Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Chemicals Used for Illegal Purposes

Chemicals Used for Illegal Purposes

BromicAcid - 9-4-2010 at 21:22

Ran across this book today on Amazon:

Chemicals Used for Illegal Purposes - Author - Robert Turkington

I haven't seen this book mentioned on this forum. My initial impression from the outline that Amazon gives is that this is yet another indiscriminate book that serves to vilify a chemist by making every chemical out there seem to be involved in making up something bad. And to some extent that is, but when you look at the pages it comes across as more of a primer on all the wrong you can do with chemicals and how to go about doing it. Some things are fairly detailed, and although the stated purpose of the book is to do good I think it has a much greater potential for exactly what it claims to aid in stopping.

Simultaneously upsetting and interesting.

unionised - 10-4-2010 at 06:14

Perhaps someone should write the thousand-volume-set called "Some chemicals used for legal purposes". I say "some" because just a thousand books wouldn't cover all the possibilities in any detail.

Formatik - 10-4-2010 at 18:21

It looks like bananas have made it onto the precursor list. The supposedly psychoactive properties of banana constituents have been declared a hoax.

chemrox - 10-4-2010 at 23:27

I find it a useful book for directing environmental investigations on certain kinds of properties. For example the evolution of methamphetamine manufacture techniques has gone from high environmental risk to low to moderate in the last ten years. The other good side to the book is it includes so many common chemicals that it sort of underlines the absurdity of limiting access to them through regulatory means. Like making dihydrogen oxide illegal..

It's shame it was posted on rapid-share. A really greedy liability conscious server that limits access severely except to the idiots that pay every month. No matter to me this time, I expensed the book and got it from Amazon for not very much .. less than a years subscription to (not very) rapidshare.

[Edited on 11-4-2010 by chemrox]

JohnWW - 11-4-2010 at 01:11

Quote: Originally posted by chemrox

A careful search on Google failed to disclose the existence of any free download of the above book as an ebook, whether on Rapidshare.com or Torrent or anywhere else.

Formatik - 11-4-2010 at 11:09

The book also starts out with the same misinformation on Astrolite that one finds in the kewl books.

IrC - 11-4-2010 at 13:51

I have been doing the same search John did and nothing so far. I did find this page (Link below) and out of curiosity read some of the files. I did not know I now have to include my Mg turnings in the list. If three or more is somehow proof I am screwed I imagine. The damn lists are getting so big three or more not on the list is getting hard to find.

http://www.pdfgeni.com/book/chemicals-used-for-illegal-purpo...

Is this nearing the end of legit home chemistry sans fear and persecution?

Side note I will never buy a book that expensive for such a small use I would receive so please give the "non kewl" astrolite info. Kewl sources are all I have ever found on the subject.

Formatik - 14-4-2010 at 23:09

Quote: Originally posted by IrC

Side note I will never buy a book that expensive for such a small use I would receive so please give the "non kewl" astrolite info. Kewl sources are all I have ever found on the subject.

Plenty has been discovered on the performance of the Astrolites. One of the inventors, Gerald L. Hurst, has written about them on Usenet. There are also number of patents detailing performance. Though it's up there, the point is the material isn't the most powerful as has been claimed.

[Edited on 15-4-2010 by Formatik]

IrC - 15-4-2010 at 09:24

Formatik

"Though it's up there, the point is the material isn't the most powerful as has been claimed."

I had always thought that. IIRC Cubane is the most powerful (chemically speaking of course)?

Formatik - 16-4-2010 at 14:14

I doubt it's octanitrocubane. There are compounds and mixtures with similar power and so it becomes difficult which one is the strongest. It could be ozobenzene. But "power" refers mainly to the lead block test, which test has fallen into disuse for the most part. A material may fare better in this test though, than it may actually be brisant (more thermal as opposed to shattering effect).

[Edited on 16-4-2010 by Formatik]

quicksilver - 17-4-2010 at 09:52

@ BromicAcid :

I think this is important enough to try to find a copy and see what it's agenda is via reading the entire piece. However I really don't want to give the SOB any $ for a work that is chemophobic propaganda! I suggest each of us attempt to (continue) to find it and read it, in it's entire length....then comment once we see where it's (so far obviously) going.

I'd bet it is what it is but I won't judge it by it's cover (not easily). Maybe it will hit the thread "Worst Books Ever Written"....

[Edited on 17-4-2010 by quicksilver]

franklyn - 17-4-2010 at 13:34

The premise of the book is supposedly to inform otherwise clueless
police personnel of apparently suspicious forensic evidence of unlawful
activity. little more than a shopping list of presursors here is a sampling
of what it has listed in the category of explosives ( for drugs it's similar )

NQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - Nitroform -
Guanidine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 % HNO3
98 % H2SO4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 % Isopropanol
70 % HNO3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dichloromethane
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CaCl2

NU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .- CH3NO2 -
Urea + 70 % HNO3 . . . . . . . . NaNO2
=> Urea Nitrate . . . . . . . . . . . .Monochloroacetic acid
+ 80 % H2SO4. . . . . . . . . . . . .NaOH

RDX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AgN
Hexamine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AgO + NH3
99 % HNO3
NaNO2

.

BromicAcid - 17-4-2010 at 15:05

It's easy enough to get the premise, if you have an amazon account you can look inside and search around for things, it seems to have a bit of everything.

IrC - 17-4-2010 at 17:36

Quote: Originally posted by BromicAcid

It's easy enough to get the premise, if you have an amazon account you can look inside and search around for things, it seems to have a bit of everything.

Tried for hours to capture some of it to post here as the more I read the greater my concern. They have done something with software to disable screen capture and taking a pic closeup does not work with my plasma screen, moire patterns wipe out the view. So I will just do the work to type out some of the mindset this guy is building for LEO about people like us. Looking at the chem list it is nothing more than a copy and paste of a list you would find at any supply house meaning every chemical known to man is listed. In effect telling LEO no matter what chemicals you have guess what, your on the list! He keeps repeating the term "mad chemist". The term is clearly and repeatedly used in a negative light to indicate anyone with chemicals or a lab setup in the home is somehow criminally inclined or in need of demonization in general. By this I mean the intent is clear from his text, anyone doing home chemistry is a "mad chemist" and he does not mean this in a good way. Clear and simple his book is an attack against home experimentation whether for good or for evil, to him and his LEO audience it is all evil period.

Also the quote he gives about astrolite being the most powerful non nuclear explosive is an exact copy of an old book I got years ago from Loompanics. This tells me his entire book is nothing but a collection of snippets from every "anarchist cookbook" you have ever read. A hundred bucks for a book Loompanics would have been hesitant to charge over $7.95 for from the overall quality. If LEO is using this book as a guide then I suggest we and our entire way of being is now being taught as criminal activity as the rule not the exception.

Here are two paragraphs I typed by hand reading his book in the Amazon preview:

"In a diverse, affluent, and educated society, with unlimited access to the Internet and relatively uncensored literature, it is not surprising to find that some people will use this information to try to make unavailable or illegal compounds in their own homes. Often, these chemicals are being manufactured: for sale (illegal drugs), for curiosity (chemical weapons) by "mad chemists", or for political reasons (explosives)."

"For example, making root beer is included in hobbies since chemicals used in its manufacture might be used to make Ecstasy. Model Rocketry is included because it uses chemicals which might be used to make fireworks or explosives. Photography is included because it includes the use of many exotic and hazardous chemicals. This book will not be of much use when encountering a "mad chemist" who has simply been taking chemicals home for years. This book is directed more towards kitchen, garage, or bedroom setups used to make legal or illegal products."

All of us are in effect "mad", no matter what we do simply because we have chemicals and lab equipment, no matter the reason, legit or otherwise. In effect it teaches LEO to treat us all as "mad chemists" to be looked upon as having criminal intent no matter what the hell you are doing. I know a lady in Arkansas who quit making soap after doing it for a lifetime, (she is in her 50's). Her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother and possibly beyond had been making a famous "at home" soap recipe for generations, but she quit over the endless and increasing red tape buying large quantities of NaOH (among other items) and persecutions she had been receiving from neighbors and local LEO. If you ask me this is a battle we lost some time ago. The mindset is firmly entrenched today and it only gets worse not better.

[Edited on 4-18-2010 by IrC]

quicksilver - 18-4-2010 at 08:54

Thank you for hassling; I once tried the same thing w/ Amazon....didn't work either.

I profoundly agree with you. This shit really makes me angry. It's anti-intellectualism at it's height & a disgusting backlash from a very low-functioning mindset.

Mildronate - 18-4-2010 at 11:52

Anybody had this book in pdf?

peach - 28-6-2010 at 10:41

Quote: Originally posted by Formatik

It looks like bananas have made it onto the precursor list.

Bananas are old school, dawg! The new shit in town is Jenkem.

Jenkem (18+)

[Edited on 28-6-2010 by peach]

psychokinetic - 28-6-2010 at 13:26

We'd better ban latrines.

cnidocyte - 26-8-2010 at 03:12

That looks like an interesting book. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to this kinda thing, I love learning about illegal activities even though I never put the knowledge to any use. I know what you mean about people assuming a chemical can only be used for illegal activities because it has been associated with that illegal activity. I went into a pharmacy one day and asked for potassium permanganate one day and the pharmacist asks me "do you wanna make a bomb?". KMnO4 is a good general purpose oxidizing agent but its associated with bomb making in many peoples heads because thats the only use they've heard of. If you wanna buy a kitchen knife nobody will assume you want to stab someone because everyone knows about uses for a kitchen knife other than stabbing people with it.

You can read some of this on google books
http://books.google.com/books?id=4pwMQM3PuyoC&printsec=f...

[Edited on 26-8-2010 by cnidocyte]

psychokinetic - 26-8-2010 at 14:03

At least this book appears to be NOT for vilifying the chemicals, but for knowledge - agreed there will always be idiots.

quicksilver - 29-8-2010 at 13:32

Quote: Originally posted by peach

Quote: Originally posted by Formatik

It looks like bananas have made it onto the precursor list.

Bananas are old school, dawg! The new shit in town is Jenkem.

Jenkem (18+)
]

Some puns can actually be painful..... That one was nasty.

I wonder what type of individual developed this method of intoxication? How does this phenomenon get discovered? Some kid wanders into a sewer and is overcome by methane gas then has a brilliant idea?

"We did some Butt Hash and kissed each other deeply; savoring the delicate intimacy of our mouths intertwined."

Lambda-Eyde - 29-8-2010 at 13:44

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem

S.C. Wack - 29-8-2010 at 14:43

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/164823

MagicJigPipe - 13-9-2010 at 20:31

Quote:

Slang Terms for Jenkem
Winnie Mandela
Shit
Butt-Hash
Runners
Brown Dragon
Waste
Fruit from the Crack Pipe
The Jenk
"J" (not to be confused with "MJ"!)
Devil's Chocolate
Leroy Jenkems
Brown Eyed Girl
Goatsejuice
Huffing the Cosbys
Butt-Shit-Gas
Sambian Crack
Ass Candy
Shit Whippets

Hahahaha! Oh my god I laughed for approx. 15 minutes after reading this for the first time!

Source: http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Jenkem

psychokinetic - 14-9-2010 at 00:38

Page 452: It is illegal to beat another to death with a jar of KMnO4.

hissingnoise - 14-9-2010 at 04:56

And morally questionable. . .

mr.crow - 14-9-2010 at 16:30

What a horrible book. Some cop is going to use it as evidence and the jury is going to believe him.

It says Aluminum Trichloride is essential to manufacturing nerve agents. Better watch out Peach! George W Bush might find out.

And acetone can be added to benzene to make P-2-P :facepalm:

BTW I totally lost it at "Leeroy Jenkems"

Chainhit222 - 19-9-2010 at 10:04

I renember pitwiks original jenkem thread on totse

The book is garbage.

KNO3me - 8-10-2010 at 00:22

That book makes the home scientist out to be the criminal. People should be able to explore chemistry at their own free will and thrive. As someone who explores chemistry under the carport behind his garage, this really honks me off.

Mister Junk Pile - 8-10-2010 at 10:40

Quote:

And acetone can be added to benzene to make P-2-P :facepalm:

You know, I've often wondered this. Would it not be at least slightly likely that this mixture would create at least one molecule of P2P if there was some water in the reaction? For example, let's say acetone spontaneously deprotonates (which it does just not very often, right?) Then electrons from the aryl group create a bond to the carbocation and then the H spontaneously donates its electrons back to the ring and protonates water. Like normal Friedel-Crafts alkylation except relying on deprotonation of acetone onto water (instead of Cl onto AlCl3) and deprotonation of arenium to water as well.

Yes, this would be an EXTREMELY unlikely sequence of events, but is it possible? If not, then why?.