I’m in Maryland and one of the drug store chains was going to start ID-ing for nail polish remover - acetone apparently is also used to make meth And it was kind of ridiculous on the part of the chain considering Home Depot sold it in much larger sizes.
1 Like
I don’t use MSM, but I remember years ago when they stopped selling 7% iodine solution at the farm stores because of meth.
I tried to buy Sudafed several months ago and the statewide computerized pseudoephedrine tracking system had apparently crashed … and I was not allowed to buy any at all (I could’ve bought the phenylephrine version, but it just plain doesn’t work).
I don’t think large-scale meth labs are as common around here as they may have been in the past, but a lot of meth these days is produced in small batches (soda bottles) just in apartments and houses, and apparently people that cook meth will require their “customers” to bring them a box of Sudafed in order to get supplied with meth … hence the tracking system to try to detect patterns in purchases and limit the amount anyone can buy.
Farm and Fleet tried getting my info for horse related items and I told them NO and said I’d leave everything at the counter if they couldn’t ring me up without it, that it’s none of their business. They rang me up. 
Hard to find white salt blocks around here but we’d have done without. I’m SICK of this brand of garbage going on.
2 Likes
I’ve never had a problem purchasing MSM in MD or TN. I did recently get carded buying a bottle of Miracle Groom; I don’t know why that is tracked in the system.
…but try purchasing Claritin in TN. They are ridiculously strict. My husband and I always joke you could make a small fortune turning meth back into Claritin.
Baaaaah!! what has this world come to!!! can buy pot in many places and in WA okay to carrying around small amounts of heroin (cuz yeah, that never messed anyone’s life up…), but not even Sudafed or MSM anymore??! too crazy for me. I feel a small island calling my name…I won’t need Sudafed there anyhow.
3 Likes
Buckled down?? In WA??? you can carry heroin legally in WA. I don’t get that at all. I just can’t stand inconsistency. 
1 Like
Well, I am going to bring up the iodine and MSM with my pharmacy tech instructor. I think it might make an interesting topic for discussion: Commonplace items used in illicit drug manufacturing.
I had not heard about the nail polish. Maybe it’s not a thing where I live yet?
In Canada, feed stores are suppose to get your name and phone number whenever you buy feed in case of a recall. We don’t need your address. This is required by CFIA (canadian food inspection agency).
we aren’t required to get any info for msm. And our msm is pretty cheap ($15 for 1kg).
P.
1 Like
We had the same experience while trying to buy full strength iodine to sterilize goat kid umbilical cords. The local pharmacy had the only remaining bottle in town. Another surprise was being asked for ID at Tractor Supply while trying to buy windshield wiper fluid. Really?!?
1 Like
Windshield washer fluid? What nefarious use does it have?
I remember the first time I was asked for ID to buy spray paint… I was a little shocked to learn you had to be 18 to buy spray paint (I was well over 18 so that was not an issue).
There’s also a policy that came in nearly 2 years ago, where we now have to give our “barns vetinary Id number” to buy certain supplements, etc (can’t remember what it’s actually called as the tack stores now just have mine all on file). We are allowed to use the barns number we board at or we just get our own if we don’t board. From what I understand, it’s to stop people from buying items they can turn into illegal substances, yet keep allowing stores to sell these everyday supplements etc, and to help the govt track disease.
edited to add…found it, it’s the PID program and on this link it states it’s also in order to purchase “medications”.
https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/trace12354
Meth is the most common illegal which can fairly easily be made at home with ingredients that are commonly available.
I won’t list all the ingredients here but a simple Google search will turn them up but some of the ingredients can be
Acetone (fingernail polish and paint remover)
Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed)
Red phosphorus (match heads)
Sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner)
Brake fluid
There are many different “recipes” for making meth all with 2 common themes… easily available ingredients (hence the constraints on meth precursors) and nasty and highly dangerous (why labs often explode or have fires; also why residences used for cooks are highly undesirable to purchase as the stuff does not easily clean out of things like drywall). Even hotel/motel rooms can be used for small cooks.
3 Likes
I have never received a satisfactory answer to that question. :no:
There was a meth lab a few miles from my home when we first moved it. Two weeks after we moved in, it exploded and burned the boyfriend really bad. They were cooking it in their 2 year olds bedroom :eek: . Thank goodness the toddler wasn’t at home that evening. The girlfriend locked the boyfriend in her shed because she was afraid to take him to a hospital. He was discovered 3 days later when she finally told a friend and they went to the police. He was airlifted out but ended up dying. Totally insane. And this was a nice house, in a fairly nice neighborhood!
Did they own or rent the house? Rentals can often be a good target for cooking as the ‘possession’ is fairly short and don’t have to deal with actually selling the house when they move out and the owner is left with the cleanup which is often not cheap.
Unfortunately, drugs… using, dealing, making… have no societal boundaries.
1 Like
Amazon. 1/4 the feed store price. In lambing season I must appear a junkie getting 9% iodine MSM and syringes.
Around here “shake and bake” was popular for a while. The meth cookers use a 2 liter bottle, put the ingredients in, and shake it, often while going down the road. I was told about this by someone who was in law enforcement, and told that if the car next to me erupted into a fireball, get really far away from it, then call 911. That seemed to be a self-limiting problem, since many shake and bake cookers ended up roasted. However, mobile labs have been found in the backseat, and trunk of cars, motel rooms (not going to happen undetected around here for a while, because of Hurricane Michael, every motel in town is full, and many are law enforcement), rental houses and trailers, and anywhere else with cooking facilities.
When I used to use certain sinus medications, I had to sign that I knew it was illegal to use it for non-medicinal purposes every time I picked it up at the pharmacy, and they kept all of it behind the counter. There is a good reason that when Walmart went to RFID locator chips, they did the pharmacies first, starting with controlled substances, and items used for meth production, because massive amounts were disappearing.
Scary meth cooking stories, ick.
Anyway I remember showing my driver’s license at the farm store in Redmond, circa 2000, for the MSM. My mare got MSM and aspirin back then.
Yeah, I’m aware of all the meth cookery stuff (25 years in LE you pick these things up ya know) and why they explode (whenever you bust one, have your hazmat crew right there) but the MSM, nail polish, and even the brake fluid were new ones on me. Lord, what CAN"T be turned to “evil.”
1 Like
Im in BC and work at a Greenhawk, and in no way have been told to do anything when selling MSM. We do however ask for everyone’s phone number because greenhawk wants everyone possible in the system to send flyers out to, but maybe its ACTUALLY to track MSM purchasers lol
