Student Suspected Of Making Meth

JASON D. WEST, a third-year chemistry graduate student at the University of California, Merced, was arraigned last month on charges of conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine, manufacturing methamphetamine, and possessing stolen property. West allegedly stole approximately $10,000 worth of equipment and chemicals from the university to make the illegal drug.

West, 36, pleaded not guilty to the charges and as of press time was in jail on $1 million bail. Police have found materials traced to West at three different meth labs and in one vehicle, says Tom MacKenzie of the Merced County Sheriff's Department.

West's graduate research involves using kinetic isotope effects to probe the mechanism of stereoselective synthesis reactions (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 7816) under the direction of chemistry professor Matthew P. Meyer. Meyer's report of a missing vacuum pump led campus police to investigate West, who was first arrested on Aug. 7 and is now suspended from the university.

West was one of the first four graduate students to complete class requirements and qualification exams to become a doctoral degree candidate at UC Merced, which opened in 2005 as the 10th campus in the UC system (C&EN, Sept. 5, 2005, page 34). The equipment and chemicals West allegedly stole were originally purchased with university start-up funds rather than federal grant money, says Maria Pallavicini, dean of UC Merced's School of Natural Sciences.

The alleged thefts occurred over a three-year period and amounted to enough material to make about 9 kg of methamphetamine, MacKenzie says. A typical hit of methamphetamine is about 100 mg. An "8 ball" of the drug, or about 3.5 g, has a current street price of $750, he says.

Rather than synthesize methamphetamine from the decongestant pseudoephedrine, the starting material popular since the 1980s, West allegedly used phenyl-2-propanone (P2P). The P2P method was common in the 1970s. Historically, meth cookers using the P2P method typically produced relatively impure methamphetamine, but MacKenzie says West was able to produce more than 95% pure drug, a quality similar to that prepared from pseudoephedrine. P2P is regulated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) under the Controlled Substances Act, along with pseudoephedrine and other chemicals commonly used to make methamphetamine and other illegal drugs.

Authorities suspect West was teaching others how to synthesize the drug, although they may not be able to prove the allegation, MacKenzie says.

Before starting graduate studies at UC Merced in 2005, West was convicted in 2001 of making methamphetamine in his home, using materials stolen from Giumarra Vineyards, his employer at the time, says Susan Barton, a deputy district attorney for Kern County, Calif. West was sentenced to three years in prison but was found eligible to be treated for narcotic addiction at the California Rehabilitation Center, which is run by the Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation. West was discharged from the addiction program in 2004.

West is not the only chemistry graduate student with a criminal history who has later been accused of abusing his position in a university. In 2004, the San Diego State University (SDSU) chemistry department notified police that graduate student Matthew H. Finley was running late-night, large-scale reactions that were inconsistent with his research on small-scale organic synthesis. After an eight-month undercover investigation, DEA seized methamphetamine, fentanyl, and ecstasy from Finley's lab bench, according to a DEA press release. Finley was convicted in 2006 of manufacturing a controlled substance and sentenced to five years in prison. In 2003, Finley was found guilty in Santa Barbara of cultivating marijuana.

SDSU chemistry professor Carl J. Carrano, currently the department chair, says the school did not change any procedures or student oversight in response to Finley's actions. "We, just like everybody else, must sign off on ordering certain chemicals that are potential synthons for illegal drugs, but there are all kinds of uses for those chemicals. The only procedure that has any real impact is for people to be observant."

A BRIEF SURVEY of 17 schools by C&EN found that only the chemistry department at the University of Texas, Austin, regularly conducts criminal background checks of all graduate students. The school does not require such checks, but the department decided to start doing them three years ago. "The university mandated them for staff and faculty, and we decided to extend it to grad student employees," says John Baxendale, administrative manager for UT Austin's chemistry department. "We basically began doing them just because we thought it was a good practice."

The results of the checks, which cost the department $5.00 each, are not used as a factor in admissions but could prevent a student from being appointed to a teaching or research assistant position, Baxendale adds.

For its part, UC Merced, along with the Merced County sheriff's department, is continuing to investigate West's actions and plans to review inventory controls and other procedures. "Once the facts are fully known, we will be in a better position to determine which policies and procedures need to be revisited without impinging on the critical role graduate students play in carrying out research activities in laboratory settings," UC Merced's Pallavicini says.

Pallavicini adds that the university walks a fine line between trusting students to carry out their research and protecting both individuals and the university. "One has to have a balance between trust and academic freedom and making sure individuals don't abuse those privileges," she says.

"Researchers generally assume that graduate students will recognize and appreciate the importance of the opportunities and responsibilities they are entrusted with to carry out research in cutting-edge laboratories," West's adviser Meyer says. "I am, of course, deeply disappointed that the trust I placed in one of my graduate students appears to have been broken."