Illegal no. What can and is done is to imply and use it as evidence that you were up to no good and to prove other materials you possessed, which may in fact be perfectly normal, and may have had no illegal use intent, were in fact for illegal use. It is your word against theirs, and you don't even get to be part of the press briefing, so it is just their word until later.
Herrwalther said:
Constructive Possession doesn't start until you start getting rubber suits, respirators, bulk bags of gloves, and chemicals.
The meth production is a great example as you may in fact already have most ingredients or all ingredients in a home. If you commonly do DIY projects you should in fact already have that type of stuff. Bulk bag of gloves and respirators are pretty much common in any shop or decent equipped project area as you use them to paint, clean things with solvents, and otherwise handle caustic chemicals for a variety of projects. A rubber suit may be less common but also useful for a lot of things from working on a septic system, to handling caustic chemicals. Ever cleaned concrete with acid?
Most of the chemicals are also owned. The one thing rarer because of restrictions is pseudoephedrine which was once sold in giant tubs and other bulk packaging as a diet aid into the early 2000s.
In fact related to that is ephedrine actually really does stop stuffy noses and allergies well, and better than anything else over the counter with no drowsiness as it is a stimulant, while the replacement most reformulated with since restrictions has been proven to be no more effective than placebo. The ephedrine really works, the stuff it was replaced with does not. Yet you better believe I don't like the idea of signing my name and address for purchases of ephedrine per the law, and so don't get what would actually work best for treating my ailment. So even though perfectly legal, there is risk to even purchasing what is best at relieving your cold.
So what you think is foreign is in fact something someone that does their own projects routinely has. Which just goes to show how readily Herrwalther would be convinced as a juror. Many other people will be similar.
If someone is raided law enforcement will gather those materials from different areas of the home, place them together, and take pictures of them, which causes the normal viewer to associate them together for what the law enforcement is saying they were meant for.
If you also have literature describing how to misuse those materials you may have just sealed the deal for a jury.
Likewise you may have plumbing or irrigation parts, reloading components, etc if you also have literature on building bombs, and all of that stuff is rounded up, put next to each other, and pictures are taken, you may find yourself facing an uphill battle, when all you thought you had was literature protected by your freedom of speech.
In fact I know many people that have made target stands out of plumbing both pvc and metal, which will often be kept with the other firearm related stuff. The benefit being you can disassemble the target stand by unscrewing the pipes at which point it is just pipes and end caps with some elbows. The metal plumbing actually holds up better to shotgun pellets and other stray minor projectiles.
As someone that enjoyed chemistry and also appreciated the proper materials to move or handle things, I had to come to the conclusion that having beakers, test tubes, and various other things for the occasional time I want to do something was not worth it precisely because the average idiot juror made up of the average idiot population, supported by the average law enforcement that exaggerates and has most of their experience with the worst elements of society, would easily convict me of having a meth lab or whatever other scary thing they were claiming.
So I don't own that stuff because the only chemistry law enforcement knows is 'drug lab'.
The average person cannot relate to having those materials, and therefore will be easily persuaded that your possession of them is already suspect.
It was once normal to have the tools to tackle most things that may come up.
As we as a society have less and less people in the population used to actually doing things with their hands and making, building, or maintaining things, and instead always hires a 'professional' to do all those things how odd it is to have a variety of things may increase and the percent of the population that can relate to having them decrease.
That is what is happening, especially since most people get an education and train in one field, and spend most hours of most days using that specific skill and are nowhere near as well rounded or informed and experienced about unrelated things as in prior generations. People become experts in one thing, and remain naive to most other aspects of the world.
Specialization combined with on demand endless digital entertainment that fills in most time slots not already busy when off the clock seems to be creating a population that primarily knows only one thing well, and pays others to do anything not related to the one thing that they know well. (Which of course is better for the economy and government as money changes hands and is taxed!)
Law enforcement may have hours or days to go through all your stuff and gather little materials here and there to then claim they were all possessed for a sinister reason. If you have literature describing doing something bad their expert can then find all the components and claim that you possessed said illegal object just by having all the components, and even if you don't have them all may find yourself surprised by the 'expert' that improvises some other object from something you own and gives the impression that is what you owned it for too.
So illegal? No not technically, but may still be central to convicting you of something illegal whether you were up to no good or not.
Believing you can only be convicted if you are actually up to no good, rather than just appearing to be up to no good to a judge and jury through 'expert' testimony of law enforcement is where your fallacy begins.
Additionally even if not convicted by it, having it presented my bias a jury against you on other charges that you may have beaten but by looking like a shady guy that builds dangerous things they are more inclined to find you guilty of something else. It damages your character and makes it look like you are less upstanding. They don't want to just let the crazy gun nut found with an arsenal of weapons off that seems like he builds machineguns per the law enforcement report for example.
It can also play a role in how other charges are pursued, what may be tried under a misdemeanor or a felony or may receive a wide range of punishments from minor to severe is more likely to be punished severely. They throw the book at you, even if for unrelated charges because even if not proven you seem extra dangerous and scary because they have the belief you make machineguns or law enforcement just barely stopped you from that intent.
