Get one of these babies for less than the price of 2 grams!

These were sold in the 70s and 80s, and still show up on auction sites. Here's a photo of a real one.

$180 in Gerald Ford money is insane...

Like with all the other advancements, it's crazy to think something as basic as this was $180 back then, even after adding the "it's for drugs" premium.

Like, it's just a tiny hotplate with a digital display. Technically it's a "scientific instrument" but so is a spray bottle if it's in a lab

Taking 1975 as a base, it'd be over $1100 in 2026 USD.

They knew their audience. These were exclusively marketed to well-to-do yuppie types. You know, the kind that could afford coke in the first place.

Damn, so a gram was like $550 back then (in 2026 dollars)?!

No wonder crack was such a big deal, no one would spend enough on coke to try it.

Which really lays a lot more of the blame not just for America's drug epidemic but even just the existence of modern cartels at the feet of the CIA, since they're the ones who started the crack epidemic.

That allowed cartels to scale up and be able to import to the point where a gram was less than $100 even if it melts at 208.

Edit:

Just shocked cocaine is apparently one of the most inflation resistant consumable products...

So about the price of a Steam Frame?

I'm dead 😵 I thought it was a therman, but the truth is sooooo much better!

Bonus fact: When I saw the MP test in Blow? I thought it was fake because I didn't know that much about analytical chemistry at the time. It's not.

Man I love the 70's wood aesthetic. When is that going to make a comeback?

Theremin?

This is insane. Did OP find it in High Times magazine?

If you are spending on keys, its a no-brainer.

As a swede reading Höt böx 🤣😂🤣😂

What is it?

According to one of the auction house listings I encountered, it tests the purity of... you know... powdered substances ... by measuring the melting points of various ingredients.

So that you can make sure your all purpose baking flour is pure, I assume.

It looks pretty weird even for someone who speaks zero languages using that diacritical.

... certain crystalline materials

"It's a theremin, officer! I swear!"

This clip was the first thing that came to my mind, and looking at their device it looks like the exact same one shown here.

https://youtu.be/2biQuiMgmnk

Where’s the digital display? Isn’t it just a mercury thermometer?

That's even crazier, I kind of assumed you just couldn't see it without being lit up and that glass stick was some kind of stir stick.

But you're right, it's a mercury thermometer you plug in.

The price is even more wild.

Theremin!!!

Oh yeah, totally! Didn't even realize that. Also forgot that was Bobcat :-)

And the thermometer, son?

Oh yeah well it's got an analog oscillator so you need that properly calibrated for it to track a full octave...

And I suppose all this white powder is thermometer polish?

Gulp... mummmhum.

Junkies gonna junk.

LOL... looks like I misspelled it. If you're a fan of Star Trek TOS, or honestly most vintage Scifi it's the warbeling noise you hear in the soundtrack.

A type of synth that you played by moving your hands in relation to a metal antenna.

That's it! Thanks for catching that.

And PeeWee!

When you're done eating your microplastics.

... who looks, to me, weirdly like a younger Dustin Hoffman.

Don't be ignorant. Responsible users always test their recreational drugs before using them. Junkies just take whatever without using a testing kit. That's just stupid and irresponsible, especially today. Fentanyl is cheap and abundant, so shitty dealers put it in everything to make it stronger, even stimulants like cocaine.

So don't be a junkie. Test your drugs.

There is no such thing as responsible drug use. So gtfo with that apologist rhetoric.

Ah you have all surgery performed awake?

How fucking ignorant. I’m not even entering that dumb shit.

Melting point is a range, not a single temperatures. Very small amounts of fentanyl aren't going to change that range enough to really register. You would need to use another test, probably a chemical reagent, to check for fentanyl. Or send your drugs out to be tested by high-pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

I have an actual melting point apparatus, Thermo Scientific, IIRC. You need to use capillary tubes for your samples (very, very small amounts). You also need to check the calibration occasionally against known substances. I do recall something testing very far out of range - like 20C or something - because the sample wasn't properly dehydrated first. I don't recall if I ever got around to doing that and re-testing or not.

Point is, this isn't really a very accurate way of checking your melting point.

And MP alone doesn't give you a ton of information. Lots of things can melt in the same range.

Yes but you can nod your head, smile and say, bueno, bueno, puro.

Hey, you're the one who made the ignorant statement that there is no responsible drug use. What's ignorant is you deciding that some drugs are acceptable while others aren't just because you don't like them. Drugs are drugs are drugs. Just because some of them make you feel good, doesn't inherently make the use of them irresponsible. Most drugs—recreational or otherwise—will kill you if you take enough of it. You've been letting the fear mongerers brainwash you. Stop listening to them.

Don't forget to take your meds before you comment again.

Then there's the complication that if your sample isn't pure and the impurity has a lower melting point than the substance you're testing for, once the impurity goes into the liquid phase it is likely to dissolve the other substances.

So I'm not sure how they would substantiate the claim that you can use melting point measurements to discern and even quantify impurities.

“take yOuR mEdS…”

Ffs… grow up. I don’t play what about games with kids. You know damn well I’m not talking about legal medicinal drugs.

Defend junkies all you want. But I think they’re fucking deplorable.

The saddest part is that some much of the know-how for how to make something like that box consistently every time is pretty much gone, at least for a reasonable price. You need a robot to make that box now.

Okay fine that part was unnecessary, but you need to actually read what I said. I provided a counter-argument, you ignored it entirely, and then focused on the insult and not my actual point. And then you just repeated the same argument again. I heard you.

So I apologize for the dig, but you need to address my response. Please, let's have a real debate.

There is no debate. Recreational drug use is is not a thing. It’s a hand-wave. It’s apoligia.

Well then we're done here, because it's clear to me that you won't listen to any sort of logic or reason.

You are beyond brainwashed, my friend. There is no helping you. You are going to believe what you want to believe, no matter what I say. And that really upsets and disappoints me.

I mean I can't even begin to imagine living a life being as stubborn in my beliefs as you are. You poor thing; you must be miserable seeing other people do things that you can't stand to see, because you refuse to open your mind and listen to their side of the argument.

I pity you, I really do. I hope that one day you will see the errors in your thought process, and start having more productive conversations with people you disagree with, so that you can have a less narrow-minded perspective of how the world works.

Best of luck to you, my fellow human.

We never started here. Didn’t read the rest.

God it must suck to be this stubborn. You poor thing, you must be miserable all the time.

Blocked. Support junkies elsewhere

Way ahead of you, buddy.

That box isn't complicated to make, modern things don't come in nice wooden boxes because of cost, not lack of knowledge.

Hoot boox.

So you consider any amount of drug use to be irresponsible? Someone who has one or two drinks is just as irresponsible as someone who gets blackout drunk? Even if you don't consider alcohol to be a drug, surely this logic applies to other recreational psychoactive substances, no?

Any kind of drug that is done by junkies. Yes. I don’t recall booze being a junkie’s fix. But please, if you have any more whatabout examples, fire away!