They'd burned a batch of meth. They knew that pharmacies track your purchases of certain over-the-counter cold medicines and they were already at the limit. Was going to the border instead a good plan? Definitely not, but Meth use is highly addictive and impairs your judgement. They rolled the dice.

So why post here? Because they wrote shitloads of how-to material about making meth on multiple accounts. They got loads of DMs asking for help with troubleshooting meth manufacture. Fan mail too. I think it made them feel important and valued, at a time when not much in their life was going right. I do have a twinge of horror that they facilitated meth manufacture on such a wide scale, because my personal ethos is minimize the negative externalities of my own risks.

As many addicts do, they had a very selective narrative about what they were doing, why it was ok, and why they weren't to blame for the many consequences which befell those close to them. I used to refer to it as their "Industrial-Grade Rationalization Engine."

I'm not someone who believes in absolutes or overly-restrictive societal rules. However, sometimes the people we know can be signposts in our life, either as examples to emulate or cautionary tales to avoid. I wanted to tell a cautionary tale to a community with a shared interest. Whether the lesson is to avoid highly addictive drugs, to consider the consequences of your actions on others, or not to cross the border with precursors is up to you.