Meth from urine

December 3, 2005 3:25 PM

Don't smoke urineif you're looking for a methamphetamine high, because you might burn yourself, or worse, have the world find out about your mishap. The best is the quote from his lawyer: "I suspect that, more than anything, Steve was doing this as an intellectual proposition." Lawyers will say the darnedest things.
posted by dbiedny (28 comments total)

I think it's lame to charge someone with meth-making when clearly, they were only trying extract meth that already existed.

Also, it dosn't say he 'smoked' the urine:

But Zeiszler's experiment went dangerously awry when he spilled some solvent on himself, then lit a cigarette while he contemplated his next move, starting a fire that burned his right hand and arm.

Can people even read anymroe?
posted by delmoi at 3:41 PM on December 3, 2005

delmoi, I stand corrected. I think it's still pretty darned funny.
posted by dbiedny at 3:45 PM on December 3, 2005

This man is a conservationist. I think is we all tookt to his zealous nature on an industrial level the world would be a better place. I salute him.
posted by Rubbstone at 3:49 PM on December 3, 2005

I wish I could find it, and believe me, I've searched...but about 5 years ago Harpers magazine published an interview with 2 kids (one was named Zach as I recall) who smoked various things to get high - things such as blood, urine, each others' skin, shoes....
No point to my comment other than the fact that I thought that someone else found it and posted it here. In retrospect, I never thought that I would be in a position to confuse 2 different urine smoking stories....
posted by horsemuth at 3:51 PM on December 3, 2005

delmoi, that's what I told the judge. I wasn't making nitroglycerine, just extracting it... from the precursor chemicals.

Seriously though, there's no methamphetamine in urine, but one of the precursors is present. So he was in fact making meth.
posted by atrazine at 3:57 PM on December 3, 2005

I stand corrected twice on the urine story. I hang my head in shame.
posted by dbiedny at 4:02 PM on December 3, 2005

"Anybody who would -- for fun -- read a chemistry text should be in school instead of sitting in San Mateo County Jail."

Obviously to stop this happening again all intellectual pursuits should require a license issued by a national authority and only be permitted within educational facilities.

After all, information is the most powerful weapon there is.
posted by spinoza at 4:03 PM on December 3, 2005

he should have taken the piss amendment
posted by pyramid termite at 4:09 PM on December 3, 2005

that is pretty frakking awesome.
This guy is single-handedly lifting the confidence of 22-year olds across the country "at least I'm not that desperate to get high"

oh, and the obligatory 'so pot's the real enemy, right?' comment.
posted by Busithoth at 4:09 PM on December 3, 2005

Make that gallons of urine, said William Johnston, Zeiszler's attorney, who described his client's attempt to reclaim excreted methamphetamine from his urine as a "really, really silly" move.

That's so silly.
posted by j-urb at 4:18 PM on December 3, 2005

Seriously though, there's no methamphetamine in urine, but one of the precursors is present. So he was in fact making meth.

If someone ingests methamphetamine, then it will be present in their Urine. My statement relied un the reader having the comprehension to understand this.

--

By the way the first person ever to be treated with penicillin, almost dead from a full-body bacterial infection, was almost back to perfect health when they ran out. The researchers were able to extract penicillin from the patients urine, but ultimately it wasn't enough, and the patient relapsed and died.
posted by delmoi at 4:18 PM on December 3, 2005

they ran out? You'd think they'd make a couple batches before attempting to cure someone.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 4:22 PM on December 3, 2005

Seriously though, there's no methamphetamine in urine, but one of the precursors is present. So he was in fact making meth.

Seriously though, no one is even claming that he was trying to make meth from scratch, except for you, and you haven't even read the friggin' article.
posted by delmoi at 4:22 PM on December 3, 2005

they ran out? You'd think they'd make a couple batches before attempting to cure someone.

They were probably just doing toxicity testing, thinking the guy was going to die for sure anyway.
posted by delmoi at 4:23 PM on December 3, 2005

Actualy, according to the Wikipedia article on Penicillin:

During World War II, penicillin made a major difference in the number of deaths and amputations caused by infected wounds amongst Allied forces. Availability was severely limited, however, by the difficulty of manufacturing large quantities of penicillin and by the rapid renal clearance of the drug necessitating frequent dosing. Penicillins are actively secreted and about 80% of a penicillin dose is cleared within three to four hours of administration. During those times it became common procedure to collect the urine from patients being treated so that the penicillin could be isolated and reused. (Silverthorn, 2004)

Just waiting for atrazine to tell us that Urine dosn't contain penicillin, so that must be imposible.
posted by delmoi at 4:27 PM on December 3, 2005

I love that the guy works at a recycling depot.
posted by thinman at 4:33 PM on December 3, 2005

delmoi, oops, my bad. I'd read a different version of the same story earlier today, pretty much identical, but it didn't mention that he had taken methamphetamine earlier and was trying to extract it after excretion.

..and after double checking, none of the precursors for meth are present in urine anyway.

If he was just extracting it from his urine, then you're right, it does seem a bit unfair to charge him with manufacturing. I wonder about the wording of the statute that he was charged under, he might be able to appeal the manufacturing charge.
posted by atrazine at 5:00 PM on December 3, 2005

..and after double checking, none of the precursors for meth are present in urine anyway.

Isn't phosphorus present in urine? Obviously ephedrine or psudoephedrine are not in going to be found in anyone's piss if they're not already there..

I wonder about the wording of the statute that he was charged under, he might be able to appeal the manufacturing charge.

Well, he plead no contest, so everything is done. He probably just had a lazy lawyer.
posted by delmoi at 5:23 PM on December 3, 2005

From here:

6.5 Elimination and excretion

Normally 5 to 30% of a therapeutic dose of amphetamine is excreted unchanged in the urine by 24 hours, but the actual amount of urinary excretion and metabolism is highly pH dependent (Dollery, 1991).

Alkaline urine will significantly increase the drug half-life.

Seems our hero would've got much more mileage out of alkalinizing his system (eat a lot of tums?) as he used the meth.
posted by telstar at 6:22 PM on December 3, 2005

Tums sales are going to be restricted anytime soon -- you do what you want, but personally, I'm stockpiling now...
posted by NewBornHippy at 7:08 PM on December 3, 2005

Eating Tums, or hyperventilating.
posted by jenovus at 8:00 PM on December 3, 2005

Paging Bob Arctor / Fred! Your flesh-eating aphids are ready!
posted by loquacious at 8:04 PM on December 3, 2005

none of the precursors for meth are present in urine anyway

That's a relief. I was afraid I'd have to fill out a form to pee like I do to get Sudafed.
posted by birdherder at 4:49 AM on December 4, 2005

It's time to bring back safety in getting high. It's time to go back to that great '60s recreation, smoking banana peels.
posted by Creosote at 6:36 AM on December 4, 2005

It's time to go back to that great '60s recreation, smoking banana peels.

"Dry the skins in the microwave. This won't affect the potency, as bannadine is not microwave soluble."

Obviously written by a 15-year-old who makes shit up to sound authoritative. We need him to keep up the quality of Ask Metafilter.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:49 AM on December 4, 2005

Don't smoke urine if you're looking for a methamphetamine high...

“Don’t smoke urine” is a pretty good all-purpose rule, no matter what the circumstances.
posted by LeLiLo at 7:11 AM on December 4, 2005

Not something really recommended...
posted by yonnage at 4:01 PM on December 5, 2005

Obviously written by a 15-year-old who makes shit up to sound authoritative.

...Or—apparently less obviously—written by some guy who makes shit up for a laugh.
posted by thinman at 9:17 PM on December 5, 2005