The Secret Science of Clandestine MDMA Chemistry | VICE | Blueprint

[00:00:02]Hidden in the woods lies a dismantled lab.

[00:00:08]The glassware and chemicals that survived are now used [music] only to illuminate memories of a career tragically cut short.

[00:00:17]>> Try things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

[00:00:25]But that's all you're going to get.

[00:00:26]That's it. That's nothing.

[00:00:31]Okay. Well, that's science in action.

[00:00:35]>> I've been fascinated [music] by psychoactive drugs my whole life.

[00:00:39]I love to study their [music] chemistry and impact on society.

[00:00:44]And my work has allowed me to investigate [music] extraordinary substances around the world. Yet there are still mysteries that remain.

[00:00:57]All molecules are bound by the laws of science, [music] but for some molecules, scientific law is just the beginning.

[00:01:08]This is the story of clandestine MDMA chemistry.

[00:01:25]I'm on my way to find a chemist friend of mine who lives in the mountains.

[00:01:32]>> Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system.

[00:01:35]>> He was in prison for synthesis of MDMA.

[00:01:39]And I like him because he's a truly brilliant chemist. He published his work in scientific journals. He synthesized novel compounds. He corresponded with academic researchers. [music] He was doing all sorts of things that are unheard of in a clandestine lab. And for that reason, he belongs to a small subset of clandestine chemists who I consider true scientists.

[00:02:03]Hi Steve, this is Hamilton. I'm actually outside what I believe is your property.

[00:02:10]So, I'm going to his house more or less unannounced. I haven't spoken with him in months. He doesn't pick up the phone.

[00:02:16]He doesn't respond to emails. Doesn't respond to Facebook messages. Doesn't want any visitors. But, I'm hoping that he'll change his mind when I arrive.

[00:02:26]This land is somewhat intentionally difficult to find. I don't know exactly where we're going. I've been here before, but it was in 2013, years ago.

[00:02:37]But, during that time he was sort of on the verge of some kind of breakdown. He offered me the opportunity to take a look at his lab. We [music] were chased away by a one-handed man on methamphetamine, and I never got to see it. And, he left me at an airstrip in Arcata. This is a long story. I can't tell it all here.

[00:02:58]I could tell it all here, of course.

[00:03:01]But, maybe we should just go to Steve Gill.

[00:03:11]Could that be it?

[00:03:15]Someone's in that shed.

[00:03:23]Excuse me.

[00:03:25]>> Holy [ __ ] >> If this is him, I'll give you a hug.

[00:03:29]>> I laid down like a dog you found in my lair. Oh my god.

[00:03:34]Oh, Jesus.

[00:03:37]>> Oh, well, here we are.

[00:03:38]>> Good to see you.

[00:03:39]>> Yeah, you too. So, uh what what's going on here?

[00:03:43]>> I brought a film crew with me because I wanted to interview you. Is that okay?

[00:03:47]>> Well, you're here, so I guess so.

[00:03:54]Idiot, see you could have everything.

[00:03:57]>> They disappear and then they reappear.

[00:04:00]It's like, you know, it's like they play hide and seek.

[00:04:05]And it's just ridiculous. It's stupidity. And this just drives me absolutely wild.

[00:04:10]>> Sounds like it.

[00:04:11]>> Yeah.

[00:04:14]>> [clears throat] >> So, am I actually live now? Am I being recorded or >> You're being recorded.

[00:04:19]>> Okay.

[00:04:20]Um Anything I say can and will be used against me either in a court of law or a court of my peers.

[00:04:27]>> [laughter] >> That's funny.

[00:04:32]>> You seem better than when I last saw you.

[00:04:35]>> Yeah, because when you last saw me I was having my little methoxamine misadventure. Oh my god, that was like That was epic.

[00:04:46]Okay, now you're you're all going to have to sign [music] a release liability so if you fall in a hole or something happens to you guys you're [ __ ] out of luck.

[00:04:54]>> Okay.

[00:04:55]>> This is This is the cabin [music] we built. We've been living here for since Suzy's been here since the '70s.

[00:05:02]We built this in the '80s.

[00:05:05]But yeah, make yourself at home. Suzy will show you around. It's very funky and very primitive.

[00:05:10]>> Yeah.

[00:05:15]>> This Steven that key you found was the one under one of those boxes.

[00:05:18]>> Oh, wait a minute. The key I found. No, it was from the refrigerator. What kind of key?

[00:05:23]>> You can't tell me. You just said the F >> Are you Hamilton?

[00:05:26]>> I'm Hamilton. Yeah.

[00:05:27]>> You changed a little bit. I recognized you the first time you came.

[00:05:30]>> years older. That was 20 Last time we saw him was in 2013. This is >> Well, I knew you were all a while.

[00:05:35]>> Yeah, that's what I do is mess myself up and ruin people's lives around me.

[00:05:39]That's my hobby. And then and then don't ask me what my job is. I still haven't figured it out.

[00:05:45]>> [snorts] >> No other chemical in there in 19, when I first met you in 1984, you were like the most up and coming chemist in their house.

[00:05:53]>> Oh, not at all. I was just one of many.

[00:05:55]>> had an article on you. So, we thought >> articles about They had articles about 10 people. You were the most promising chemist that they were looking at.

[00:06:01]>> modest, Steve. It's true.

[00:06:03]>> Yeah, but that's [ __ ] >> He's good at knowing like he was kind of like a good guy like in a Mad Max world.

[00:06:09]I think like we had 200 dead heads after a dead show at Berkeley Pier, and he was throwing phosphorus and sodium and potassium in the water.

[00:06:16]>> know, fluorescent is that dye marker stuff that he probably seen it in movies and stuff. You put it in water and it almost looks like it's glowing, but it's just And you put a black light over it and just like the brilliant green.

[00:06:26]>> He had like pockets full of psychedelics that were still fluorescent legal, and he had them typed up. Not for human consumption.

[00:06:33]>> Oh, yeah. We had some 2 C-T-2s.

[00:06:35]>> And cops gave him He like basically was, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

[00:06:39]>> Well, I didn't step right up and acknowledge this. I'm sorry, officer. I I'm in the wrong. And he said, "Well, what's that in your pocket?" I pulled out this little vial. It had some 2 C-B in it or something. And I just, "Well, it's an experimental biochemical." And he just kind of looked at it and said, "Okay."

[00:06:51]>> The cops gave him back the psychedelics, and he was pretty good. I was like, "Oh-oh."

[00:06:57]>> That was fun. Stuff like that. We had some fun adventures.

[00:07:11]>> This is the lab?

[00:07:12]>> Yeah, it was years ago.

[00:07:16]>> We couldn't get in last time I was here.

[00:07:18]>> Well, that's cuz they had it locked, and I didn't want to break the lock, and I was being super [music] impatient. But, so >> where it all happened.

[00:07:24]>> Yeah, but this is what's left. This is a melting point apparatus, magnetic stirrers. This used to be full of ground glassware, like you know, oops. Watch me break it.

[00:07:35]It's beautiful, you know, beautiful stuff.

[00:07:38]And I remember sixth grade, [music] they required us to learn a couple of elements, and they were just supposed to learn what they were. But I misunderstood them and took them to say [music] that they wanted us to memorize the atomic symbols for all those. I was already so interested [music] that it was just like I was a sponge at that point. Of course, you know, I got ended up with a chemistry set.

[00:08:01]>> Want to see something really funny?

[00:08:03]>> Wow.

[00:08:04]>> metal. Metallic calcium and of course it's formed calcium oxide on the outside. This is a metal that's similar to magnesium except it burns red. So, if you were to take a a welding torch to that, once you got that going, you know, it'd be pretty spectacular.

[00:08:18]>> Can we do it now?

[00:08:19]>> Are you kidding me?

[00:08:21]In this day [music] and age for you to buy stuff like this in Arizona, mere possession of ground glassware is a felony if you're not a [music] licensed chemist or working with some company. Believe it or not, when when I was a kid when I was into this stuff, you could walk into a Rexall drugstore and they had and >> [music] >> you'd ask for it in the back. They had bottles of ether, bottles of chloroform, bottles of nitric acid, [music] acetic anhydride, if you can believe that. This is in the Rexall in Mill Valley. I I kid [music] you not. They had literally have a minor would call them up, make an order, send them a postal money order and I could I was getting aniline, [music] nitric acid. They had everything.

[00:08:59]But yeah, in in those days it was wide open.

[00:09:01]And but but you know, think about it, the Controlled Substances Act wasn't even passed [music] until 1970.

[00:09:06]So, before that time it was perfectly legal to even have a lot of the things that we take, [music] you know, like today or like, "Oh my god."

[00:09:14]>> Have you done any chemistry since you were arrested?

[00:09:17]>> No. I don't have, you know, the facilities or I mean, these days almost all chemistry's done in China or India.

[00:09:24]>> Just like the research chemical market.

[00:09:26]>> Yeah, just [music] like everything.

[00:09:28]>> As the government began to restrict chemicals and scientific equipment, curious adolescents and clandestine chemists alike faced new obstacles in pursuing their interests.

[00:09:39]The manufacture [music] of psychedelics moved to China where controlled substances are replaced by uncontrolled derivatives that are sold without restriction to consumers in the United States.

[00:09:49]The result has been the distribution of hundreds of new drugs and the loss of a culture of citizen science that once thrived [music] in America.

[00:10:06]>> Wow.

[00:10:09]It's amazing. When you look at pictures of yourself from like 20 years ago or 30 years ago or whatever, it's really weird. There's a picture of uh Liquid Light Lab.

[00:10:18]>> That was the chemical company that uh friend of mine and I had after 1982 about 1984. Yeah, they had all sorts of things going on there. They focused mostly on on chemiluminescence and this is just notes from from [music] different, you know, reactions that I would try.

[00:10:34]So, that was an actual business, business license, resale number.

[00:10:39]And then I'd go home from from doing this and and then uh had an an MDMA lab in there not that far from from the campus, so. That was fun.

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> I think we were some of the first people actually.

[00:10:52]>> You were one of the first clandestine MDMA manufacturers.

[00:10:56]>> Yeah. I I believe so. '76, '77 is basically when when they all started happening.

[00:11:01]>> And that was your primary way of supporting yourself, your only way of supporting yourself throughout the '90s?

[00:11:06]>> Yeah, [music] once once I met Suzy and and uh came here, yeah, we were growing pot and making psychedelics.

[00:11:12]>> [music] >> Steven's a complex man.

[00:11:22]He's always been moody.

[00:11:28]>> Oh, no. God damn it.

[00:11:31]>> You know, nerds weren't they weren't big yet.

[00:11:33]>> [music] >> Now people understand nerds.

[00:11:36]Back then they didn't.

[00:11:39]Um I did.

[00:11:40]>> You were like, "You can't die. If I can't die yet, you can't die yet."

[00:11:43]>> I was half nerd myself.

[00:11:46]>> So you were studying chemistry. Why were you interested in that?

[00:11:49]>> It wasn't a girl's major. My dad wanted me to learn typing and I like psychedelics and I like it when people do drugs.

[00:11:56]>> Did you two chemistry work together?

[00:11:58]>> Oh yeah, we got along very well.

[00:12:00]>> Yeah, we did.

[00:12:01]>> He bounced ideas off me about new things and I'd say, "Okay, you know, he was good for my brain."

[00:12:08]>> We got spoiled, you know, we we had before the bust we >> [music] >> didn't have any problem with money. I mean we made more money than we could possibly spend and we didn't. We just lived our lives relatively simply.

[00:12:21]If I simply had you know, taken all this stuff and [music] you know, buried it deep or put it in a storage locker or who knows what, you know, there's a lot of things I could have done.

[00:12:31]But you know, I mean we were we were close to the end. We were basically at the point [music] where we had enough precursors to make another 20 or 30 lb [music] of MDMA when we got busted. And and our plan was to just phase out. We just say, "Okay, well after that we'll just do research."

[00:12:46]So, you know, we were like, "Ah, we're so close. We'll just we'll make another million [music] dollars, you know, it'll be like great, you know, it's fine, you know, no problem. It's here. We don't have [music] to buy any more chemicals."

[00:12:56]And then these guys roll through and you know, they met us. That was the beginning of the end right there.

[00:13:10]>> Where did my pesto go? They took it.

[00:13:13]Ah, damn it.

[00:13:15]Ah, they took my pesto.

[00:13:18]Oh, I'm going to kill them.

[00:13:20]>> Oh yeah, we're going to have dinosaur kale for dinner. Do you guys Is anybody here not mind kale?

[00:13:26]>> Oh, I knew about our bust 5 years ahead of time, 3 weeks.

[00:13:30]>> Yeah.

[00:13:31]>> I can get answers from trees and and plants.

[00:13:34]Night [clears throat] before I came home, they said, "Hey, we're getting busted in the morning."

[00:13:37]>> No, my attitude was, you know, somebody's got to take the hit because >> somebody has to go down with the ship.

[00:13:42]>> Basic situation, you take responsibility. It's not Suzy has nothing to do with it. She didn't even know about the things that were down there.

[00:13:49]>> Oh, come on.

[00:13:49]>> And I knew it was [ __ ] but it worked. For whatever reason, we were able to do that, and that's why I stayed.

[00:13:55]>> Because I was home selling >> If we had both took off and we'd have both been caught together like in a in a high-speed chase or something, who knows what would have happened?

[00:14:01]>> No, no, no, no, I was going to get us out of here before it happened.

[00:14:04]>> You got some points as you can't run from, you know, are you going to run for the rest of your life? You can't. We didn't have enough money to do that.

[00:14:12]>> And you did.

[00:14:13]>> And oh well, we got busted, and that was the end of of life as we knew it. And here we are.

[00:14:18]Here we are, stuck in this pot ghetto.

[00:14:23]I'm not a pot grower. I don't enjoy it.

[00:14:27]>> So, it might be hard to talk about, but can you tell me in as much detail as possible what happened on the day of the bust?

[00:14:36]>> Oh, boy.

[00:14:39]Make a long story short, there was an informant. [music] They they went around the buildings.

[00:14:43]They They obviously probably smelled ether or something. Something made them suspicious. But I got in my truck and followed them down the hill because I didn't know what what what was going on, you know. I was like, "Why are these guys [music] with this rip off You know, I better go check."

[00:14:57]By the time I got down where I couldn't turn around, I saw it was a sheriff.

[00:15:00]>> [music] >> You know, I identified myself and they said I said, "Yeah, we found that 50 lbs of ethylamine down at on your on your property there." What I did was I said, "Okay, well, let's go up there and look at it. I want to see it." And I said, "Okay." And then we I hopped in my truck and we zoomed off. We zoomed by I kept going, and you know, they put the siren on. It was like a low-speed, you know, high-speed [music] chase.

[00:15:19]>> Busted.

[00:15:19]>> You You tried to escape.

[00:15:21]>> Yeah.

[00:15:22]And I went up and ran off the road right around the corner here and went down and tried to hide behind the trees, [music] but they found me and the guy jumped out with his gun and then the other car started with a with a with the DOJ guys pulled up and then there's you know, 10 guys with guns pointed at you and you better, you know.

[00:15:36]We did good. It was a good run, you know? I started when I was 19 and I avoided any kind of serious law enforcement stuff until I was 47.

[00:15:45]That's that's a good run by any definition, I think.

[00:15:49]>> It's a >> very sad story and it would be tempting to say that, you know, the moral is not to make psychedelics illegally or not to make MDMA, but what do you think can be learned from what happened to you?

[00:16:01]>> Well, don't get caught.

[00:16:02]>> [laughter] [music] [music] >> Despite concerted efforts on the part of the government to prevent domestic MDMA [music] synthesis, market demand and chemical ingenuity allow amazing synthetic [music] feats to be accomplished under less than ideal conditions.

[00:16:33]I met a supplier and a chemist [music] who offered to allow me to bear witness to their synthesis of MDMA.

[00:16:41]>> This entire setup, even though it is still kind of tiny, um we started micro scale because I lost my job, had no money whatsoever. So, we were just try trying out the route smallest bits as we could at a time and then working it up. There's been a lot of experimentation with the different routes and also just sourcing the over-the-counter chemicals.

[00:17:04]>> When people see this, there's going to be a lot of people who are angry and will say, >> [music] >> "You shouldn't show that. You're exposing something that the public shouldn't know about."

[00:17:13]So, why are you taking the enormous risk of showing me this?

[00:17:16]>> Basically, I just wanted to um be honest because I I don't want to hide anything, you know, I want them to see the service that we're providing from start to finish, and I think that's something that the world finally needs to see. So, even though this is dangerous and I could end up [music] in prison, uh I feel like it's my duty to try and change people's minds.

[00:17:41]>> What kind of music do you like to listen to while you're cooking?

[00:17:44]>> Um rock mainly now.

[00:17:49]>> American sassafras [music] albidum oil is distilled under vacuum to isolate safrole from other phenylpropenes and terpenoids.

[00:17:57]>> Potassium hydroxide, that's the catalyst. [music] >> Potassium hydroxide is added to 6.3 molar equivalents of safrole and heated under vacuum [music] to drive off water.

[00:18:06]>> when the magic starts to happen. It'll suddenly turn blue and then brown then black.

[00:18:10]>> Hydroxide ions abstract the benzylic proton isomerizing the safrole to [music] the thermodynamically favorable internal alkene isosafrole.

[00:18:18]>> It foams up a lot.

[00:18:21]>> The crude isosafrole is distilled under vacuum.

[00:18:24]>> Here's your gorgeous schedule one precursor, isosafrole.

[00:18:28]>> Formic acid is dissolved [music] in three molar equivalents of 35% hydrogen peroxide and stirred in an ice bath for an hour to produce performic [music] acid.

[00:18:37]>> Cooking that isosafrole's ass.

[00:18:39]>> The distilled isosafrole is dissolved in sodium bicarbonate buffered DCM.

[00:18:44]>> Probably the most important thing going in the lab is the swirling of the flask.

[00:18:47]>> The most wizardly. Placed in a salted [music] ice bath, an approximate 4.5 molar excess of crude performic acid is poured [music] down a Liebig condenser over a period of 15 minutes with vigorous magnetic [music] stirring, resulting in the evolution of carbon dioxide gas and a yellow color change.

[00:19:05]What's really interesting [music] about this particular operation is that all of the materials are acquired from hardware stores or other inconspicuous non-scientific supply sources and the result is very impressive.

[00:19:21]>> They interviewed a MDMA chemist and he buys everything over the counter.

[00:19:26]>> Right.

[00:19:27]>> It's an extremely tedious process.

[00:19:29]>> No.

[00:19:29]>> Yeah, he starts from sassafras root bark essential oil.

[00:19:32]>> him, you know, right on.

[00:19:34]>> the safrole.

[00:19:35]>> Yeah. Where is he getting his solvents, you know?

[00:19:37]>> All hardware store.

[00:19:39]>> Okay. So, he's doing [music] it in in microscopic quantities. He's not making kilograms.

[00:19:45]>> Slowly he is. This is work that >> [music] >> most chemists would never put up with.

[00:19:50]This is really a feat of patience, ingenuity, of a lot being made [music] with very little and I admire that.

[00:19:59]>> There's something adventurous and exciting about making chemical love out of things you can get off a hardware store.

[00:20:18]>> Is there any similarity between elk hunting and hunting for clandestine chemists?

[00:20:25]>> There's a lot of similarities. There really is. I think the adrenaline's very similar.

[00:20:30]You could see your target and you got to sneak up on it and use all the skills at your disposal and all your training and all your knowledge and and hopefully in the end it turns into a big elk.

[00:20:45]Narcotics was my passion, absolutely. I loved being an undercover narcotics officer. It was the best thing I've ever done in my life.

[00:20:56]Kind of an outdoors guy.

[00:20:58]Big elk or a big bust, one or the other.

[00:21:03]>> In June [music] 2000, Adam took part in the largest clandestine lab bust in Arizona history when he arrested five NAU chemistry students who synthesized [music] large quantities of MDMA in a house off Route 66.

[00:21:18]>> What is this place?

[00:21:20]>> Well, it's from what I understand, it's type of a salvage yard, but there was a rental property right here.

[00:21:28]>> Who discovered this location?

[00:21:30]>> Oh, hours of surveillance.

[00:21:33]Hours of surveillance and just uh good old-fashioned police work.

[00:21:39]>> This is it?

[00:21:40]>> This is it.

[00:21:45]Hey, pup.

[00:21:47]Come here.

[00:21:48]Come here.

[00:21:49]There you go. Nice dog.

[00:21:53]Hey, Don.

[00:21:57]Hey, what up?

[00:21:58]>> What did he want up?

[00:22:02]>> Well, my guess is we're not welcome here.

[00:22:04]>> Okay.

[00:22:05]>> Probably just like we weren't then.

[00:22:06]>> Okay.

[00:22:08]>> What are you filming?

[00:22:09]>> It's a documentary about something that happened in the house that you live in.

[00:22:12]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:22:13]>> Yeah. It used to be an MDMA lab.

[00:22:19]Well, thank you.

[00:22:20]Have you ever detected another MDMA lab?

[00:22:22]>> No. This was the only one and to my knowledge it was the largest in the nation at that date and time.

[00:22:29]>> And do you think these were bad people?

[00:22:31]>> You know, that's that's a subjective question and and it's a hard one to ask. I think everybody does things in their life that someday they can walk away from and regret. Obviously some incredibly smart young men. It would have been nice if we could have focused their energy into doing something more beneficial to society than than what they had done, I guess.

[00:22:53]>> They may have thought that they were benefiting society.

[00:22:56]>> Maybe. From everything that I've learned over the years is studies are showing it's detrimental.

[00:23:01]>> Not always. It's in phase three clinical trials as a therapeutic drug now, MDMA.

[00:23:05]>> Great.

[00:23:06]>> Yeah.

[00:23:06]>> Science is always changing. Um but uh that age having all that power, I could see where it'd get away from you. Having that knowledge, that knowledge base, how to make something that's so lucrative out on the streets.

[00:23:19]>> Yeah.

[00:23:19]That's very powerful knowledge.

[00:23:21]>> Yeah.

[00:23:26]>> When you were a young officer, you were taught that you know certain drugs were a stepping stone to the [music] worst drugs and you know, you you believed what you were taught.

[00:23:38]We used to risk our lives for a joint.

[00:23:44]That's legal now and it's almost [music] unnecessary what we did, you know?

[00:23:49]>> Randy Weems worked with Adam Hicks in the Flagstaff lab bust, which started with the interception of precursor chemicals [music] from a company owned by one of the most important MDMA chemists in history, a man named Strike.

[00:24:01]Unlike many other [music] chemists, Strike wasn't known for his synthesis, but rather his use of scientific information to subvert a prohibitionist government.

[00:24:10]>> He was different is he had his own chemical company, you know, the Science Alliance in Texas and he was shipping out all kinds of chemicals, but then at the same time he was on the internet telling everybody how to do it, how not to get caught, recommending his own company. You know, not a lot of people knew a lot about the internet and not a lot of people knew how to monitor it.

[00:24:34]It kind of was a blast out there for everybody just to get their hands on.

[00:24:40]>> Through the publication of books, the supply of precursor chemicals, [music] and most importantly, the founding of a synthesis forum called The Hive, Strike launched a counterattack against the war on drugs [music] by arming hundreds of chemists with the knowledge and materials necessary to make their own MDMA.

[00:24:58]>> I had the opportunity to talk with Strike about his motivations. He was one of these people that truly believed in MDMA, truly believed that it was making his life and the lives of the people around him better. He wanted to do everything that he could to stop prohibition, to stop the war on drugs, to make such a mess that it could never be cleaned up by starting the hive, by publishing the books, by creating this network of resources for people that wanted to manufacture MDMA.

[00:25:28]>> Is he back in Texas?

[00:25:33]Arizona?

[00:25:37]So.

[00:25:39]>> Through his connection [music] to the Flagstaff lab, Strike was brought down, but his contribution still resonate in the world of clandestine drug synthesis.

[00:25:48]>> Strike is an [music] interesting individual. He inspired an entire generation with his website.

[00:25:53]So scientific, [music] and yet so focused on clandestine chemistry and the spreading of knowledge.

[00:26:00]>> A crude mixture of aqueous acids [music] and oxidation products, primarily consisting of the isosafrole epoxide, the isosafrole glycol, and the glycol's monoformate [music] ester is transferred into a sep funnel, and an emulsion is broken with a vibrating building apparatus.

[00:26:15]>> I hope I hit just the right spot.

[00:26:18]>> The mixed isosafrole [music] oxidation products are dissolved in methanol, heated to 70° C, and treated with an approximate 3.8 molar excess [music] of 15% hydrochloric acid, which hydrolyzes the isosafrole glycol monoformate ester, [music] opens the isosafrole epoxide, and initiates a pinacol rearrangement on the resulting isosafrole [music] glycol.

[00:26:39]After 2 hours, brown droplets of MDP2P oil begin to rise and fall from the surface of the reaction [music] mixture in a convection current.

[00:26:47]The crude MDP2P oil is purified by a a distillation.

[00:26:52]Sheets of aluminum foil are run through a paper shredder followed by a food processor.

[00:27:01]>> The finer it is, the faster it reacts with the mercury forming [music] the amalgam.

[00:27:06]>> The finely ground aluminum is placed in a 5-gallon HDPE bucket and suspended in methanol with an overhead stirrer improvised [music] from a power drill.

[00:27:16]Mercuric chloride [music] is dissolved in methanol and introduced to the suspension to amalgamate the aluminum.

[00:27:21]>> Super careful with [music] this one. I recently was had my blood tested for mercury uh I work with it so much. Absolutely none in it.

[00:27:29]>> That's great.

[00:27:30]>> Or arsenic poisoning them. I don't know where that came from.

[00:27:34]>> Nitromethane [music] is added to the stirring amalgam followed by MDP2P. The nitromethane is reduced producing methylamine [music] in situ which condenses with the ketone forming an imine that's reduced again.

[00:27:45]>> This is all ice right now, but as this thing heats up, it's going to melt it.

[00:27:49]It's getting very intense.

[00:27:52]Me hot.

[00:27:53]>> Oh, that's warm all right. Wow.

[00:27:56]>> The reduction mixture [music] is treated with aqueous sodium hydroxide to liberate the MDMA free base.

[00:28:02]>> And the result is this.

[00:28:06]>> The free base product is extracted three times [music] with xylene.

[00:28:11]>> That is going to have to sit [music] for just a few minutes while it separates.

[00:28:16]You have to extract it three times, wash it three times with hydroxylate, then wash it three times with distilled water. Each time you repeat this, it gets cleaner and cleaner.

[00:28:26]Perfectly clear and [music] gorgeous.

[00:28:33]>> I'm in Northern [music] California at the lab of Steve Gill. He was one of the most prolific [music] clandestine chemist in history and made such a large variety of different compounds that his work rivals many academic or industrial [music] chemists.

[00:28:50]It's hard to name a single psychoactive drug that he did not synthesize. And who knows what he would have done if he hadn't been arrested.

[00:28:59]>> A simple job. This is just the epitome of this place. A simple job.

[00:29:04]30-second job. This is going to take half an hour, 45 minutes to do this.

[00:29:09]>> So, what was the motivation? Was it profit, curiosity?

[00:29:12]>> Oh god, when I was 19, I [music] just I was excited about doing it. You know, I didn't even think about making money out of it. And but I mean [music] it cost money to do.

[00:29:20]>> Is there a reason you chose not to pursue this academically?

[00:29:24]>> If I had seen an academic, [music] you know, route by the time I was, you know, in '71, I was, you know, '72, I was already doing this thing.

[00:29:33]But it was too late. I I you know, I tasted the forbidden fruit. I I you know, it was just too fun to be able to just do it myself and not have anybody [music] tell me what to do.

[00:29:42]Had a couple problems in school, dropped out of college a couple [music] of times, and that made it seem less likely that I'd be accepted in an academic setting, you Yeah, sometimes I wonder if, you know, [music] my life would have been very different if I had done that.

[00:29:57]Uh >> [music] >> You can't quit publishing because the work that you do might be used in an inappropriate manner. I was surprised to [music] find that a lot of the information that I published was used by drug people.

[00:30:19]But there's a legitimate scientists out [music] there that want to know this information.

[00:30:24]And the contribution you can make might help them in their research.

[00:30:30]>> In Terry Delcassin's 42 years at the Drug Enforcement [music] Administration, he synthesized a diverse array of controlled substances to better understand the techniques of a clandestine chemist. [music] But the work he published was so thorough that the clandestine chemists he was trying to stop began to employ his procedures, [music] leading Strike to call Del Cassian the godfather of all clandestine ecstasy chemistry.

[00:30:52]>> Afternoon. Can I get you something to drink today?

[00:30:54]>> Um, do you have Pepsi?

[00:30:57]>> I have a RC Cola.

[00:30:58]>> Oh, my favorite.

[00:30:59]>> Okay.

[00:31:00]>> Yeah, I like that. Could I have black tea?

[00:31:02]>> Black tea? Take care of that.

[00:31:04]>> Thank you.

[00:31:06]>> Agents typically don't have scientific backgrounds. They're hired to be law enforcement people. And that's why when there's a clandestine lab, a chemist always goes along with them.

[00:31:18]And I had the opportunity to work with a lot of really, really good people.

[00:31:23]As time went on, I got to be more interested in MDA, MDMA.

[00:31:28]I was actually friends with Dr. Alexander Shulgin. He was always very gracious, really smart guy.

[00:31:36]Uh, it was a pleasure to have known him.

[00:31:38]>> He did work that was not entirely different from the work that was being done in a lot of the labs that the DEA busted. In fact, his lab was raided by the DEA.

[00:31:49]>> Yes.

[00:31:50]It was like the Wild West when I started off. We had a lot of latitude, and now things have become pretty regimented.

[00:31:56]Dr. Shulgin actually is considered a friend of the DEA up until the publication of PIHKAL, and then subsequently TIHKAL, where it was perceived that he was promoting drug use rather than trying to stop it. They told me I couldn't have any contact with him in the in the future. That cut off a a good source of information for me because it was never a case of that. Dr. Shulgin was always straight up and down the line with me. He was always a gracious host.

[00:32:27]It was a very real pleasure to have known the gentleman.

[00:32:30]>> And I've known other people, some were clandestine chemists, who did work that was not entirely different from Shulgin's work. Yet, these are people that end up in prison for the work they do. Do you think that there's something wrong with that?

[00:32:47]>> Well, unfortunately for the clandestine chemists, they didn't have the authority to make the drugs that I had. Who knows if things would be different for me. I could have been a druggy. I could have hooked up with the wrong group of people and ended up doing 15, 20, 25 years in jail for synthesizing illegal drugs just because I liked synthesis.

[00:33:08]>> For people that have never met you, that don't know you, that don't know about Alexander Shulgin, >> Mhm.

[00:33:13]>> it's hard to communicate why your work was so [music] interesting because you were just studying the labs.

[00:33:20]You have also performed these syntheses yourself.

[00:33:23]>> [music] >> That was the greatest part of my career because I just love going and doing drug synthesis.

[00:33:28]>> Could you tell me about some of the drugs that you synthesized?

[00:33:30]>> I don't know. I just I I I'd have to just go down the list.

[00:33:33]>> Just give me the overview. Tell me.

[00:33:35]>> The MDA compounds. [music] >> MDA, MDMA, MMDA, MMDA-2, 2C compounds.

[00:33:43]>> 2CB, 2CE, [music] 2CD, >> DOM, >> DOM, >> made a number of tryptamines, [music] dimethyl, diethyl, >> DMT, DET, DIPT, >> dipropyl and diisopropyl [music] tryptamine, >> aminorex itself, amphetamine itself, >> methamphetamine is very easy [music] to make.

[00:34:01]>> All the files starting with 2CT, 2CT-2, 2CT-7, 2CT-21, [music] >> the methaqualone, the methcathinone, >> Did you go all the alephs? Of course, [music] I made several of the aleph series.

[00:34:12]>> Phencyclidine was hot.

[00:34:13]>> PCP, >> PCP, >> yeah, yeah, of course. Oh, and then I I also made a couple of uh aminorex analogs. [music] I made methoxaminorex.

[00:34:19]I was like the first person to do that.

[00:34:21]I did that back in the in the '90s.

[00:34:24]>> In the course of researching and reading about [music] these things, did you ever feel as if you should try them yourself?

[00:34:29]>> Probably not.

[00:34:30]>> 2CB, gosh, [music] there was a couple times that Suzy and I would eat 100 150 mg, you know.

[00:34:35]>> I I just never have any desire.

[00:34:37]>> You know, we're driving down some dirt road in the desert and we're both melting [music] down.

[00:34:40]>> Just give me a good candy bar and I'll be happy. Twix if I have my choice.

[00:34:44]>> And both doors pop out and we both like roll onto the ground and we're like, "Oh my god."

[00:34:49]>> Now just in between what we have you illicitly made any drugs?

[00:34:54]>> [laughter] >> It was a big risk allowing him to live on your property and do the sort of research that he was doing and to work with him in that area.

[00:35:07]>> I don't like deterring people in their interests, you know.

[00:35:11]Um so, I just kept going as he didn't want to stop.

[00:35:16]And he didn't want to move, so I just said, "Okay, face yourselves."

[00:35:22]>> And how did you take the trial and prison sentence?

[00:35:26]>> Well, I thought he did we did okay. They could have gave us both 20 to life. It puts on a map in another way that I don't like.

[00:35:33]We were kind of quiet mom and pop.

[00:35:38]Luckily, we don't have children.

[00:35:42]Um That was a good reason not to have children. It's I didn't want them to see their parents go through inevitable.

[00:35:55]>> Yeah, well, Suzy now my phone's not working at all. It says I need a SIM card now.

[00:35:59]>> Oh my god. See, we're the only people that you you lend your phone to. So, you're going to have to pick one.

[00:36:04]>> up.

[00:36:04]>> This Why are you telling me this? No, it's not between me. I don't text.

[00:36:08]>> You know, it'd be nice if you would do something.

[00:36:11]>> Yeah. Yeah, it would be. I'm not going to. I'm done here.

[00:36:13]>> much I know, but you're living off me then. You're letting me do everything.

[00:36:17]>> Did the two of you have these sorts of arguments before the arrest?

[00:36:21]>> No. No, we didn't argue at all.

[00:36:23]>> Yeah, but we didn't have any worries.

[00:36:26]Get mad, you know, you could go to your sister's.

[00:36:28]>> Well, but the difference is money though. We had at that point you know, we did you know, we we didn't have to worry about money.

[00:36:33]>> that either. I mean, I can live on nothing >> No, well, me too. And that's what I'm doing now. I mean, now I'm living on I don't spend any money.

[00:36:40]>> because I'm very resourceful.

[00:36:43]>> Well, you you came back, your lab is in ruins.

[00:36:47]>> Yeah.

[00:36:48]>> The life that you lived is gone.

[00:36:50]>> Well, what happens though is when you when you go to prison, you the only way you can adapt is say, "This is my life."

[00:36:57]And that was my life. And so, when I got out, the halfway house was my life.

[00:37:01]Basically, between the halfway house, drug testing, talking to your probation officer, doing all that stuff, in the time is 6 years have gone by. So, when I finally, you know, I said I said, "Okay, well, maybe you know, let's see what's going on up here." You know, it's like it's like a whole different world.

[00:37:16]Of course, and you're looking around and saying, "Well, it's really neat, you know, that everything's still here, but it's it's it's too bad that we you know, we couldn't go back to the way it was."

[00:37:26]>> And now that these things are moving towards social acceptance, and it's happening in a medical clinical capacity, >> Right.

[00:37:33]>> do you feel as if you don't get a certain credit that you deserve because you were doing this at the very beginning in the >> I don't deserve any credit.

[00:37:42]>> Yes, you do.

[00:37:43]>> No, I was just following the footsteps of Sasha and David Nichols and people like that. I No, I didn't I didn't do anything.

[00:37:50]>> Well, think about it this way. The only reason that anybody cares about MDMA is because >> is >> they've tried it. If no one had tried MDMA, no one would know that this is valuable, no one would consider it a useful psychotherapeutic tool. The only way people are able to try these compounds is a chemist has to make them.

[00:38:06]>> Yeah, >> That's true.

[00:38:07]>> You may be responsible for what? A million MDMA experiences?

[00:38:12]>> Maybe.

[00:38:12]>> And you sacrificed your life to do that.

[00:38:14]>> I guess, yeah. I guess so. I never really thought thought of it that way. I just figured, oh, it's [music] that's just what I did.

[00:38:23]>> When we're done extracting and washing, this is what we use in order to make sure that we don't lose product and it precipitates out with no trouble whatsoever.

[00:38:33]>> The pooled organic layers are [music] dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate.

[00:38:37]Hydrogen chloride gas is generated by dripping hydrochloric acid [music] over sulfuric acid. The hydrogen chloride is bubbled into the xylene solution of MDMA free base [music] and crystals of the hydrochloride salt precipitate out of solution.

[00:38:50]>> Yep, there it goes.

[00:38:51]So exciting.

[00:38:53]>> How would you [music] communicate why people do this?

[00:38:56]>> Maybe it's like cooking, you know, maybe you can say, you know, a lot of people can relate to being a chef, knowing the ingredients in a kitchen, [music] being able to walk into a spice store and know exactly, oh, this particular nutmeg comes from this particular and it's super [music] special. And you know those ingredients and you have the creative thing, you know, it's fun. It's like, you know, >> [music] >> especially if it works.

[00:39:17]>> Home chemistry is fun, whether you're creating drugs or pyrotechnics. Just go ahead and try some sort of simple synthesis [music] that gives you a little kick, you know, whether you get high off it or not, just enjoy chemistry because [music] it's a beautiful, beautiful art.

[00:39:36]>> The MDMA hydrochloride slurry is poured into an improvised Büchner funnel and dried under vacuum, then washed with chilled anhydrous acetone [music] from a spray bottle. The hydrochloride salt is dissolved in heated isopropanol to form a saturated [music] solution, then allowed to crystallize overnight.

[00:39:55]Finally, residual [music] isopropanol is stripped under vacuum.

[00:40:03]And voilà, >> that is the product.

[00:40:05]>> Purified crystal MDMA hydrochloride.

[00:40:09]>> That's my goal. I just want to spread love.

[00:40:22]>> [music] >> Base in there. Figure it out.

[00:40:24]>> Just for the hell of it.

[00:40:25]>> Uh, it's working.

[00:40:26]>> Well, that's base catalyzed then. Okay.

[00:40:29]>> Wow.

[00:40:30]>> That's all you're going to get. That's it. That's [music] nothing.

[00:40:33]>> Where's that ruby?

[00:40:33]>> That's pretty good. You're tough to please.

[00:40:36]>> You're damn right I am. I'm used to things putting out, [music] you know, with 50% quantum yield, which means 50% of the chemical energy turns into light.

[00:40:42]This is nothing.

[00:40:44]>> Oh, we're going [music] to try throwing some ruby in there to get some red.

[00:40:46]>> There's two vials of it.

[00:40:48]>> Great. I synthesized this myself. That was one of my things I was kind of proud of.

[00:40:54]>> Do you have a scale in here?

[00:40:55]>> Nope. All that stuff is gone.

[00:40:57]>> They took your scale?

[00:40:58]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:40:59]>> So, you really haven't done any [music] chemistry since your arrest?

[00:41:02]>> No. No, I haven't.

[00:41:04]>> [snorts] >> Would you go back if you could? [music] >> Sure. Why not? You mean if we didn't get busted, would I keep Would I kept doing it? Yeah, hell yeah.

[00:41:14]Yeah, it was fun.

[00:41:16]Put it this way, >> [music] >> you know, you're successful if you get away with it. You know, if I got to play secret agent man to get one one gallon of ether, you [music] know, forget it.

[00:41:24]You know, it's just not worth it. You know, it's like it's a different world now.

[00:41:29]You know, it's it's My year is over.

[00:41:31]It's it's done.

[00:41:33]>> The end of the golden age of clandestine [music] synthesis.

[00:41:36]>> Mhm, perhaps. Yeah. And maybe that's a good thing.

[00:41:40]>> I'm glad Steve is willing to [music] talk about all of this with me because he goes through bouts of depression surrounding this entire trajectory of his life where he doesn't want to talk [music] about any of it.

[00:41:51]He's ashamed. He's embarrassed at how things turned out.

[00:41:55]>> Another failure. Okay. Well, that's science in action. That's how it works.

[00:41:59]You try things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

[00:42:02]>> We could look for a protocol if you want.

[00:42:05]>> But Oh, look at the Look at the list here. This is ridiculous. 10 ml of potassium hydroxide 3 M >> Okay, so it's it's in water.

[00:42:13]>> I don't know if there's anything [music] to be learned from it.

[00:42:16]You could say it's a cautionary tale, but he never did anything wrong to begin with.

[00:42:20]>> It happens.

[00:42:22]>> [music] >> Nothing he did had any negative impact on society. The only bad thing was him being arrested. That's the true crime.

[00:42:30]If anything, he's an example of how to [music] live.

[00:42:34]And yet his life is destroyed.

[00:42:37]And then [music] on top of that, all the measures that have been taken to prevent clandestine synthesis in the United States have only [music] prevented young people from becoming interested in chemistry. If you don't have practical experience playing around in a lab, you'll never be interested in chemistry. And chemistry [music] is a beautiful thing that actually makes the world a better place.

[00:42:55]>> It's kind of pretty.

[00:42:57]>> [music] >> That's trippy. You've got solids are blowing there. It's fascinating. Look at Whoa.

[00:43:04]>> [music] >> That's pretty cool.

[00:43:11]>> [music]