Wave of Tide theft possibly connected to production of meth?

The recent news coverage of theft involving Tide liquid detergent has involved speculation about why thieves are targeting laundry soap. The reports suggest that laundry soap is such a commodity that it can be easily resold, and that perhaps it is being used in exchange for drugs. But, no report has suggested that liquid Tide is being used to make drugs.

To further confuse matters, Fox News is running an article that says the Tide theft wave is a mere rumor, and that there is no evidence of an increase in theft of Tide.

My immediate (and seemingly obvious) suspicion is that something in the liquid soap is being used to make methamphetamine, and if so, I have to wonder why this possibility has not been raised by the reports. So, I set out in hope of finding some answers online.

I first thought of phosphorus. It appears that Tide's original formula was changed from sodium tripolyphosphate because it was causing environmental concerns, and that a red phosphorus does not pose the same concerns and has been used since. Apparently, red phosphorus is a controlled substance in Russia because it is used to produce amphetamines, but I am unclear about whether or not liquid Tide contains red phosphorus (see links and excerpts below).

Perhaps more relevant, other ingredients listed in liquid Tide are sodium hydroxide and diethyl phthalate, which are also associated with production of methamphetamine:

http://health.utah.gov/meth/html/ToxicologyofMeth/SodiumHydroxide.html

http://gradworks.umi.com/14/97/1497207.html

So, unless I'm completely off track or missing information, it seems likely that liquid Tide could possibly be used to produce meth, in which case I wonder whether the media is avoiding liability for connecting the Tide brand with drug production, or possibly avoiding spreading the idea of using it. We know that the sale of products like cold medicine (Nyquil) containing acetaminophen are monitored, sometimes with an ID check. I can imagine how the monitoring of laundry soap sales might create a logistic nightmare.

The situation reminds me of my other question in regard to birth control. Older women have been warned about taking estrogen due to a threat of breast cancer, but no warning was ever suggested for younger women who take birth control pills - a warning that would pose an enormous logistic problem.

When the issue came about, I was also noticing how older couples who rely on fertility drugs were having smaller and sometimes multiple babies. I wondered whether a long history of birth control use would make it harder for older women to get pregnant, and I wondered whether there is now a higher number of women requiring fertility drugs, and therefore lowering the average birth rate - all due to the use of birth control pills. At one point, I sought to compare average birth weights between the time of the introduction of the pill and today, and I was unable to find the information.

Do these kinds of problems create such huge liability for public administration that prevent discussion or cause avoidance?


More background about laundry detergent contents and methamphetamine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_phosphorus#Red_phosphorus

Red phosphorus may be formed by heating white phosphorus to 250 °C (482 °F) or by exposing white phosphorus to sunlight. Red phosphorus exists as an amorphous network. Upon further heating, the amorphous red phosphorus crystallizes. Red phosphorus does not ignite in air at temperatures below 240 °C, whereas white phosphorus ignites at about 30 °C. Red phosphorus can be converted to white phosphorus upon heating to 260 °C, as can be seen when one strikes a match.
It is a controlled substance (precursor) in Russia and much of the rest of the former Soviet Union, due to its use in illicit amphetamine production.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/medicalhealth/a/crystalmeth.htm

Where Does Crystal Meth Come From?

Methamphetamine is available with a prescription for obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and narcolepsy, but crystal meth is a street drug, made in illegal labs by chemically altering over-the-counter drugs. Making crystal meth usually involves reducing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, found in cold and allergy medicine. In the US, a typical meth lab employs something called the 'Red, White, and Blue Process', which entails hydrogenation of the hydroxyl group on the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine molecule. The red is red phosphorus, white is the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, and blue is iodine, used to make hydroiodic acid. Making crystal meth is dangerous to the people making it and dangerous to the neighborhood where it's being made. White phosphorus with sodium hydroxide can produce poisonous phosphine gas, usually as a result of overheating red phosphorus, plus white phosphorus can autoignite and blow up the meth lab. In addition to phosphine and phosphorus, various hazardous vapors may be associated with a meth lab, such as chloroform, ether, acetone, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, methylamine, iodine, hydroiodic acid, lithium or sodium, mercury, and hydrogen gas.

About Phosphorus and Laundry Detergent

http://www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/L-P/Phosphorus.html

The second most important use of phosphate compounds is in making detergents. The compound most often used in detergents is called sodium tripolyphosphate, or STPP (Na ₅ P ₃ O ₁₀ ).
STPP adds a number of benefits to a detergent. For example, it can kill some bacteria and prevent washers from becoming corroded (rusted) and clogged. The most important function in detergents, however, is as a water-softening agent.

Natural water often contains chemicals that keep soaps and detergents from sudsing. They reduce the ability of soaps and detergents to clean clothes. STPP has the ability to capture these chemicals. It greatly improves the ability of soaps and detergents to make suds and clean clothes. The first detergent to use STPP was Tide, in 1947. The introduction of Tide brought about a revolution in clothes cleaning.

But STPP can create problems for the environment. After detergents have been used, they often end up in rivers and streams and, eventually, in lakes from waste water. And that's just fine for the algae that live in those lakes. Algae are tiny green plants that use phosphorus as they grow. As more detergents get into lakes, the amount of STPP increases. That means there is more phosphorus in a lake and that, in turn, means that algae begin to grow much faster.

In some cases, there is so much STPP and phosphorus in a lake that algae grow out of control, clogging the lake with algae and other green plants. The lake slowly turns into a swamp, and finally into a meadow. The lake disappears!

Many people became concerned about this problem in the 1960s. They demanded that less STPP be used in detergents. A number of cities and states banned the sale of STPP detergents. STPP production had grown rapidly from 1.10 billion pounds in 1955 to 2.44 billion pounds in 1970. But then production began to drop off. By the mid-1990s, production had dropped well below a billion pounds a year.

Interestingly, red phosphorus does not have the same effects. It is considered to be relatively safe. It is dangerous only if it contains white phosphorus mixed with it.