LESS AGONY TO FINDING ECSTASY

Source: The Analyst (vol 125, p 541)

FORENSICS experts from Belfast are testing a faster way of detecting the
drug ecstasy in tablets. The new technique can also help identify where a
particular batch of tablets comes from, which should help the police catch
dealers and makers of the drug.

Currently it takes a day or more to identify a suspected ecstasy tablet, as
it has to be crushed, dissolved and then analysed by gas chromatography.
But now chemists at The Queen's University of Belfast can show straight
away whether an intact tablet contains MDMA. They use a technique called
Raman scattering, which measures the spectrum of a laser beam after it has
bounced off the tablet. Steve Bell and his colleagues at the university
have identified the characteristic spectra of up to half-a-dozen variants
of MDMA, which they hope will eventually allow them to develop a "black
box" tester for use in police stations.

Equally important for detectives, the technique also identifies
"excipients", the substances mixed with the active ingredient to bulk out
the tablet. The relative sizes of peaks on the spectra show the proportions
of MDMA and excipient, revealing the unique composition of each batch.
"Police might then be able to spot that drugs in circulation came from the
same source, and trace the source," Bell says.