The number of cathinone derivatives available to the street market has increased steadily since 2008. Many of these compounds have proven to be potent psychostimulants and fatalities have occurred through their recreational use. The method of manufacture is essentially the same for each cathinone, i.e., (i) selection of the appropriate β-ketoarylalkane, (ii) bromination alpha to the keto group, followed by (iii) amination using the desired amine. The cathinone derivatives are usually prepared at a very high purity and little information is available from an organic manufacturing by-products profile because the product is so pure. To provide law enforcement agencies with a tool that would enable links to be identified between samples from the same production batch, the carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in a number of cathinones were investigated. The aim was to determine if sufficient diversity existed in the light element stable isotope ratios of cathinones to allow the isotopic ratios to be used to discriminate between different seizures and to assist in linking samples from the same seizure. Careful measurement of the δ(13) C, δ(15) N, and δ(2) H values in each sample revealed that the stable isotope ratios for a particular cathinone analogue vary from one seizure to another. In the seizures studied, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were found to vary from -32.8‰ to -26.1‰, -152‰ to +72‰, and -16.6‰ to -2.7‰, respectively. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Novel methods for synthesising methylamphetamine precursors are appearing in clandestine laboratories within Australia. One such laboratory involved the synthesis of ephedrine from N-methylalanine and benzaldehyde via the Akabori-Momotani reaction. This article presents chiral and stable isotope ratios of ephedrine synthesised via this method, along with a chemical profile of methylamphetamine produced from this ephedrine. Based on the chiral results and the δ C, δ N, and δ H values, it is possible to distinguish ephedrine made via the Akabori-Momotani reaction from ephedrine of a "natural", "semi-synthetic", or "fully-synthetic" origin. Methylamphetamine and ephedrine samples synthesised from benzaldehyde having an enriched δ H value (ie, > 0‰), via the Akabori-Momotani reaction, had an isotopic profile which set them apart from all other methylamphetamine samples. It was noted, however, that using stable isotope ratios alone to determine the precursor of methylamphetamine is limited; they could not with confidence differentiate between methylamphetamine and ephedrine synthesised from benzaldehyde having a depleted δ H value (ie, <0‰) from other ephedrine sources and phenyl-2-propanone based methylamphetamine samples profiled.