Giusiani M., Cappellini A.

Department of Public Health and Biostatistics, University of Pisa, Via Roma 55, Pisa, Italy

The aim of this work is to study the qualitative and quantitative variability of the amphetaminic hallucinogenic active principles in morphologically similar tablets of "Ecstasy" obtained from different seizures.
Methods. 1) Instruments: a) Gas-Chromatograph Fisons Instruments 8000 Series, Mass detector with electronic impact source MD 800, Pillar OV 1 fused silica column 15 m. Oven temperature from 70 to 250° C: initial isotherm of 2 min, final isotherm of 5 min, temperature gradient of 12° C/min. Duration of the stroke: 22 min. b) HPLC Perkin Elmer, Diode Array 235, Binary LC Pump 250, UV set at 255 nm, Pillar ODS C18 column Lichrosorb 10 µm 15 cm, loop of 20 µl, mobile phase: H₂0 with 1% of orthophosphoric acid and 1% of triethylamine, methanol (65:35). 2) Samples. tablets n. 15988 classified on the base of their morphology, size, weight, quality and quantity of active principle.
Results. The tablets with an identification mark have always amphetaminic active principles even if in various quantity and quality in relation to different seizures. The not-marked tablets may have other pharmacologic active principles or only excipients. Consequently, only 88.83% of confiscated tablets contain amphetaminic active principles considered illegal, while the 7.76% contain medical drugs or other active principles and 3.41% contain no active principle. The study of the variability of the tablets weights and their content of the active principle shows that the clandestine preparations of "Ecstasy" tablets aren't statistically different in weight among them even if contain different active principles (X_MDMA=263,4 mg CV%_MDMA=15% X_MDE=276,6 mg CV_MDE=16.04 - t=1,35). Instead, the difference quantity of MDMA (X_MDMA=61,8 mg/cps) and MDE X_MDE=40,8mg/cps) is statistically significant (p<0.001) but the high CV% (CV%_MDMA=43,27% CV%_MDE=34,17%) shows that quantity for each active principle is extremely variable.
Conclusions. The most important result of this study is that every morphologic type of tablet, even if it represents sometimes an active principle, sometimes another, is composed of only one active principle that is identified with certainty. From data at our disposition, we besides verified that the same morphologic tablets, but coming from different seizures, can be variously homogeneous (for quality and quantity of active principle), showing that the clandestine laboratories can produce with the same identification mark, tablets which have active principles at variable dosages.