<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>32</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Marie-Arlette Pollet</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Eric Deconinck</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Michael Canfyn</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">THE ANALYSIS OF ILLICIT DRUGS COLLECTED DURING A SUMMER FESTIVAL AND EVALUATION OF THE NARCOREADER FOR ON-SITE ANALYSIS OF MDMA</style></title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Amphetamine</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Cocaine</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">COVID-19</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">GC-FID</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">GC-MS</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">identification</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">ketamine</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">MDMA</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">mid-IR</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Narcoreader</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">near-IR</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">On-site</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Quantification</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">RAMAN</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">UV spectroscopy</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2023</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">26/05/2023</style></date></pub-dates></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">VUB</style></publisher><pub-location><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Brussels, Belgium</style></pub-location><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">64</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">&lt;p&gt;Background: The most used on-site methods to identify illicit drugs consist of color tests&lt;br&gt;
or spectroscopic methods with as a downside the lack of accuracy and selectivity. The law&lt;br&gt;
still requires confirmation of these results with chromatographic methods. These&lt;br&gt;
conventional methods are precise but time-consuming and of high cost. There is a need&lt;br&gt;
for more rapid and still accurate analysis, with cost-effective and portable methods.&lt;br&gt;
Aim: As the first goal of this study, a selection of drug samples is analysed and the results&lt;br&gt;
are compared with statistics from Belgium and Europe for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.&lt;br&gt;
This is to portray the possible influence of COVID-19 on drugs. Secondly, the suspected&lt;br&gt;
MDMA samples are analysed with four alternative techniques. The pros and cons are&lt;br&gt;
compared of these alternative methods for on-site use by non-experts.&lt;br&gt;
Methods: The samples are identified with GC-MS and quantified with UV-spectroscopy.&lt;br&gt;
The obtained results are compared with statistics from the statistical bulletin and the&lt;br&gt;
European Drug Report. The suspected MDMA samples are identified with mid-IR, near-IR,&lt;br&gt;
Raman spectroscopy and the Narcoreader. The results of these four alternative devices are&lt;br&gt;
compared with the conventional methods.&lt;br&gt;
Results: The MDMA dosage in tablets and the MDMA purity in crystals followed an&lt;br&gt;
increasing trend in Belgium. The purity of cocaine stays quite stable in Belgium. The purity&lt;br&gt;
of amphetamine showed fluctuations in Belgium, with an important increase in median&lt;br&gt;
purity in 2022. After weighing the pros and cons of the alternative methods, the mid-IR&lt;br&gt;
device had all over the best results and could be far more attractive for on-site use in its&lt;br&gt;
already existing portable format. The Narcoreader had also good results and&lt;br&gt;
characteristics. It is portable, user-friendly, fast and precise.&lt;br&gt;
Conclusion: The comparison of the statistics is not representative due to the lack of&lt;br&gt;
statistics and sampling in different sources. It is interesting to portray how the pandemic&lt;br&gt;
could influence the purities and dosages of illicit drugs, although the correlation cannot be&lt;br&gt;
assured. The search for an ideal portable device for on-site identification should include&lt;br&gt;
more recent and portable spectroscopic devices to make a fair match with the novel&lt;br&gt;
Narcoreader.&lt;/p&gt;
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