Our basis of information beyond the suburban methamphetamine users interviewed for our study included: (1) official sources, such as criminal justice websites and public health reports (2) correspondence with the local forensic laboratory chemist (3) Internet websites found by using word search engines and (4) conversations with professional colleagues. A field trial design is derived from ethnographic work in which the researchers “review a variety of field sources and look for emergent patterns that replicate this material from a street addict point of view” ( Agar, Bourgois French, & Murdoch, 2001, p.70). We used a field trial design to expedite the background research. We decided to investigate this method further. The drug was called “string dope” and sold as methamphetamine. Respondents referred to this method as the “fish tank” or “cold cook” method.

The process also allowed the production to be hidden from view, either underground or in a dark closet or basement. Growing methamphetamine was reported as a safer “cooking” method for the producer (“cook”) since it did not involve heating ingredients and was less likely to cause an explosion. Ingredients were mixed or layered in a container, typically a fish tank or five gallon bucket, and the container was buried in the ground or kept in a dark closet for up to 28 days until crystals grew on strings suspended above the chemical solution. Other recipes involved various cleaning fluids such as acetone and ammonia or chemicals such as iodine.

The ingredients included pseudoephedrine, red phosphorus, charcoal, gun bluing and aluminum shavings. Respondents recounted similar but slightly different accounts of how to grow methamphetamine crystals on strings. Respondents reported “growing methamphetamine.” Upon further questioning we learned that growing methamphetamine crystals on a string suspended over a container was a common method for producing methamphetamine in the area. We conducted ethnographic research among diverse drug networks and interviewed methamphetamine users who lived and used methamphetamine in the suburbs. In 2007 we began a study on methamphetamine use in the suburbs of a large southeastern city of the United States.

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