Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
The methylamine was just a precursor needed for the manufacture of methamphetamine.
All methylamine has to be synthesized. Pretty much every organic product you come in contact with on a daily basis is synthesized through an industrial process.
Purity, toxicity, and cost are the biggest issues in organic synthesis.
There are a few different processes I know of (I'm sure there are several others) by which you can produce a primary amine, like methylamine: reductive amination and Gabriel Amine Synthesis.
For someone as supposedly gifted as Walt to be unaware of how to perform reductive amination in a controlled environment (he didn't need to worry about it with Gus, but he did elsewhere) was conflict for the sake of conflict in the plot.
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I was always under the impression that it would have been cost prohibitive for Walt and Jesse to synthesize their own methylamine (if memory serves I read an article about this issue a while ago).
Jesse and Walt would have either had to have stolen the chemicals required to synthesize methylamine, or found a way to purchase the industrial quantities of said chemicals without attracting unwelcome attention. In addition, this would have added a step in their overall responsibilities, and there would have been the risk that the quality of the methylamine would not have been up to the standard to the product they received from Lydia or the tanker.
At least to me, it seemed like the long term solution was finding a way to have pre-made methylamine on hand, rather than adding a costly and somewhat risky step to their overall process.