Dan Morse of Washington Post has covered the strangest meth lab explosion case of which I have ever heard, which took place when a police officer named Christopher Bartley tried to make meth in the federal research facility which he was assigned to guard:

According to facts in the case, as laid out in court, Bartley, who had been a lieutenant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s internal police force, was on duty the night of July 18 when he slipped into a building on the edge of NIST’s 578-acre campus. He tried to make meth. It exploded, blowing out four windows at the lab — one traveled 22 feet; another, 33 feet.

It is fortunate no one was killed in the explosion. Bartley himself was burned as the temperature in the room rose to 180 degrees, but thankfully survived his injuries.

Meth lab explosions happen with regularity in many states, often with far worse results, including buildings burning to the ground, lasting environmental damage from caustic chemicals, and children and adults being killed or permanently scarred by fires.

The only reason the problem persists is that the manufacturers of pseudoephedrine-containing cold medications used in meth-making continue to flood state legislatures with lobbying money. The states that have resisted the political pressure and put products like Sudafed on prescription-only status have essentially eliminated meth lab explosions.

Meth lab explosions can be eliminated without any need to inconvenience people who want to take pseudoephedrine-containing products for congestion. Cold medicines resistant to pseudoephedrine extraction by meth cooks are available and could be exempted from any prescription requirements. But the pharma companies that profit handsomely from their meth-cooking customers will have none of it, and thus far our political system has rarely been able to resist their power.