Color Tests for the Preliminary Identification of New Psychoactive Substances

Kaitlyn Toole; Morgan Philp; Nadine Krayem; Shanlin Fu; Ronald Shimmon; Sonia Taflaga

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8579-1_1

Color Tests for the Preliminary Identification of New Psychoactive Substances

Methods Mol Biol. 2018:1810:1-11. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8579-1_1.

Authors

Kaitlyn Toole¹, Morgan Philp², Nadine Krayem², Shanlin Fu², Ronald Shimmon², Sonia Taflaga³

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Forensic Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, NSW, Australia. kaitlyn.toole@ansto.gov.au.
² Centre for Forensic Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ Australian Federal Police, Specialist Operations, Canberra, Australia.

PMID: 29974413
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8579-1_1

Abstract

Color tests are a key tool for the rapid and simple identification of seized illicit drugs. This chapter outlines a series of color tests that can be used for the preliminary identification of new psychoactive substances such as cathinones, piperazines, tryptamines, and amphetamine-type stimulants.

Keywords: Cathinones; Color test; Illicit drugs; NPS; New psychoactive substances; Novel psychoactive substances; Piperazines; Preliminary test; Presumptive test; Tryptamines.

MeSH terms

Amphetamines / analysis
Amphetamines / chemistry
Colorimetry* / methods
Humans
Illicit Drugs / analysis*
Illicit Drugs / chemistry*
Molecular Structure
Substance Abuse Detection* / methods

Substances

Amphetamines
Illicit Drugs