Shake and Bake: Exploring Drug Producers’ Adaptability to Legal Restrictions Through Online Methamphetamine Recipes

• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0022042617751685
• Author: Sabrina Vidal,David Décary-Hétu
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042617751685

Journal of Drug Issues

2018, Vol. 48(2) 269 –284

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042617751685

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Article

Shake and Bake: Exploring Drug

Producers’ Adaptability to Legal

Restrictions Through Online

Methamphetamine Recipes

Sabrina Vidal1 and David Décary-Hétu1

Abstract

Despite numerous regulations, methamphetamine consumption persists; its availability has even

increased in the United States. Methamphetamine is produced in small labs and super labs that

are differentiated by the quantity of drug they generate and by how they are embedded in

trafficking networks. The stagnant statistics regarding methamphetamine consumption and lab

seizures suggest that laws have been ineffective, partly due to the producers’ adaptability. To

understand this adaptation, methamphetamine recipes collected online will be analyzed through

a qualitative methodology. Emphasis will be placed on the impact of the American legislation

toward synthetic drug production. This article describes how methamphetamine producers

have adapted to get around the regulations. The producers synthesize the regulated precursors

by extracting them from processed products. To comply with the quotas imposed by law,

the producers limit their quantities used. This article suggests that producers keep abreast of

legislations and perfect the recipes accordingly.

Keywords

methamphetamine production, criminal adaptation, internet, regulations, synthetic drug,

methamphetamine, adaptation, drugs

Introduction

Criminal script theory analyzes criminal acts by breaking them down into distinct scenes involv-

ing carefully planned steps (Cornish & Clarke, 2002). The theory is based on the belief that

offenders act rationally and seek to increase their benefits (often monetary gains) while limiting

their costs (often monetary losses and jail time). It also posits that criminal scripts are transfer-

rable and that offenders innovate by sharing their scripts with each other. Innovation is often

externally motivated by the need to adapt to a changing environment (Cornish & Clarke, 2002).

Legislation, such as laws regarding the production and sale of drugs, can be a source of such

change, in some cases leading offenders to collaborate to design new and better scripts. Several

studies have used the criminal script theory framework to study violent crime (Beauregard,

1Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Sabrina Vidal, School of Criminology, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec,

H3C 3J7 Canada.

Email: sabrina.vidal@umontreal.ca

751685JODXXX10.1177/0022042617751685Journal of Drug IssuesVidal and Décary-Hétu

research-article2018

270 Journal of Drug Issues 48(2)

Proulx, Rossmo, Leclerc, & Allaire, 2007), car theft (Morselli & Roy, 2008), check fraud (Lacoste

& Tremblay, 2003), and organized crime (Cornish & Clarke, 2002; Hancock & Laycock, 2010).

A select few, such as Vijlbrief (2012) and Chiu, Leclerc, and Townsley (2011), have applied the

theory to the production and distribution of amphetamines, focusing on the way the drug is pro-

duced. Their works detail the steps needed to obtain the chemical precursors that make produc-

tion of the drug possible, as well as the steps involved in running a clandestine drug lab. Because

drug producers’ activities take place undercover, there are few studies of amphetamine and other

synthetic drug production scripts (Chiu et al., 2011; Vijlbrief, 2012). Building on past research,

this article provides a more comprehensive and generalizable look at the methamphetamine pro-

duction script and the way such scripts are disseminated to methamphetamine producers, particu-

larly cooks. Our data enable us to assess the impact of new legislation and show the adaptability

of offenders. The ideas of adaptation and tactical displacement following implementation of new

laws (Guerette & Bowers, 2009) are expanded, making it possible to illustrate the strategies used

by producers to get around legislation specifically aimed at methamphetamine production and to

explain how producers develop efficient methods to both produce methamphetamine and limit

detection risks.

Methamphetamine Production

Methamphetamine is extremely addictive (Barr et al., 2006). It acts by stimulating the central

nervous system and increases wakefulness, endurance, and alertness (Cretzmeyer, Sarrazin,

Huber, Block, & Hall, 2003; Ellinwood, King, & Le, 2000). Continued use can lead to increased

aggression and psychosis, including depression and hallucinations, as well as damage to the brain

and liver. Even those who manage to overcome their addiction may continue to suffer from

chronic apathy and anhedonia. Part of the family of synthetic drugs, methamphetamine is made

from synthetic compounds called precursors (Dobkin, Nicosia, & Weinberg, 2014). Two main

precursors are involved in the production of the methamphetamine molecule: ephedrine (or pseu-

doephedrine) and phenyl-2-propanone (Lee et al., 2006; Windahl et al., 1995). These two precur-

sors can be processed through five different synthesis methods to produce methamphetamine

(Vearrier, Greenberg, Miller, Okaneku, & Haggerty, 2012). Three methods—red phosphorus,

birch, and shake and bake—are reduction methods and consist of removing one oxygen molecule

from the ephedrine molecule to obtain the methamphetamine molecule. They are differentiated

by the reducing agent used (Ingersoll, Brown, Kim, Beauchamp, & Jennings, 1936). The other

methods (Leuckart and reductive amination) focus on the reaction of two carbonyl compounds.

The quality of the methamphetamine produced varies depending on the precursor used and the

synthesis method (Lee et al., 2006; Puder, Kagan, & Morgan, 1988). Recipes that use phenyl-

2-propanone (phenylacetone) as a precursor produce a mixture containing 50% d-methamphet-

amine, the form of methamphetamine associated with a stimulating effect, and 50%

l-methamphetamine (Cunningham et al., 2013; LeBelle et al., 1995; Mendelson et al., 2006).

Recipes that use ephedrine and pseudoephedrine produce only d-methamphetamine and there-

fore create a product that has a stronger effect when consumed (Skinner, 1990).

In the first half of the 20th century, methamphetamine was sold legally without prescription

and was used regularly by soldiers and pilots during World War II (Shukla, Crump, & Chrisco,

2012). In the late 1940s, methamphetamine surpluses resulting from the end of the war flooded

the market and facilitated recruitment of new consumers (Anglin, Burke, Perrochet, Stamper, &

Dawud-Noursi, 2000; Shukla et al., 2012). American authorities gradually intervened, first by

requiring a prescription for the purchase of methamphetamine and then by banning its sale com-

pletely (Shukla et al., 2012). The illegalization of methamphetamine led to the creation of clan-

destine super labs that can produce large quantities of the drug—over 4.5 kg in a production cycle

that lasted only a few days—to meet demand for the drug (Gilbreath, 2015). The first to get