How to professionally ask and find a domestic substance-identification lab?

[Madrus]

It's possible, surely, but without knowing the scientific lingo and vernacular, it's hard for me to get very far.

Furthermore, these labs may not be comfortable with working with illegal drugs.

I'm in an Asian country, where the labs are many and the laws are lax, so what do you think? Someone may be able to do it privately, under the table...
Any recommendations as to how to ask, how to approach this, what specifically to ask for?
Do I need to ask for GCMS, LCMS, FTIR, HPLC?

Ideally I would have results such as: Cocaine 75%; Caffeine 15%; Baking soda 10%

So what kinds of tests will I need to look for?

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Are you looking for a lab in a specific country?

Drugsdata.org is an American lab that will anonymously GC/MS any sample for $100. They specifically work with illegal substances. It operates within the law, is safe, and they destroy the sample after testing.

They provide a ratio of what is in the sample as you require. I don't think they list non-psychoactives, though, such as baking soda (they do not report purity, only a ratio of active chemicals).

They take international samples, and according to their FAQ there is never a problem with customs seizing the mail.

As for finding a lab in your own country I'm not sure.

 

[Skorpio]

GC/MS or LC/MS would be best (and I'm more familiar with them compared to ftir full disclosure).

The C in all of these abbreviations is chromatography, which is a process of separating molecules from a mix based on some property (charge/size/hydrophobicity). I tend to see liquid chromatography used for drugs more often, I think this is often due to the fact that it works pretty damn well and many drugs are soluble salts.

HPLC would get you the best separation, but unless it is coupled to some other downstream assay it won't tell you what the peaks you are seeing are.

MS coupled methods fragment each separated component of a mixture into molecular chunks that can be assigned to different parts of a molecule. These are usually just compared to reference runs of different molecules, but MS spectra can theoretically be used to determine a novel structure (though I'd be surprised if most labs would do this without being asked/paid more).

If you were trying to validate a compound you had synthesized or you expect to be cut with rare RCs I'd say insist on ME (or NMR if you can show that your compound is pure).

I'm pretty sure ftir is something cops use because it's easy. It's not something I'm super familiar with so you are going to have to get perspectives elsewhere.

LC/MS (or GC/MS) are the gold standard in the organic chemistry literature when a group is validating a compound that they have synthesized.

 

[Madrus]

Well at least I know what to ask for. Some type of mass spectrometry.
I guess it's just going to be a slow process of talking to each individual lab I can find with basic google searches.

 

[Joey]

I don't know if they'll take an assessment from Asia, but in Canada we have getyourdrugstested.com in Vancouver. I don't see why they wouldn't privately if you explain your situation. Send in 10mg of your subtance with no return address to Asia but a letter in English with your e-mail and an explanation is how I'd frame it.

 

[Madrus]

Thanks Joey.
That Canadian service is affordable, but also it's only FTIR, which doesn't give a lot of fine resolution - though for basic identification, it's good.

 

[Fertile]

GCMS combined with NMR is the usual way we tested stuff. We just sent it to a lab, they sent back results. I don't think THEY know what it is; or care. They just provide instrumental analysis.

 

[plumbus-nine]

There's Energy Control in Spain which takes international samples and afaik it costs 50 EUR per analysis. Don't know which technology they're using and which data providing but in the EU they're among the best.

 

[Fertile]

For 50 EUR it's not going to be anything definitive.

I used to get 2 images. The first was GC/MS so I could see the MW of each thing IN the mixture.

Then I got the NMR of the predominant compound. From that it's possible to elucidate structure....

Unless some smart-arse swaps all of the H atoms for D (which has been done).