The processes and materials used to make the drug affect its color. Cooking meth using red pseudoephedrine tablets, for instance, can give the powder a pink or reddish color. Solvents such as camping stove fuel can give the drug a bluish tint. Meth manufactured with gun scrubber, a gun cleaning product sold in hardware and sporting goods stores, can have a green color.
How To Clean Meth With Denatured
Crystal meth is made by dissolving meth powder in a solvent, such as acetone or denatured alcohol. As the mixture evaporates, crystals form around the edge of the mixing container. The clear, chunky crystals that develop are usually translucent, but they may be bluish-white in appearance.
Meth production can also facilitate the formation of other hazardous chemicals. Meth residue is so dangerous that it can lead to property contamination. Experts warn that it is unsafe to enter a former meth lab without protective equipment. The toxic chemicals involved in meth production are clearly hazardous to human health.
In addition to the dangers associated with meth production, ongoing use of meth is harmful to users and often leads to addiction. According to NIDA, meth use is linked to numerous consequences, including increased risk of HIV and hepatitis from shared needles, and risky behaviors like unprotected sex. Meth use can also lead to:
Because meth users experience withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, fatigue and severe depression when they stop using the drug, it is often difficult to give up the habit, and professional intervention is necessary.
Crystalline powder is a popular form of meth that is often snorted. Because meth dissolves in water and alcohol, it can also be administered by injection. Also, some people prefer to mix meth with a liquid and swallow it. Powdered meth may resemble cocaine or chalk dust depending on its coarseness. As noted, while the powder is usually white to off-white, it can also appear yellow, pink, or a variety of other shades. The processes and materials used to manufacture the drug affect its color. For example, cooking meth using red pseudoephedrine tablets can give the powder a pink or reddish color. Meth produced with gun scrubber, a gun cleaning product sold in sporting goods stores, can have a green color. Solvents such as camping stove fuel can result in a bluish tint.
Desoxyn (methamphetamine hydrochloride) is a prescription-only stimulant indicated to treat particularly stubborn attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or as a treatment for obesity. Although it has a very limited medical use and is not as popular as other better-known medications like Adderall or Ritalin, it is still used often enough to be of significance. Moreover, Desoxyn pills may be diverted from legitimate prescription holders and used illicitly. Meth is sometimes sold as a small, green or reddish-orange colored pill known as yaba that contains a mix of caffeine and approximately 30% methamphetamine. Similar to ecstasy and other club drugs, yaba is often stamped with logos, most commonly the letters R or WY. Although people usually swallow yaba, some melt the pills and inhale the vapor or crush and snort it. It can also be combined with solvents and injected into a vein. The pills primarily originate from Burma and are sold in Thailand, but they have also been trafficked into the U.S. through the mail. Yaba is most common in East and Southeast Asia, but meth pills have been found in the U.S. rave scene, as well.
Meth addiction is a devastating condition that gradually destroys the mind and body of those who suffer from it. Individuals who are dependent on meth are encouraged to seek help as soon as possible before circumstances worsen further and result in permanent impairments or death. Our center offers comprehensive, evidence-based treatment in both partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient formats. All of our programs include services critical to the recovery process, such as psychotherapy, psychoeducation, individual and family counseling, and group support. We employ caring, knowledgeable medical professionals who administer services to our clients with compassion and expertise and also provide them with the resources they so desperately need to recover and enjoy longstanding wellness and sobriety. Please contact us immediately if you are ready to regain your life free of drugs or alcohol! We can help!
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a relatively simple technique that amplifies a DNA template to produce specific DNA fragments in vitro. Traditional methods of cloning a DNA sequence into a vector and replicating it in a living cell often require days or weeks of work, but amplification of DNA sequences by PCR requires only hours. While most biochemical analyses, including nucleic acid detection with radioisotopes, require the input of significant amounts of biological material, the PCR process requires very little. Thus, PCR can achieve more sensitive detection and higher levels of amplification of specific sequences in less time than previously used methods. These features make the technique extremely useful, not only in basic research, but also in commercial uses, including genetic identity testing, forensics, industrial quality control and in vitro diagnostics. Basic PCR is commonplace in many molecular biology labs where it is used to amplify DNA fragments and detect DNA or RNA sequences within a cell or environment. However, PCR has evolved far beyond simple amplification and detection, and many extensions of the original PCR method have been described. This chapter provides an overview of different types of PCR methods, applications and optimization.
If an amplification reaction fails and you suspect the DNA template is contaminated with an inhibitor, add the suspect DNA preparation to a control reaction with a DNA template and primer pair that has amplified well in the past . Failure to amplify the control DNA usually indicates the presence of an inhibitor. Additional steps to clean up the DNA preparation, such as phenol:chloroform extraction or ethanol precipitation, may be necessary.
Primer sequence is a major factor that determines the optimal annealing temperature, which is often within 5C of the melting temperature of the primers. Using an annealing temperature slightly higher than the primer Tm will increase annealing stringency and can minimize nonspecific primer annealing and decrease the amount of undesired products synthesized. Using an annealing temperature lower than the primer Tm can result in higher yields, as the primers anneal more efficiently at the lower temperature. We recommend testing several annealing temperatures, starting approximately 5C below the Tm, to determine the best annealing conditions. In many cases, nonspecific amplification and primer-dimer formation can be reduced through optimization of annealing temperature, but if undesirable PCR products remain a problem, consider incorporating one of the many hot-start PCR methods.
Treatment of PCR reagents with uracil-N-glycosylase (UNG), a DNA repair enzyme that hydrolyzes the base-ribose bond at uracil residues, eliminates one of the most common sources of DNA contamination: previously amplified PCR products. UNG treatment prevents replication of uracil-containing DNA by causing the DNA polymerase to stall at the resulting abasic sites. For UNG to be an effective safeguard against contamination, the products of previous amplifications must be synthesized in the presence of dUTP. This is easily accomplished by substituting dUTP for some or all of the dTTP in the reaction. Nonproofreading polymerases will readily incorporate dUTP into a PCR product, but proofreading polymerases incorporate dUTP much less efficiently (Slupphaug et al. 1993; Greagg et al. 1999; Lasken et al. 1996). Since dUTP incorporation has no noticeable effect on the intensity of ethidium bromide staining or electrophoretic mobility of the PCR product, reactions can be analyzed by standard agarose gel electrophoresis. While both methods are effective (Rys and Persing, 1993), UNG treatment has the advantage that both single-stranded and double-stranded DNA templates will be rendered unamplifiable (Longo et al. 1990). 2ff7e9595c
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