Drug intelligence based on MDMA tablets data : (2) Physical characteristics profiling

One of the tasks of the project entitled "Collaborative Harmonisation of Methods for Profiling of Amphetamine Type Stimulants" (CHAMP) was to develop a methodology to highlight links between MDMA samples coming from different countries and to detect traffic tendencies, based on physical characteristics of the MDMA tablets. Diameter, thickness, weight and score were demonstrated to be reliable and relevant features in this drug intelligence perspective. Distributions of linked samples (i.e. coming from the same tabletting batch) and unlinked samples (i.e. coming from different tabletting batches) were very well discriminated by using the squared Euclidean or the Manhattan distance on standardised data. Our findings confirmed the hypothesis of the possibility to discriminate between MDMA samples issued form different tabletting batches. Furthermore, as no pattern was found between countries, the hypothesis that most of the MDMA samples found on the international market come from the same countries is supported