idiot story. A deputy sheriff was cruising down a county highway at night. He meets a car going the other way with 4 people (including the driver) hanging out the windows and driving somewhat erratically. The Deputy thinks "Hummm, I don't know what this is about but I bet it is going to be good". So he turns around, catches up and lights them up. They pull over and four guys roll out onto the ground gasping for air. They had tapped an NH3 tank and had tried to carry the stuff off in a plastic garbage bag. If NH3 is not pressurized it vaporizes.  Into water vapor and AMMONIA. |
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Ephedrine and Pseudo-ephedrine are chemically very close to methamphetamine with the exception of an -OH group attached to one of the carbons instead of simply a hydrogen. To reduce the -OH to -H requires a reducing agent and there are many different methods to do so. One of the methods consists of dissolving ephedrine in liquid ammonia. The liquid ammonia acts as the solvent for either lithium or sodium metal which act as powerful reducing agents transforming the -OH group to H ie. from ephedrine to methamphetamine. The ephedrine or pseudo-ephedrine is obtained from cold tablets. The ammonia is stolen from farmers, farm supply places, etc. Lithium metal can be obtained from fresh lithium batteries. There are only about dozen different methods to reduce ephedrine to methamphetamine, and this happens to be one of them. See here for more information: search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=O9t162IGsa&isbn=1559501820&itm=4 The great thing about methamphetamine is that it's easy to make, and if you're caught you get to spend 25 years in a federal ass-pounding prison and lose your right to own firearms. |
It is sprayed directly into the soil for use as a fertilizer. It's cheaper than using ammonium nitrate. They have been doing this for decades. While I wouldn't leave buckets of the stuff laying around in a day-care center, people have posted gross exagerations of how dangerous it is to handle. Some of it is misinformation propagated by the powers that be. It is no more dangerous overall than handling propane. You just have to use common sense which meth heads don't tend to have. |
Fertilizer. Used on farms, usually sprayed on the fields using a large apparatus, towed by a large tractor. Special vehicles are also availablae just to spread the anhydrous quickly over large areas. |
Well, propane is dangerous if you light a cig while standing in a cloud of it. You can walk out of the area if you don't stand there and breath the stuff long enough to gas yourself and pass out. NH3 is 82% NITROGEN (as in liquid nitrogen). It can freeze your skin, it can sear your lungs and if you find yourself in a cloud of it you will run (not walk) the hell out of there holding your breath and hope you can find some water to get it out of your eyes. It is classified as HAZARDOUS material. It is also a good fertilizer. It makes an extra good tear gas replacement. Except if you can't get away from it you will die. If you want to know what it is like when it gets loose, throw some concentrated ammonia into your face and breath deep. And you don't spread or spray NH3 on a field, you inject it into the soil. If you sprayed it (and that happens) no one would be able to stay in the field. And no, I didn't look that up on the Internet. 
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Be careful about statements like that. You can say the same thing about propane ie. that it is 82% carbon, but its properties are in no way similar to propane. The fact that NH3 is 82% nitrogen doesn't mean that NH3 shares any of nitrogen's properties. It so happens that both are low boiling liquids that will cause frostbite. It actually makes a poor tear gas replacement because NH3 is less dense than air and therefore rises, rather than staying close to the ground to exert its effect. Haber, a German Jew who invented the catalytic method that revolutionized the modern mass production process of NH3, developed mustard gas and many other chemical weapons. He did consider NH3 as a potential war agent but abandoned it for the reason noted above. |
C4, my man, you have evidently never had a snootfull of NH3. I suggest you make it a point to give it a try. And unless there is a nice breeze to move the stuff away from you, you will choke to death waiting for it to rise. If I am upwind of you with a tank of NH3, you are screwed without protective equipment. |
Hoppy  8420
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OK The vapor reacts with moisture. It will burn your eyes, your nose and close up your throat. You can't SMELL it because you can't breathe. You will just die if you can't get out of it. That assumes that you are just in the vapor and don't actually make contact with the liquid which will take your skin off. This is just a fact. And yes, very small amounts will dissipate fairly quickly and just stink up the place and water your eyes. A concentrated cloud is like being under water, you can't breathe, at all. If you ever face a concentrated cloud of NH3 coming toward you, like if some idiot meth-head wrecks a load and ruptures a tank upwind of you, get the hell out of the way. Water is the cure. Water will neutralize it. Get to some water. |