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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鈥檚 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 鈥渂lack box鈥� tester for use in police stations.

Equally important for detectives, the technique also identifies 鈥渆xcipients鈥�,
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. 鈥淧olice might then be
able to spot that drugs in circulation came from the same source, and trace the
source,鈥� Bell says.