To think drug manufacturing like in Breaking Bad couldn't happen in the UK

[WakeUpFast]

I've recently started watching Breaking Bad (to fill in for The Walking Dead ) and have got to season 3 (so no spoilers please!).

I just don't think someone could manufacture drugs like that in the UK.
We have no open, unclaimed land. Every piece of land is accounted for. Every house and persons living in it are accounted for. We can't use fake names just like that.

There's loads of other reasons but am I being naive to think this? I've heard of weed factories in houses, but how common is this? If someone used a caravan as a drug lab, where would they park it without someone smelling the emissions?

I'm not planning on becoming a drug lord, I promise , just very intrigued by how drugs are manufactured and distributed in the UK.

It's just everything is so "proper" here and it's hard to just disappear in the system. Maybe not though.
Only if you play along. The Charity Missing People estimates 250,000 people go missing each year in the UK.

A friend rented her very nice equestrian property to a family who proceeded to turn it into a cannabis farm. They by-passed the exterior mains electricity (not just the meter in the house, the mains supply outside) and ruined the house. It's a miracle the whole place didn't burn down. They weren't wildly subtle about it and I would not have bat an eyelid if they were running a meth kitchen alongside. In Scotland we have vast areas of land where people could run their own breaking bad type set up. The property I'm talking about wasn't isolated it's right on the edge of a small town and was operating as a small business at the time!!

The people in my friend's case didn't give a shit about disappearing or being anonymous. They're the sort of people who just don't care. They're happy to commit crime quite openly and they know exactly what they're doing.

I'm sure that it is quite easy to rent an industrial unit and get left alone to get on with it, as long as you pay the rent. Although some people may prefer to stick to illegal production of illegal drugs:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8636424/Boston-explosion-five-dead-in-huge-fireball-during-illegal-vodka-brewing-operation.html

Gah - legal drugs like alcohol.

I'm sure that it is quite easy to rent an industrial unit and get left alone to get on with it, as long as you pay the rent

No one would bat an eyelid at vans coming and going at any time.

I've worked on several industrial estates over the years, and have no idea what went on inside most of the units. HGVs from all over Europe were a daily sight too.

A really smart operator would ensure there was a legitimate "front business" anyway. It might explain some unlikely business' longevity

Sounds like you've done your research Lurking😙

A really smart operator would ensure there was a legitimate "front business" anyway.
An it's in no way a plot spoiler to say that this also forms part of the storyline in Breaking Bad.

Am I right in thinking Meth hasn't really caught on in the UK like it has in the US? I remember when I was in the US, 25 years ago... Ecstasy was rampant here in the UK but not so much there.

Yes can cook it just about anywhere, it's so bloody windy where I live no one would smell anything. The scary part is when they blow up. We had one not far from us blow up (not living in UK then) we lived on top of a hill, house in the valley below went up. Huge noise and a mushroom shaped cloud the fire department watched it burn. Luckily there were no houses near it, and no one was home. House was completely flat when the fire went out. I think it may be more common than people think. It's supposed to be pretty easy to make so I'm told. It makes a heck of a mess of the people who use it.
If you look here. www.rehabs.com/explore/meth-before-and-after-drugs/infographic.php it's amazing how it alters and ages people.

Yes can cook it just about anywhere
surely not??
you need a high tech lab with all those tubes and digital analysis things, special glassware, expensive space suits, vacuum sealed things, state of the art hard to find bits of kit, etc etc
like on breaking bad

You can actually make meth in very small scale production, it's called a 'shake and bake' and can be made in a container as small as a 2l soft drink bottle. Precursor chemicals aren't too much of a problem either, the only necessary one being pseudoephedrine which is more loosely regulated here than in the US. So I don't really think production problems are the reason meth has never taken off here.

As a previous poster noted, it's huge on the gay scene in the UK (watch the documentary ChemSex, it's a difficult watch, but seeks to illustrate how damaging it's been to the UK scene).

So it is available if you know where to look, there may be an issue of perception for recreational drug users that it's seen as a very dirty drug, but there's also the fact that British drug users have access to cheap and plentiful cocaine and other drugs, which, in countries where meth has become a problem this isn't so much the case. Rural America for instance would not see cheap and plentiful MDMA which can be easily found throughout the UK now. Coke is the lowest price it's ever been. Why fuck about with meth?

Interesting one though, there've been scare stories for years about how it's about to run rampant in the UK, I doubt that will happen now.

Of more pressing concern here I would say are legal highs, there's some seriously nasty and addictive synthetic THC compounds around these days which seems to be taking a grip in certain areas and societal groups in the UK.

I'm not sure if you are being facetious Shining but the reality is that lots of things on TV are there because they look good not because they are technically necessary.

Any time TV features anything you know about from your job or whatever, it is blindingly obvious that they have got it hopelessly wrong.

I was once filmed on the local news carrying out some environmental tests and I had a big fall out with the film crew because I had a big shiny detector and a small crappy detector and they wanted me to use the big shiny detector and I refused because that was to detect something else entirely and not the thing that was of concern at the time. If I was going to be on TV doing my job, I did not want permanent evidence of me doing it wrong.

Is pseudoephedrine in a lot of cold medicine Hound? But I don't know how easy it is to extract and use though.

I'm amazed people think there is no empty land in the UK.

Time to head north.....

It is Barbara, freely available, although in the UK in medicines like Sudofed, although regulations only allow you to buy one pack at a time, you can easily obtain more if you had a mind to.

I know, Rooner, unbelieveable. Anyway, how about any of these potential meth labs, just from typing Pennines into Google and looking at the images of vast empty wilderness where you can often walk for hours without seeing a soul.

(Disclaimer, obviously this is all just hypothetical and I have no plans to set up a meth lab and I am not accusing the owners of the buildings features of running one either).

If you were determined to make some meth Barbara you could find a reliable (if not highly dangerous) method within five seconds on Google. It's not a complicated process to get some usable product from. It is however extremely dangerous, as the process is highly volatile and unstable.

(Disclaimer - I do NOT own a meth-lab!).

Accidentally renting your isolated cottage to drug manufacturers is a problem in rural areas. They tend to pay in cash and expect the landlord to stay away, so I've heard.

There was a disused mill in Bolton that recently got busted and the operation got shut down (and owners got custodial).
There was a multimillion pound legal highs manufacturing plant there. After changes in legislation some of the substances were deemed illegal, but the production factory continued and most of the stuff got sold on the dark net.
So yes, it can happen in the UK.

Of more pressing concern here I would say are legal highs

A direct - and predicted - consequence of "The War On Drugs" ©.

I can understand the prohibitionists dismay though. I mean when alcohol was banned in the US, the population accepted it totally, and there was no attempt to circumvent the law by cooking up lethal homemade alternatives. So there was no way to foresee that criminals would offer dangerous chemicals to those seeking a high.

Oh hang, on, that's almost completely wrong ...

My family got a better deal on the house they bought because it used to be a hidden massive cannabis farm. The police raided and then Left all the plants there. Step dad and step uncle had a right giggle with a bonfire.

Don't know if anybody has posted this link yet (sorry it's daily mail) it's about a £4m real breaking bad case.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2583566/Chemistry-lecturer-plotting-Breaking-Bad-style-operation-produce-4m-amphetamine-TWO-DAYS-jailed.html

Same story but non daily mail link

www.ibtimes.co.uk/breaking-bad-lecturer-ryszard-jakubczyk-jailed-planning-huge-drug-production-operation-1440731

Also, in the UK he'd have just got treatment on the NHS and there wouldn't have been any need for any of it.

Try buying a big batch of decongest ion medicine over the counter - Pharmacies won't sell large amounts.