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Old 12-05-2020, 06:20 PM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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Location: Western Australia
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Speaking as someone with a few decades working in laboratories doing analysis and research work for the mining industry I have two thoughts about manufacturing certain drugs.

1. It's actually simpler than it sounds. Give me the method (i.e. the recipe) for making LSD or ecstasy and the right chemicals and equipment and I could make it (as could any competent laboratory technician or laboratory assistant - you don't need a chemist to make it). I'd go as far as saying that anyone with good cooking experience can make some of these because essentially all you are doing is following a recipe.
Someone who was making their own moonshine probably has enough skill to produce these drugs as long as they have the right equipment, chemicals, etc. etc. and the method (i.e. recipe)

You only really need a chemist to work out a method or to troubleshoot problems with the process.
One of the chemists I worked with years ago said that one of his friends as they were studying their degrees, discovered that the university had all the chemicals needed to make LSD. So his friend whipped up a batch and used it to paint smiley faces on their lab-coats.
I mention this to illustrate the ease that someone with the understanding and the resources could make these drugs.
It's the same reason that many crack addicts were able to get into making their own crack for sale and to supply their own habit.

It's only because the procedures for making these drugs are not particularly known and the chemicals and even some of the equipment used need proof of legitimate work and so on before they can be purchased, that people are not regularly making this stuff for themselves. That plus they should have the knowledge of handling dangerous goods, for example some chemicals have specific storage requirements that can cause big problems if they are not met.
Which is also the reason that some of those crackheads alluded to above have burnt down their own homes cooking meth in the kitchen or have injured/disfigured themselves when using various chemicals - no understanding of how to handle dangerous goods, some of these chemicals will kill you if you're lucky, if you're unlucky they'll leave you horribly injured.

So this leads me to the second of my thoughts...
2. Being relatively easy takes away the value of some higher skills in the game. I would say that anyone with regular cooking experience could make these drugs but then what use is there for the Chemistry skill if you make such tasks so easy?
Obviously Chemistry can cover a lot more than that but to fit in with the use of Chemistry in the rules, I argue that any attempt to make such drugs should require at least Chemistry level 4.
It also fits in with the idea that someone who does not know what they're doing will probably end up burning down their home trying to make these drugs, i.e. no chemistry knowledge, no dangerous goods knowledge then you probably should make a better career choice because you'll probably end up killing yourself.

With the higher level, you could supervise other people making the drugs (child or slave labour would not be suitable, you need people who will pay attention to detail) and just as importantly, you would have the knowledge of safe storage for the chemicals needed as well as the ability to troubleshoot problems with the process.
I'd argue that this then allows the Referee to call for Leadership skills if they want to reduce the number of people who could conceivably make such drugs in the game world - make the task a little harder so that not everyone who can bake a cake tries to assemble their own little drug making gang.

You could make these drugs with lower levels of Chemistry but I would argue for a lower skill level to be suitable only for making small batches over a longer period of time and specifically being made by the person with the skill. Assuming you want to allow that at all. Personally I would probably not allow it because I feel it devalues the Chemistry skill somewhat - unless you choose to make the person in charge also use Leadership to enable them to supervise a team.
My preference would be for a higher level skill to be the person in charge, supervising those with the lower level skills. Those with lower level skill would be assistants (until they are able to raise the skill).
Hence my comment about child or slave labour being a bad idea - you need people who will understand the potential hazards if they screw things up.


So, after all that waffling on, I would suggest that for any group in the Twilight world wishing to make LSD, ecstasy and so on, they would have at least a small group doing the work. A person with a higher level Chemistry skill would be the person in charge and others with lower skill (i.e. 3 or less) would be assisting and doing the actual production.
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