 clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market. smaller labs can be run by individual chemists working clandestinely in order to synthesize smaller amounts of controlled substances or simply out of a hobbyist interest in chemistry, often because of the difficulty ascertaining the purity of other, illegally synthesized drugs obtained on the black market. the term clandestine lab is generally used in any situation involving the production of illicit compounds, regardless of whether the facilities being used qualify as a true laboratory. ==history== ancient forms of clandestine chemistry included the manufacturing of poisons. another old form of clandestine chemistry is the illegal brewing and distillation of alcohol. this is frequently done to avoid taxation on spirits. from 1919 to 1933, the united states prohibited the sale, manufacture, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. this opened a door for brewers to supply their own town with alcohol. just like modern-day drug labs, distilleries were placed in rural areas. the term moonshine generally referred to "corn whiskey", that is, a whiskey-like liquor made from corn. today, american-made corn whiskey can be labeled or sold under that name, or as bourbon or tennessee whiskey, depending on the details of the production process. ==precursor chemicals== prepared substances (as opposed to those that occur naturally in a consumable form, such as cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms) require reagents. some drugs, like cocaine and morphine, are extracted from plant sources and refined with aid of chemicals. semi-synthetic drugs such as heroin are made starting from alkaloids extracted from plant sources which are the precursors for further synthesis. in the case of heroin, a mixture of alkaloids is extracted from the opium poppy (papaver somniferum) by placing small incisions in its bulb - a milky fluid bleeds out of the incisions which is then left to dry out and scraped off the bulbs, yielding raw opium. morphine, one of many alkaloids in opium, is then extracted out of the opium by precipitation and turned into heroin by heating it with acetic anhydride for several hours. other drugs (such as methamphetamine and mdma) are normally made from commercially available chemicals, though both can also be made from naturally occurring precursors. methamphetamine i
Chemistry Illegal_drug_trade Science_and_law