I wonder why the "DIY for drugs" movement is taking so long to become mainstream. I mean, it makes sense that the role of drug cartels should be diminished by now. With governments reluctant to legalize anything, an "open drugs" initiative might work.
That made me smile - you really don't know a lot about drug manufacturing, do you?
A couple of points:
1. The war against drugs may not seem very effective to you, but it is in its own perverted way: punishment is harsh - add to that that the kind of people who would attempt something as complex as that (brainy people who often have sth. to lose) would get raped in prison on a daily basis. Just look at the Aryan Brotherhood - depending on the scale of your undertaking, they are the kind of people you would be in a cell with. Don't underestimate this as a strong deterring factor.
Another interesting article on the excesses of drug law enforcement and the history of drug prohibition:
http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/opium-made-easy/
2. Who say there isn't such a movement? Somebody already mentioned marihuana growing, but there was at least one very high profile webforum that discussed these matters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hive_%28website%29
3. Precursors and apparatus are expensive and hard to get (in Texas you can't even buy glassware without registration).
4. If you are making drugs for your own consumption, you want them to be safe (for example free of unhealthy precursors) - the analytics are even more complicated and expensive than the manufacturing.
5. Everybody can turn on you - hiding an undertaking of that scale would be nearly impossible if you have a social life (friends, family etc.). As I tried to point out above, you are literally taking your life in your hands when you are working with these things: whom would you trust with your life? One wrong word from a drunken friend and "the conseuquences will be never be the same". You are moving into a war zone and your loved ones with you.
I think the future lies in biotransformations - candian scientist apparently have alread done it for yeast:
www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/493629-Canadian-scientists-create-morphine-producing-yeast
Such a system will completely destroy both the drug market and prohibition. People will simply cultivate their drugs in yeast in the forseeable future.
I think you are describing the situation in America, where i 'm not. I am wholly against drug use on philosophical grounds, but i would assume that their production would be easier today than it was in the past. I mean, we have personal PCR machines, i would assume the mechanics of drugmaking would have evolved since the 70s (no Moore's law there?)
Even other countries get pressured into drug prohibition - to my knowledge, there is no country where it would be safe (as in legal) to make drugs for yourself (Portugal maybe?). Not every prison system is as inhumane as that of the US, but here in Germany we had a report just last week that the chance of getting raped in juvenile prison is shockingly high.
Getting precursors and equipment would at least be rather expensive here (also chemical suppliers are prone to notify the police if you buy the "wrong" stuff).
PCR machines are essentially Peltier blocks with a chunk of aluminium on top - there is no hard tech in these things.
A used chromatograph with detectors is easily above 10.000€ - I saw a guy in a german chemistry forum who bought a gas chromatograph with detector(s?) for around 10000€.
You don't absolutely need one - but if you want to be sure about the cleanliness of your product you need some kind of analysis. I have to admit although I have vocational training in chemistry and analytics I don't know how low the detection threshold of something like a TLC plate is, which would be the easiest (/cheapest) way to get a guesstimate.
Overall this looks easy when you get into it (it's just a bunch of chemical reactions after all) but the closer you look at it, the harder it gets.
There is no Moores law in chemistry - there are probably a lot of new synthetic pathways that could be applicable; finding the right ones (to get a good yield; to use available precursors) is hard and takes knowledge the average weekend warrior won't have (it would be a lot easier to just use the recipes on rhodiums archive and try to make the precursors you can't buy).
There's already a diy movement for weed. there are forums with growing techniques and tips.
But i'm not sure it does reduce the risk in a big way. It might even increase the risk, while also increasing complexity and work. Doesn't see like a good solution.
