A 2005 meth bust put a dealer in prison for the next ten years, but now that he's in there much of his meth lab equipment will be put to good use. None of the glassware ever had a chance to manufacture the drug ice.

It was seized by Federal authorities and now is in the hands of academics.

"It's a piece of glass. How expensive can this be? But yes, its incredibly expensive," said Prof. Thomas Hemscheidt, of the UH Manoa Chemistry Department.

About $20,000 worth equipment will be used by University of Hawaii students, not to make ice, but to study chemistry.

"This is useful in research for preperation of organic compounds," Prof. Hemscheidt said.

But back in 2005, Steven Nichols had a different plan for the beakers. He was planning to cook up pounds of ice at his Mililani home.

"What you see here is about 20 percent of what was seized back in June 2005," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Wayne Wills.

Nichols was keeping $50,000 worth of meth lab equipment in a Makiki storage locker. When it was raided by federal agents, most of it was destroyed. But the Department of Homeland security thought the unused glassware could go to a good cause.

"We are very happy that the FBI and the Government thought of us in this situation," said Interim Dean of Natural Sciences Prof. Thomas Craven.

Prof. Hemscheidt calls it an "unexpected bounty".

"This item here which is a liquid-liquid extractor is a fairly intricate piece of glas ware," Prof. Hemscheidt said. "This would normally set you back in the order of $350."

It is expensive equipment that’s all free, and now being put to use in a classroom, not a drug lab.

In that lab bust, law enforcement also seized detailed instructions on how to make crystal meth, but those were destroyed by Federal agents.

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