A DIY Crystal Meth Cook Was Arrested After Almost Passing Out from the Fumes

After the Great British Bake Off aired there was an 881 percent surge in sales of baking trays. By the final series of Mad Men, Lucky Strike were selling 10 billion more packs a year than they had been when the show started.

Now, crystal meth, the deadly narcotic that's really bad for your complexion, could be the latest hot new trend to come the UK, as people catch up on box sets of hit TV show Breaking Bad. A recent Home Office survey would seem to confirm this, suggesting that usage of crystal meth has been on the rise in the UK, with 25,000 estimated users in 2015 compared to 17,000 the year before.

So far, however, the show is yet to have its "Rachel" moment—where fans try to copy the style and look of one of the lead characters. That may change soon, after news emerged today of a DIY crystal meth cook in Wakefield, West Yorkshire who almost blacked out from the toxic fumes produced as he cooked up a batch of methamphetamine in his kitchen, in scenes reminiscent of the show's first season.

According to the Yorkshire Post, Lee Clark, 42, had a flat filled with items usually associated with the "Shake and Bake" method of cooking meth, including face masks, batteries, rubber gloves, sulphuric acid, and drain cleaner. Officers were alerted to his plight when they saw massive billows of white smoke coming from the windows of his apartment.

He was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to attempting to produce a class A substance and possessing a class B drug with intent to supply.

Lee isn't the only one jumping on the Breaking Badwagon. Last year we spoke to a girl who found a big bag of meth in her backpack, and back in 2013 there was a large bust in Weston-super-Mare involving five men who were arrested in labs containing all the ingredients necessary for the production of methamphetamine.

One of the main reasons that meth production and consumption is so unpopular in the UK—relative to America or Australia, at least—is because the chemicals needed to produce the drug are not as readily available as elsewhere. But trendsetters like Lee could soon be changing all that!