Possibility of organising GS testing of pills?

Bringing this up after reading that GS testing isn't a rare occurance in Australia...
Has anyone thought of approaching any hospitals/research centres/etc, and seeing if there was any possibility to have pills GS tested in the interests of HM? I'd be interested to hear any first hand accounts, and if no-one's thought of this (I'm sure someone must have), to see if anyone was interested in trying to organise this? I'm 100% keen to try to get this happening.

With Adelaide University doing a lot of research recently and wanting to more (READ : Privately funded) free scope research then they may be worth approaching. I don't know whether they have GS equipment but it may be worth approaching them.
I have a phsychologist friend who I only recently discovered has contacts within the research group and has himself written several rticles on harm minimisation in the UK before coming to Oz so I may have a quick chat to him.
But note there is a whole raft of legal issues when it comes to testing and the university may find the liability issues surrounding this to be way to high.

Yes this comes up every now and then. I wish we had it here, I wish it was Government funded, I wish for lots of things that realistically should happen and makes sense to happen and everyone says it would be great if it happenes, but just doesn't happen. (Like GC testing... oh and World Peace).
If anyone DOES have access to GC/MS and does know what the hell they are talking about when it comes to using it, let us know!

been trying to make this happen for over 3 years now, and maybe, just maybe, some progress is being made. hopefully more details soon, but remember this is a long, long process, kinda like world peace and of course it is almost entirely a political process, which is at teh whim of public opinion and the changing attitudes of politicians...
[ 20 May 2002: Message edited by: johnboy ]

ahhhhh.... i work with gas chromatographs on a day-to-day basis... but i really can't see my boss as being particularly receptive to the notion of handling/testing illicit substances in his lab. i do know how to use them once they're set up for whatever it is you're looking for - in this case drugs, but the problem is we test for organic compounds (pesticides and volatiles actually) and i would have no idea what column width/polarity, to use, or for that matter purge time or injection temperature. Maybe one day... (i hope) but right now all i think of when i consider any of this is my boss busting in unexpectedly to see me standing there next to one of his $15,000 GC's pulled half apart, column in one hand, autosampler in pieces on the floor, and a fat bag of pills on the desk next to me...

My dad is an assoc prof of analytical chem at uni. He has access to a GC and MS.
Unfortunately, he is a right wing religious c***. So he will never budge on that. Besides, I don't know how the uni would respond to ppls using their gear for testing pills.
[ 20 May 2002: Message edited by: Raving Loony ]

There are a few organisations I've heard of who would be testing tomorrow if laws permitted. A portable GS costs upwards of ~20,000. I checked prices last year with a Uni chem lecturer, who had just attended an analytical conference.
The big problem regarding GC/HPLC/MS etc. testing as I see it, is principally a matter of preparation and handling. If test kits required such intimate handling as does such analyses it may have been stopped long ago. There’s also the accuracy and quantitative assessment which may be seen as condoning in some others eyes, but that another matter.
As for mediums for separation; the CRC book on enantiomers lists suitable mediums for MDMA, when using HPLC separation. The GS parameters and particular signatures are available online I’m pretty sure. I’ve got some papers somewhere. If I can find them I’ll post the address or the journal article.
Good Luck JB. Keep us informed of any headway you make.

I'm not sure if it's still possible... but it was possible in WA a year ago, with no-one available to do the work. ie legal bits, liasing between government officials and pillers, setting up and maintaining a web based interface.
I was asked to do it and didn't have the knowledge or time available. After a short quest to find a suitable person for the job I had to give up due to the pressure of other commitments (mainly work and uni). If anyone is interested in doing all the work I can try get it organised again in 4 weeks time. email me if you wants.

JB, I was referring to testing done by a second party. Thanks for clarifying.

what do we need to do? can u just talk to one of them private labs and ask em to look at pills for ya, would they need a whole pill, what would it cost to test??
there are heaps of labs around, should just talk to a few.

^^^ *sigh* obviously you haven't paid attention to anything , or anyone else, has written.
private labs (or any other labs for that matter)will not test pills for you, as to test a pill you must be in possession of it, which is illegal. the only way around this is for a lab to apply for a permit from the government to be allowed to have illegal substances on site. the government doesn't give out this permits, hence no one can test for you.
the above applies for any testing that is don above ground. sure your mate in the chem lab at uni could test pills for you, and no doubt some people do, but these people are breaking the law, and putting their academic careers at high risk. results from such covert testing is unlikely to be published, nd cannot be verified anyways.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few obstacles to lab testing of illegal substances, in addition to those already mentioned. Some of these are:
- Getting a representative sample
Pharmaceutical drug testing requires a random sample from a large number of the same batch. Quality control of ecstacy is such that you can't be sure that a pill from the start of a run will be the same as one from the end. You would need samples from all round Australia and as we've seen these can vary greatly.
- The implication that they are safe
If it is reported that certain pills contain certain substances, then people may use that information to the detriment of their health. The labs that performed the testing could then be implicated in providing dangerous information. A lot of people would benefit from the knowledge but as there would be no control on how that information is used, there may be problems convincing the powers that be.
- Professionalism
Given the above, some would feel they are doing a half-arsed job. The labs doing the testing could argue that it really isn't that useful due to lack of constinency in the samples.
- A couple of others...
That I can't think of right now. A bit busy.
Possibly a intermediary could be used. Someone who could use the figures to draw their own conclusions, rather than the labs themselves. I'm not sure if this would avoid implicating the testing labs completely but it might help.
Although I can understand these arguments, I still think proper testing would be a good idea. Some disclaimers would be necessary (use this info at your own risk etc.), but at least we would get a much clearer picture of what we are injesting. This would also benifit health workers for obvious reasons.
One suggestion I've heard is to use thin-layer chromatography either at home or by HM groups. I'm assuming this is a more accurate than eztest, but I really don't know.

i agree with the above points but even with all that it's still needed. as for TLC... hmm well it's a pain in the arse to do, even at home, let alone at an event.

For TLC, I was more thinking organisations that already provide information, needle exchanges etc. rather than setting up at events.

You won't get a gas spectrometer at an event either...
BigTrancer

ha. A gas spec at an event. That would be a sight to see. They could put it next to the glowstick stall. I don't know about turn around times for gs testing, but if all the above mentioned obstacles were to be overcome, you could possibly have a mobile gs truck which rocks up to events and does the testing.
As for TLC, well a site I posted a link to in another thread (http://www.protest.force9.co.uk/) sells TLC kits for testing illegal substances:

...you can use this kit to test for many different substances especially if you have a known reference sample to compare with, but just in case you don't we include testing details of the following:
MDA , MDMA, Amphetamine, Methamphetamine , Ephedrine , Phenylethylamine ,Benzphetamine , Phendimetrazine, Chlorophentermine , DMT , DET , Mescaline , PCP , LSD , Lysergamide , Psilocybin , Psilocine , Bufotenine
Looks quite promising.
[ 24 May 2002: Message edited by: johnnyonelove ]

Click to expand...

groups have been using HPLC systems at events. apparently a harm min group in Austria has an HPLC system in a van which they drive around to the nightclub district....
as for TLC yes we've had a play with it and it's just damn fiddly. It takes a lot more practice that a reagent test kit, and frankly we havent had much success with it. I'm sure if we persavered we could get good results, as theGamer used to in England, but right now we're spending more time on lobbying for lab testing.