A Review of Recent Advances in Impurity Profiling of Illicit MDMA Samples

Abstract

Profiling illicit ecstasy tablets has the potential to become an invaluable tool in the crackdown on drug trafficking, but that potential has yet to be fully realized. The impurity profile of an ecstasy tablet can be used to determine the method employed to synthesize the actual controlled substance, which in most cases, is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Tablets can then be linked to a common synthetic route, potentially to a common manufacturer, and possibly even to a common manufacturing batch, based on the impurities present. Current methods for profiling MDMA tablets typically involve extracting the organic impurities for analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The potential of profiling the trace metals present in tablets has begun to be investigated while more robust statistical and chemometric procedures are being applied to compare and link tablets. This article reviews the recent advances in MDMA impurity profiling from 2002 up to the end of 2006.

Chemical Profile of Ecstasy Tablets – a Review

“…Furthermore, a great number of synthetic routes may be used generating a large number of products, sub-products and contaminants. These contaminants are usually organic substances and result from the secondary reactions in the synthetic route, or from the precursor's contaminations, or even from inefficient purification methods and also may be presents in contaminated packets 9 .…”

“…The organic impurities analysis can be used to help in the linkage of different seizures originated from the same laboratory and, possible, from the same batch of the illicit drug 9 .…”

Isotopic profiling of seized benzylpiperazine and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine tablets using δ13C and δ15N stable isotopes

“…Traditionally, intelligence is established through chemical profiling, such as impurity profiling via combined Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) [1]. Traditional chemical profiling of high profile drugs such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine (MA) has demonstrated the ability to provide information on the synthetic route employed in addition to identifying the precursor chemicals used in a drug's preparation by identifying traces of precursors and by-products [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Graphite furnace atomic absorption elemental analysis of ecstasy tablets

“…Trace metals can be present in ecstasy tablets as a result of leaching of metal from reaction vessels, residues of catalysts and reducing agents, components of dyes and contaminants in the adulterants and cutting agents [18]. Although ICP-MS could be viewed as the method of choice due to its multi-element capabilities compared with FAAS and GFAAS and enhanced sensitivity compared with ICP-AES, it is still less commonly encountered in forensic laboratories than AAS techniques [19].…”