Transcription
Billowing smoke—it's heavy, it's black. Well, not completely black, but it's dark gray. The one time I had to deal with it, because with the other explosions, I just left. I thought, "I'm not going to breathe that in." The first explosion that happened, I didn't have a full-face respirator yet, and I had to try to clean up my mess. I ran in there, dealt with it, and ran back out, back and forth. The next day, I pissed bright orange. I'm sure I've got some free radicals running around in me, which is kind of scary.
So, you did this time in prison, right? In the end, I actually got sentenced to 36 months. Originally, they lowered it down to 30. In the end, I did almost nine months in Federal Detention. They let me bond out finally because they got everything they wanted. They let me bond out, and I had to report to FMC Fort Worth, Federal Medical Camp. I was sitting at my brother's house in Houston when I got a phone call from my lawyer. He said, "You don't have to report."
In the end, I only had to do nine months. I said, "Shut the fuck up!" He was like, "No, for real." My best friend was on his way from San Antonio to take me on a snowboard trip before I turned myself in. We were going to go snowboarding, and I was like, "I don't have to go?" He said the reason was that I may not have told them what they wanted to hear, but what I did tell them was the truth.
In the end, they wanted me to testify against my friend, whose family is connected to the judgeship. They said that if I didn't, I would null and void my 36 months. I said, "I'm not going to help you." I'm going to tell you why I'm not going to help you: he got the shit beat out of him multiple times and never made a penny. He doesn't deserve that. They didn't do anything about it. Some heavy shit.
I didn't know I was going to say all this today. I really appreciate it. I think it's a very valuable perspective. I actually don't think I've ever spoken to somebody in your situation before, or that had a situation like that. Being honest, I think most people in my predicament, or people who do stuff, go down this road, or, like you said, are in love with the chemistry and are smart enough to keep it to themselves, learn on their own, and do it for themselves versus delusions of grandeur—oh, I'm going to be connected with a bunch of idiots that act in a certain way.
You see what I'm saying? The route that I went is probably not the norm for that type of molecule, for lack of a better term. Are there other chemistry aspects or any other things that you think people listening to this should know about? Cautionary things?
One interesting thing was the methylamine bubbler. I was trying to make methylamine. I found a route to make methylamine using nitromethane, methanol, and aluminum amalgam, similar to the MDMA process. Instead of doing the whole thing in there, which would have made more sense, I had to amalgamate the aluminum. I had to distill nitromethane and methanol from RC fuel, which, by the way, is not fun because it bumps. That nitromethane bumps, and it's pretty scary when it does because you're like, "Right, that's nitromethane."
Once you have those isolated, you have to get the lubricant out of it. You do that by putting all that stuff in a fridge and letting it get cold, and the lubricant will fall out. In the nitromethane and methanol RC fuel, that's how you get the lubricant out. Then, you distill your nitromethane and methanol, separate them, and you amalgamate your aluminum. You put it all in there, heat it up slowly, and as the reaction goes, you have a setup similar to a hydrochloric acid bubbler with a pipe and a drying tube. It actually bubbles methylamine gas off the top from that reaction.
I'm catching it in an ice-cold IPA, and that's how I made methylamine and MDMA out there in a pipe bomb. So, you did make MDMA for personal use? Yeah, I never made enough to make any money or anything—just personal use. I don't even think it made that much—maybe 10 grams, not a lot.
Other chemistry things? The TMA-2. I'm trying to remember how we did that. The starting point was calamus oil for the TMA-2, and I think ferde was used for the amphetamine portion of it. I think that's how it was done. What is it? Is it FMOM? I may not be pronouncing that correctly. It's another way to produce an amphetamine.
I'd have to look it up. Do you remember what chemicals are involved? It really wasn't my bag. I was part of it, but I wasn't really paying attention to the ins and outs of it. The crazy thing is, both times I had it was with the same person. He was out for three years, and I hung out with him. He made another TMA-2. Did he ever try it? I don't know if he did. He had an obsession with DMT, which I've done that extraction a lot. That's a simple one, right?
Also, with spearmint and tryptophan, you can make synthetic DMT that way too. I didn't do that, but I was part of it. I watched it. The OSA—I think I used phosphoric acid to acidify it, cooked it, and then put it in a long cylindrical tube. I added water in a press and pushed the water through with pressure, then collected it at the bottom. I used that, basified it, and pulled it out with naphtha, then put it in the freezer.
That's a way to do it. I did it in a tube about this big around. What about tips for anyone listening to this that finds themselves in your situation? Any final advice?
That's interesting. I thought a lot about that the last few weeks. First of all, I have to take personal responsibility for the things that I did and the choices I made. I cannot blame other people—not even the people I worked for, per se. They didn't make me do this. In the end, I could have walked away much earlier. There would have been some repercussions, but I had delusions of grandeur. My arrogance and ego played a big role in my behavior.
If you're ever in this situation, take a step back and really look at the people you work with or are around. Stop, man. Just go back and do it for yourself, and do it for the right reasons. The chemistry and the monetary value should not be part of it. The monetary aspect is what ruins it. That's why I said I gave away—I can't even count how much I gave away. I don't want to account for it. I'd rather give it away. I don't want monetary value, especially on some of the other psychedelics like DMT. I think that would ruin it.
Do the chemistry for the chemistry reason. I think that's really good advice. I've never sold things, really. It's probably just a privilege more than anything to not have put myself in that position. But anytime I even got anywhere close to that in my teenage years or early 20s, I think a lot of people, when they talk about this, talk about it almost from a religious perspective, like it's morally wrong to sell things. I don't think it is. I see nothing morally wrong with selling things or making money.
But the reality is that as soon as you start selling stuff, you introduce all these weirdos into your life who want to take advantage of your knowledge. You can't control things, and before you know it, you're talking to a friend of a friend of a friend that you don't know, and that's how people get into trouble. Absolutely. Just do it for yourself. If I could go back, I would just do it for myself, enjoy it for the chemistry, learn it, and enjoy it.
I think it's all about intention. Whatever your intentions are is when it changes for you—good morally or bad morally. It's whatever your intentions are. My intentions weren't good at that time; they were driven by ego, arrogance, and delusions of grandeur. Did I make some really bad decisions? Yes, I did, and I regret them because of my family, my children, and my brothers. So many people have been affected by my bad choices. If you're ever in that situation, really think and don't do it. Just do it for yourself.
I think that's really good advice. Any final notes? No, I think that's it. Well, thank you so much. This was an amazing story. I'm a bit worn out. Are you going to go skating later? Yeah, I'm supposed to go skate with him. I'm sort of tempted to join you. Oh, yeah? For real? Yeah, would you want to go skate? I would do it. Okay, I have a skateboard.