My cousin got hold of a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook in college and promptly tried to make drugs out of banana peels. Since the recipe called for a huge number of peels, she and her roommate started hitting up the back rooms of every produce section in town, collecting their over-ripe bananas for free.
Problem was, the girls only had so much space in their small apartment to dry all these banana peels, so they had them everywhere - the furniture, the doorframes, the curtain rods....
One day the roommate's mother comes to visit unexpectedly, sees the banana peels covering every available surface and is decidedly suspicious. The girls had quite a time convincing her that it was a "chemistry experiment" for one of their classes.
They did eventually complete the process, but said the drug didn't do much. They figured their unorthodox drying method had affected the final product.