Inspection and analysis of mixed drugs recently seized in China

• Recently a new type of mixed drug oral solution has become prevalent in China.
• Inspection was carried with the adoption of GC–MS for qualitative identification and GC–FID for quantitative identification.
• Methamphetamine, MDMA and ketamine were primary substances detected in most samples.
• Precursor chemicals (China) and other medicines, even few new psychoactive substances were also detected.

Recently a new type of mixed drug oral solution has become prevalent in China, the identification and quantitative inspection of which are demanded in conviction and sentencing as well as drug intelligence. In 2013, inspection was carried out on 86 bottles of substances seized in 13 cases with the adoption of GC–MS methodology for qualitative identification and GC–FID for quantitative identification. 94.1% of the samples were light yellow turbid liquid while 95.3% were detected with more than two drugs. Detection rate of methamphetamine, MDMA and ketamine was up to 89.5%, 37.2% and 83.7% respectively. Quantitative inspection results indicated that concentrations of methamphetamine, MDMA, ketamine were 0.04–13 mg/mL, 0.04–29 mg/mL and 0.1–34 mg/mL, respectively. Appearance, composition and drug concentration of samples vary from case to case.

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