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In December of 2005, a 22-year-old man who
apparently wanted to get his money’s worth out of his Meth purchase, tried
to extract the remnants of the drug from his own urine after smoking it in
a California hotel room. The experiment went sour on the man – he spilled
some solvent on himself which burst into flames when he stopped for a
smoke break. He set his hand, arm and hotel room on fire. He eventually
pleaded no contest to Meth manufacturing charges and received a five-month
prison sentence.
(Information from
Billings Gazette and other online news sources)
As bizarre or
disgusting as it seems, there are people who try to extract Meth from
urine – their own or from other users. These so called ‘pee labs’ are not
new; neither are they very effective. The collection process alone takes
days to weeks, and because Meth has a half-life of about 12-hours in a
person’s body, a person would need to collect urine all day to recapture
just a fraction of a dose of what they took earlier.
But some users think
the urine-collection method is safer than the common cooking techniques
for Meth manufacturing. Law enforcement in South Dakota as well as in
other states find jars and bottles of urine in Meth labs and in users’
homes. While urine-labs may sound less harmful (if more nauseating) than
other methods, there are specific dangers associated with them for both
the users and those who may raid the lab.
The extraction of
the drug from urine adds more risks to the others Meth users face. As
part of the normal biological pattern, anything ingested (including Meth
and other drugs) travels through a person’s system to the liver and on to
the kidneys. The kidneys concentrate all the water-soluble materials and
waste products in the urine for excretion. When a person collects urine
to try to extract Meth from it, he also is saving proteins, salts,
minerals, caffeine and bacteria. Some diseases are also concentrated and
passed through urine. There is no exact determination of how much of
these products are extracted from urine along with Meth – but whatever is
passed on will enter the user’s system in a concentrated form the ‘second
time around’.
First responders and
law enforcement also need to be aware of the hazards posed by urine
extraction labs – in addition to the obvious biological ones. The process
of extracting Meth from urine involves a step of creating an organic
solvent that is flammable and toxic. From that point, the process
includes creating a chemical reaction to ‘salt’ out the Meth that can be
explosive.
Anyone who notices
containers of a yellow liquid in someone’s garage, refrigerator or
property should be wary of the biological and chemical hazards, as well as
the potential danger of dealing with a tweaker. |
1) A HazMat crew
member holds up a bottle of saved urine found in a Sioux Falls, SD clan
lab (Click for full size picture)
2) A jar of urine found in a Sioux Falls, SD
home freezer (Click for full size picture)
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