Betty Crocker's Crystal Meth

Sara Rimensnyder from the July 2001 issue

"Most people, unfortunately, don't know anything about how methamphetamine is made." That's for sure. But it's surprising to hear such a statement coming from an agent of the Indiana Drug Enforcement Association: Gary Ashenfelter, speaking to the Associated Press.

Ashenfelter was commenting on Indiana's new plan to curb meth production. In stores across the state, police officers are taping up posters listing the ingredients needed to make the drug, also known as crystal, ice, and perhaps a dozen other names. You might think that such a poster could create a fresh crop of trailer-park chemists. But that's not the plan. Cops are hoping that shop clerks will report customers making "suspicious" purchases of a variety of typical supermarket items.

You see, like lemonade, meth is cheap and easy to make -- but a great deal more profitable. Ashenfelter says the production and use of methamphetamine has climbed wildly in Indiana in recent years. In 2001, he predicts, Indiana police officers will bust 800 labs.

The informational poster now in Indiana stores lists -- cover your eyes -- such everyday ingredients as acetone, coffee filters, cold medicine, drain cleaners, lithium batteries, and lye.