Overview
Formaldehyde is a flammable gas used in industrial manufacturing and can be dissolved in water as a way to preserve organic samples or specimens in laboratories.
In underground labs, substances like tobacco and marijuana might be combined with embalming fluid, which is a mixture of formaldehyde and methanol. This has the effect of both slowing the burn rate of cigarettes and joints while causing distinct dissociative and psychoactive influences, leading users to believe that they were getting longer and more intense highs. Ivan Spector was among the first researchers to document clinical cases of AMP in 1985, where someone had arrived at a clinic with acute toxicity as a result of soaking marijuana in embalming fluid.