it’s not a cake, it’s a chemical reaction – there’s no “red phosphorous” left in the methamphetamine at the end of production.
You’re referring to what we call the nazi or “red, white and blue” method of synthing it, there are loads of ways, this one is pretty common though.
Meth labs explode when solvents start to evaporate and naked flames are used or some knobber uses mechanical electrical switches rather than pneumatic ones without adequate extraction. Fume extraction is a nightmare for meth labs as the whole process stinks enough to think your eyes are going to melt. As a result, often it’s done in small batches. In the UK/Europe the explosion typically happen during the ace washes at the end and aren’t as bad. In the US it’s normally when they are ripping the pep pills at the start, or at the wash at the end. This stuff sits heavy and fills multiple rooms waiting there, you can’t smell a thing after 20 seconds near one. The problem is that typically you’re surrounded by dangerous chemicals, which then go bang too – the burns you see on google images are from the phos normally, a small bang which results in any of that landing on you is bad news.
Very very rarely the reaction itself can fail and go pop, seen more if using cheap homemade equipment. It’s almost always a result of alcohol or solvent in the air.
The same dangers are there with most synths (MDMA has an awful stage) but meth labs go bang a lot more because it’s very easy to make so lots of people do it without being educated. Even extractions can go bad in this way. I even had an explosion in a glove box once with some shroom spawn from cleaner fumes building up and touching a gas light, scared the sh*t out of me, but was entirely contained by the box, although needed a sit down and a cup of tea afterwards.
Oh – yes, it’s extremely addictive and horrible stuff, avoid at all costs. It’s one of the worst drugs ever found and devastates the body. Here in the UK the government had the sense to outright remove the common ingredients to stop home labs from making it like in the states, but I wonder what will happen if they really do manage to stop other uppers being imported to the UK. America is incredibly corrupt to allow home production.
