Watch out for "MDPBP"

Watch out for the new "ecstasy" like drug called MDPBP. A chemical dependency counselor in addiction physiology would put heavy warning on this. Ecstasy often goes underestimated in it's harmful effect, so this drug might fly under many's radar of "dangerous drugs". A ban should be coming soon...

"A new "designer" drug related to "ecstasy" (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and methamphetamine has recently been found on sale as bath salts in the USA, although it was first identified on the black market in Germany in 2009. A new study discusses how infrared and NMR spectroscopy were used in conjunction with mass spectrometry to identify the compound as 3,4-methylenedioxypyrrolidinobutyrophenone.

B. Klein and Giselher Fritschi of the Hessian State Criminal Office in Wiesbaden together with Folker Westphal and Thomas Junge of the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, and Ulrich Girreser of the Pharmaceutical Institute at the Christian-Albrechts-University, also in Kiel, Germany, used various techniques to identify the new designer drug. They used one- and two-dimensional proton and carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy and product ion mass spectrometry of the immonium ion with m/z = 112 formed after electron ionization to elucidate the aliphatic part of the compound.

There are countless synthetic compounds marketed illicitly as "legal highs". Their control is a grey area in terms of regulation as the law relies on slow-moving machinery that seemingly cannot keep pace with the synthetic chemistry prowess of those creating new drugs of abuse. Compounds such as "miaow miaow" (mephedrone), a synthetic derivative of the active component in the east African khat plant, for instance, are sold surreptitiously as plant food, incenses, and even bath salts that must be "inhaled very closely" (usually with a straw) to be experienced fully. Of course, many of these compounds have a remarkably close resemblance to compounds, such as ecstasy and methamphetamine, which are controlled substances in many parts of the world.

Chemical dependency counseling

As new substances enter the black market, chemists are quick to identify them and characterize their structure this can provide law enforcement with evidence of criminality. The identification of such compounds can also provide medicine with important clues as to potential problems that might arise following ingestion or inhalation of compounds that are likely to be highly toxic under certain circumstances.

The German team explains how they previously reported the appearance in 2007 of 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a compound that has since reached the global black market. 4'-Methyl-alpha-pyrrolidinohexanophenone and 4'-methyl-alpha-pyrrolidinobutyrophenone were known in 2000 and 2004, respectively, although other members of the chemical group, the alpha-pyrrolidinophenones, have been around since at least 1996. The team explains that the alpha-pyrrolidinophenones are closely related in structure to the central nervous system stimulants, prolintane, cathinone, methcathinone, and other alpha-aminophenones.

One additional interesting point regarding the formulation of the various designer drugs circulating in Germany is that until this latest compound reached the black market, all previously synthesized members of the series had been found as rare nitrate salts of the organic parent compounds. These were allegedly traced to a single criminal chemist in the German State of Hesse. This latest compound is not on the market as the nitrate salt and so the analytical results hint at another source.

Misleading labels

Designer drugs, colloquially and misleadingly known as "herbal highs" are very much a focus of potentially high-yielding criminal activity around the globe, luckily analytical chemists and spectroscopists have the tools to identify and characterize them faster than ever before. This could ultimately help the emergency services, on both the legal and medical sides, in addressing the problem of such drugs."

April 1, 2011
Source:http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/c...&chId=5&page=1

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