Drug intelligence based on MDMA tablets data: I. Organic impurities profiling

The main objectives of the European project “Collaborative Harmonisation of Methods for Profiling of Amphetamine Type Stimulants” (CHAMP) funded by the sixth framework programme of the European Commission, included the harmonisation of MDMA profiling methods and the creation of a common database in a drug intelligence perspective. In the preliminary stages of this project, the participating laboratories analysed the physical characteristics, the chemical composition and the organic impurities of MDMA tablets, using the previously harmonised methods. The aim of the present work was to apply statistical treatments to the recorded data in order to evaluate their potential in the fight against drug trafficking. Comparable working procedures were applied on the different types of data. The first part of this article deals with organic impurities data, while the second part focuses on the potential of the physical characteristics.