Perfil químico del "éxtasis". Derivados anfetamínicos de anillo sustituido en España

Abstract

In the 1990s, the use of "ecstasy", a drug in form of pills that presumably contain MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), has increased in Spain. In parallel, there has been an intense debate about the effects of this "new designer drug", the proximate and long-term health risks associated with its use, and its proper legal status. One of the main debate's issues is the real content (and the purity, adulteration and contamination) of the tablets and capsules sold and acquired as "ecstasy" on a daily basis. In this paper we compare data from the analysis of 89 samples of "ecstasy" obtained in 46 consumption sites throughout tbe country (demand side), with data from the analysis of the main police seizures in the same period (supply side). We found that "ecstasy" tablets in Spain usually contain one of three major types of active substances: Around 80 percent of samples contain one of four ring substituted amphetamine analogs (by order of frequency: MDMA>MDEA>MDA>MBDB); around 10 percent of cases contain mixtures of stimulants such as amphetamine, caffeine and methamphetamine, and the other 10 percent contain a variety of substances, often pharmaceuticals in tablet form that enter the market in the lower stages of distribution. MDMA and MDEA tablets appear to be a carefully made illicit product. Apart from the potential toxicity of those drugs, the adulteration and contamination of pills may pose less risk today than the high variation in the concentration of active principles and the growing number of counterfeit or "look alike" pills consumed as "ecstasy".