In the same manner anyone can learn how to cook a fancy meal, anyone can be taught to cook meth regardless of chemistry education-cooking meth may be just a little more explosive. When it comes to making meth, the difference between cooking and synthesis should be acknowledged. Many believe the first clandestine labs originated in the California bay area from this environment around 1962. This supply began to wither in the 1960s as law enforcement prosecuted over-prescribing doctors and placed pressure on pharmaceutical companies to withdraw certain products. By the 1950s stimulants became a regular part of the American routine, and a flourishing black-market in diverted pharmaceuticals soon developed. Meth's psychostimulant effect does not seem to have been noticed until the mid-30s when Friedrich Hauschild discovered it at the Berlin based pharmaceutical company Temmler. N-methyl-1-phenylpropan-2-amine or methamphetamine was first synthesized from the naturally occurring alkaloid ephedrine by Japanese chemist Nagai Nagayoshi in 1893 while researching the structure of ephedrine.