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What is wrong with the MDMA available today?

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11125

Perfect reactions on Marquis, Mecke, Mandelin, & Simons.

Note that on Marquis the result was distinctly PURPLE to black, and not straight to black.

Pic looks too pink. That is a white piece of paper in the back.
 
@indigoaura hello again. That sounds promising for this batch. I do hope the experience is much more positive. And it would be a bugger in such a case if you cant get any more.

Ive no personal experience with the DW. I have intended to school and indoctrinate myself on the whole procedure but I have significant cognitive impairments due to an optic nerve injury and general illness and I struggle to learn and read and concentrate to understand new things.

It causes me the most extreme anxiety trying to grapple with the most simple tasks anything technical or computerized especially and Bitcoin has been very intimidating to me so far I don't even have any ID and that would seem to be a complicated process with no passport etc.

I may have saved myself the immediate need for learning these ropes by acquiring a sheet of acid elsewhere for a great price, plus some nn DMT for the first time ever, with the option of also getting some 5 Meo DMT, which is said to be very intense but hugely healing and rejuvenating.

So Im excited for those compounds. The issue with the trips for me is the commitment and longevity. Something I always valued about it in the past but in my current physical condition I just can't even consider embarking upon a trip right now.

If I even anticipate planning it for any such day I experienced really extreme anxiety about managing to actually eat some food beforehand that day at a sensible time and manage my respiratory symptoms, and have some energy left to even stand up let alone take acid lol.

And I have had the most god awful digestive and stomach upset permanently for so many months on end never feeling the tiniest bit comfortable and ok due to allergy and food complications etc. It's been really intense and extreme suffering 24/7 for quite a long spell now stuck in a real rut.

So the DMT makes sense for me to get that type of visionary and releasing experience I am in need of hopefully without it being such a commitment and a much more flexible and less anxious affair regarding planning and aftermath etc.


Anyway, on topic here: I forgot about yet one other surefire indicator people would use back in the day of old school MDMA pills to identify them as legitimate and powerful, was to touch the pill on your tongue briefly and if it was a really good MDMA pill you would feel an instant Fizz and tingle on your tongue which was so blatant and noticeable.

It would let you know instantly that you had proper quality in an unmistakable fashion.

I have actually known people to sell their product this way walking around festivals touching it on ones tongue. At the 2000 UK brogborough exodus Festival the first pill I bought there on the first night was a "Shooter", I think it had some stars on it but some type of gun or cannon or something as well.

A young man I knew came abruptly and arrogantly up to me holding out this pill to my mouth saying only "touch".
I have not purchased any ecstasy at that festival by that point it was still early and I hadn't endeavoured or planned to by then although I'm sure it was always inevitable- I wasn't originally planning to attend the festival but ended up travelling there with a friend at the last moment on a Friday night but I started with acid that first night.

Anyway as soon as this shooter pill touched my tongue there was that immediate and unmistakable Fizz and I bought it straight away and it proved to be an exceptional e tablet.

I only took that one pill and two types of acids on the first night plus the most incredible ganja in the world back then at that place.

I already mentioned the white Rolexes above which I double drops twice half an hour parts on the second night after another two tabs of acid.

On the 3rd night I took 5 White Armani pills which were again the absolute best of the best of the best simply amazing plus an MDMA capsule.

So all 10 of those ecstasy pills were the top of the world standard, all really strongly smelly of safrole and with that fizz.

My Bowsers- I clumsily got a tiny spots of water onto one of them and it immediately started crumbling up and reacting a little bit on the surface.
They are very crumbly pills which is a good sign I think but since then the integrity of the outer layer of the pill is compromised and it is crumbling if touched or moved around so I'm keeping it still in a tin until the day.

But I did actually dab up a few crumbs onto my tongue last night.I didn't notice any such fizz or taste or reaction but it was only a very small amount.

Bizarrely I did feel like I experienced some mental effects from that tiny dab which sounds preposterous but I do believe in substances and matter having energy and being able to have an effect on the energetic level which can be noticeable despite being incredibly subtle.

I have experienced a lot of energy Healing in the past and worked with energy healers who could see energy and believed strongly in placing objects at various points on the outside of the body to absorb and utilise their power and energy for healing purposes without having to consume them.

This one particular man could genuinely see energy and was fascinated experimenting with various healing methods in this way.
One of his theories was that you could get the power of a pill by putting it on your forehead.

Anyway, I dont expect my Bowser pills to produce this fizzing effect. Given how crumbly they are I do not want to test it with my tongue on the pill because I'm sure it will begin to disintegrate if I do that.

But I'm curious if any of you remember experiencing this phenomenon in the past with old school pills or MDMA? The tongue fizzing?

And if you have tested any modern pills/MDMA this way?
 
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My first E was Tunnel 1998 in NYC, age 15. I had an amazing time for a few years(twilo, SF/Pacha, reopened limelight, Exit, hosts of smaller clubs, etc). Rarely was it a letdown. It was the whole experience- music, friends, lights, crowd, and the 'forbidden' aspect of it all. But if I could do it again I would have waited until after college. I got into some bad scenes with harder stuff.

I haven't done mdma in over a decade and couldn't really conceive of seeking it out now. Wouldn't be the same, no matter the purity. In whole I just wouldn't enjoy it- although I would consider ketamine again.
 
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Indigo congrats!.. You just sourced what you’ve been looking for! That’s very pure product and if your gonna roll good I suspect that’s the shit that’ll do it for you. If you don’t on that stuff, I’d write it off as tolerance.

Take 130-140mg (initial dose, 50-60mg booster dose) though just to be safe. I have a feeling you need a bit more than average based on your past experience.

-GC
 
I think this is a great opportunity to test the "purple to black" vs. "black" marquis response. Everything else I have had my hands on in recent years has gone to black instantly, and it has not had that distinct change from purple to black.

I would have to go through my notes, but I think I have tried 135 mg to start on previous products. If this is super potent though, going higher than 135 could be a bit much. What do you think G-Chem? I'm abt 5' 2" and weigh around 130.
 
^^^Oh really? Interesting.. I’m excited then too! Due to that color change compared to all the past I have high hopes.

I’d say go with 130mg plus 60-70mg like hour and a half in. It may be a bit intense if your past stuff has truly been impure but nothing I don’t think you can’t handle based on past experience. I also feel some of the lackluster product may possibly have raised your tolerance a bit despite not getting you quite there.

I’d also give 3-5 months between your last try. And maybe try a few things that are supposed to help with tolerance. NAC and Magnesium l-threonate are said to help restore one to that old feeling. I’d use these up until like a week before your roll then stop.

You can never be too careful when it comes to ensuring a good roll ;)

Excited though, that stuff looks very similar to a lot of the best batches I’ve had. Notice how the upper right crystal has that peak like the tip of a piece of quartz (if I’m seeing that right.) Then overall you can see some nice flat edges and great clarity. I know the pain of trying to get a good shot, I tried before but was near impossible to show with the camera I have.

When you plan on trying it?

-GC
 
Honestly, my Iphone does better pics, but I do not feel comfortable using my Iphone for this type of stuff. My camera does weird things with the color balance, despite my best efforts. I tried to film the marquis response, but the detail of the color reaction was completely lost.

Last time I rolled was NYE. So, I am 4 months out from that experience. I have been taking NAC for awhile now, but not every day. I take magnesium daily.

I have a concert coming up that I was thinking about rolling for, but I don't know if I want to try this stuff at a concert. If I am floored, both the concert and the roll may be a wash. I'll just stand around feeling dumbstruck and won't remember what songs they played. LOL. That is coming up week after next. If not then, maybe over Memorial Day weekend? Otherwise, it would be into June. I kind of want to try it so I know if I should try to track down more somehow.
 
^^^Thats true but this thread is about product which tests as MDMA both via chemical reagents and lab analysis.


@Indigo- Same here, I’m not to trusting of taking pics on my phone neither.

Perfect on supplements and time. You could probably roll whenever at this point.

Haha yea the show may be a blast but indeed good MDMA can make it all seem like a blur. If your one to like to remember the show I’d either take less or wait.

Honestly if you wanna test the waters at a show, do like 110mg plus a 50mg booster. That’ll probably be the perfect amount to get you feeling good but also not too floored to remember things lol.

What show? Or genre of music at least?

I just rolled like two weeks ago and I’ve been doing so much better mentally and motivation wise since then. It blows my mind just how beneficial this stuff can be. Sure I felt down for a day or two after but that quickly fades and I’m left feeling like I got a reset on life.

-GC
 
Good evening all. Okay Im just testing posting images from my device, havent tried yet. So here are my Dutch Bowsers. Below you can see where I got a teeney driplet of water on one (don't ask lol) and it immediately compromised the integrity of the surface. But in the sunlight, if you zoom in on it I think you can see the presence of crystal by the reflection. Although to be fair the effect doesnt show here like it does on my camera app. Really sparkly, rainbow like reflections.
1115711158
I am babying it now lol as it crumbles easily on both sides.
I am excited to try them. I wasnt going to get my hopes up for a scinitillating, soul-chilling experience, just accept it with no expectations or particular hopes.

100% open to whatever type of experience it provides however great or small good or bad, no preconceptions or grounds for disappointment.

However, I spoke to a younger friend yesterday (about 32), he started taking ecstasy in 2003. From 2003 to early 2005, the quality and strength of the ecstasy pills around Bedfordshire UK was really quite good and especially so in 2004 and early 2005.

Playstations emerged in 2004. Very strong and clean and quite trippy as well. I would guess from my experience that they were a good 120mg upwards consistently.

And then even better were the Heineken stars. They were the best and strongest pills I took over several years at the time. I took 7 at one rave, plus 5 Hearts (prob about 80 mg but clean), after taking the whole gram of really wonderful MDMA crystal the previous night.

Those Heineken stars were exceptionally strong. They must have been at least 130 mg. Altogether over 2 nights, practically 2.5 grams of MDMA, several grams of ketamine plus acid. I was off my face for the weekend until tuesday but generally fine, no recollection of a bad comedown just some midweek fatigue and lack of motivation then back to normal again.

Anyway, my friend was taking ecstasy at this time when there well lots of very high quality and high strength pills around.

Last night, I ran this topic by him- Old skool vs modern. He has taken the modern Dutch MDMA pills from the same friend and source mine came from. So I asked his opinion. He expressed no perceptions of the modern pills being inferior.

He mentioned the blue Teslas which he first tried, maybe a few years back now. He just emphasised how he was rushing so hard, and super loved up. No different or worse vs pre-2005.

So Im not concluding anything from this. The obvious hypothesis is that he is just not subjectively aware enough of the differences or perhaps his memories of his past experiences have disintegrated.

I do appreciate that not everybody has my own ability to so finely and deeply tune back into trillions of past (drug) experiences, vividly, always 100% true to the detail on all points (at least, the breadcrumb snapshots my mind actually laid down and sewed in for re-accessing).
Like a massive database network/infrastructure to access and revisit different memories, in a simulation type fashion.

So this is likely a factor. Still, it does seem that people do still enjoy todays modern pills/mdma. I will be happy for any type of enjoyable or positive experience, having no fun or excitement in my life ever.

So I probably will not be a very trusted subjective guinea pig myself on this topic but I will do my very best to make some accurate and useful observations and perceptions if I can to share here.


Edit- hooray, my images worked!
 
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@AutoTripper

I think a common misconception in this thread is that we are saying that ALL new MDMA is bad. That is not the case. Your friend may simply be fortunate enough to have access to decent MDMA pills. Obviously, a lot of people have access to good stuff still.

The question is why SOME of the modern MDMA appears to be MDMA based on testing but produces a different result.

Also, you asked me earlier about whether I ever noticed fizzing related to good pills, and I forgot to reply. Sorry, but that was not something that I ever heard or observed.

@G_Chem The band is MGMT, a very psychedelic alt rock group. Saw their show last year and it had amazing visuals and vibe.
 
@AutoTripper

I think a common misconception in this thread is that we are saying that ALL new MDMA is bad. That is not the case. Your friend may simply be fortunate enough to have access to decent MDMA pills. Obviously, a lot of people have access to good stuff still.

The question is why SOME of the modern MDMA appears to be MDMA based on testing but produces a different result.

Also, you asked me earlier about whether I ever noticed fizzing related to good pills, and I forgot to reply. Sorry, but that was not something that I ever heard or observed.

@G_Chem The band is MGMT, a very psychedelic alt rock group. Saw their show last year and it had amazing visuals and vibe.
Thank you for Clarifying that perspective and actually that is how I was kind of picturing it except it didn't seem to be spelled out and laid down on the table in black and white.

So maybe any source, anywhere, pills or crystal, could be the good stuff. With the majority though being the apparently inferior batches. Real hit and miss, unpredictable and fishy.

So for all I know my Bowsers might be really quite good. Or Meh. Should be interesting, and I can kind of play it in numerous ways in my mind- like, it might be just average and not all that. In which case, no real nerves, expectations etc.

Just going into it purely in the moment, which I might do less effectively if I knew for certain what to expect.

And that way if it does hit me really powerfully and surprisingly so it will be an unanticipated and more original experience.
 
View attachment 11125

Perfect reactions on Marquis, Mecke, Mandelin, & Simons.

Note that on Marquis the result was distinctly PURPLE to black, and not straight to black.

Pic looks too pink. That is a white piece of paper in the back.

this is what all MEH-DMA looks like. Really good, but doesnt do what you need. Its a streamlined process now thats missing something as indicated from this thread.
 
@epic11

I certainly won't believe it is legit until it feels legit. However, the MehDMA I have tested has looked slightly different with marquis. It has gone to black instantly and never turned purple at all. So, there is a visual difference from my other samples.
 
This thread is extraordinary for almost zero signal to noise ratio and it reminds me of the circular LSD purity arguments.
so I'll start with what I know.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine 3,4-MDMA and 2,3-MDMA are distinguishable by GC-MS, the GC bit does the separating. A DB5 or HP5 MS column which is pretty standard separates the two with the 2,3 isomer eluting first. The EI spectra of the fragments is not identical either.
https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/1304/AWAD_TAMER_45.pdf;sequence=1 page 56
This is my experience also with ortho para isomers. Labs identify by retention time AND spectra.

2,3 MDMA would require a 2,3-methylenedioxy precursor. These are commercially available but more expensive than the 3,4-methylenedioxy compounds, if 2,3 methylenedioxy MDMA was around then it is substitution by the chinese manufacturers of the precursors but most of the manufacturers also make the cheaper 3,4 methylenedioxy compounds, so it is very unlikely that 2,3 methylenedioxy is widespread.

Since 2009 2010 most PMK has been made from PMK glycidate and is plain old PMK, just the same as that made from safrole. PMK itself smells similar to but lighter than safrole. People associate the safrole smell with good MDMA experiences and smell is great at evoking memories (of good pills) and contributing to set and setting. If someone was to spray lavender scent and then electrocute you eventually you would subconsciously associate lavender and being shocked, to the point where if you smelled lavender you would become stressed.

PMK glycidate which is itself made from piperonal will disappear in the next few years as the international restrictions on it bite. It will be inevitably replaced by something else (my guess would be one of the really obvious 4 carbon pre precursors) over time but there are clearly large stocks of PMK glycidate in producer areas already. There is not a one step reaction from pmk glycidate to MDMA but there are ways to do it in one pot, how common this is who knows, the current forensic impurity profile fits with reductive amination of PMK with the PMK being isolated. There is another theoretical route to MDMA from PMK glycidate which does not need conversion to PMK, there is no evidence in the forensic literature this route is being used.
PMK glycidate is chiral but the commercial product is a racemic mixture and in any case the PMK it makes is not chiral.

MDMA made by reductive amination of PMK with nitromethane(as an in situ methylamine source) or methylamine is racemic. MDMA made by reduction with a chiral amine is chiral, chiral amines like chiral N-alphadimethylbenzylamine would give chiral N-alphamethylbenzyl MDMA which on deprotection would give chiral MDMA. Nobody is going to do this as chiral alphamethylbenzylamine is expensive and the chiral precusor is used up. There are ways to make chiral amines using chiral catalysts but this is way out of the league of clandestine MDMA cooks.

Significant mercury in MDMA is pretty much a myth
Raman spectroscopy cannot detect parts per million concentration of mercury whether it is methyl mercury halide or dimethyl mercury.
ICP-MS or ICP-OES can detect down to parts per trillion of mercury but I am not aware whether anybody has done this on clandestine MDMA.
Mercury in the form of mercury salts are used to amalgamate aluminium in the reductive amination of PMK this is generally a small scale route. the mercury ends up absorbed onto the aluminium and in the aluminium oxide hydroxide residues and it is in the form of elemental mercury, it is not converted into methyl mercury or dimethyl mercury. Amalgamated zinc has been used occasionally in pharmaceutical manufacture and the levels of mercury carried into the product are negligible.
the grey and brown colouration of impure MDMA means nothing it could be metal oxides, carbon or tar.
There is not commonly cyanide in cocaine either.

t-BOC MDMA and MDPH
There is no conceivable chemistry that can generate MDPH (methylenedioxyphentermine) from BOC MDMA, even the most inept clandestine operator can heat BOC MDMA with hydrochloric acid.
t-BOC MDMA itself is unlikely because it would need PMK or isosafrole to make it.
If there is MDPH methylenedioxyphentermine in circulation it is deliberate but I am highly skeptical quality of the source of the supposed data.

Things that are interesting but unexplained significance.

Pills aren't what they used to be.
in mid to late 2000s the Brabant Dutch manufacturers came up with a pill binder that is really good at binding pills making rock hard lumps but is not as good at allowing the pills to dissolve and disperse. I think it is polyvinylpyrrolidone co-polymer and replaced the earlier gum binders. This seems to be everywhere now. It has a couple of problems, it can bind stuff in solution further reducing availability and it also causes allergies in some people.

Crystals
There also appears to be some kind of bulking agent that can be crystallized with MDMA to make nice crystals which look pretty but are not pure MDMA.HCl I have a good idea what it is but this shouldn't be public information.

Nostalgia will continue to be a big thing in the future and you can't swim in the same river twice meaning that people change much more than the drug does and the river flows on.
MDMA in general now back to being as good as it ever has been, MDMA contents of pills are pretty high up to 100mg which is much higher than the 90s the precursors are plentiful and have been since 2010, perhaps the drugs haven't changed, the users have and the world we live in has.

Pharmaceutical (GMP) MDMA as MAPS have was originally made by the Nichols group, by the reductive amination of PMK just like all the clandestine processes. The only real difference is they distilled the MDMA in the final step it is not complicated.
 
This thread is extraordinary for almost zero signal to noise ratio and it reminds me of the circular LSD purity arguments.
so I'll start with what I know.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine 3,4-MDMA and 2,3-MDMA are distinguishable by GC-MS, the GC bit does the separating. A DB5 or HP5 MS column which is pretty standard separates the two with the 2,3 isomer eluting first. The EI spectra of the fragments is not identical either.
https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/1304/AWAD_TAMER_45.pdf;sequence=1 page 56
This is my experience also with ortho para isomers. Labs identify by retention time AND spectra.

2,3 MDMA would require a 2,3-methylenedioxy precursor. These are commercially available but more expensive than the 3,4-methylenedioxy compounds, if 2,3 methylenedioxy MDMA was around then it is substitution by the chinese manufacturers of the precursors but most of the manufacturers also make the cheaper 3,4 methylenedioxy compounds, so it is very unlikely that 2,3 methylenedioxy is widespread.

Since 2009 2010 most PMK has been made from PMK glycidate and is plain old PMK, just the same as that made from safrole. PMK itself smells similar to but lighter than safrole. People associate the safrole smell with good MDMA experiences and smell is great at evoking memories (of good pills) and contributing to set and setting. If someone was to spray lavender scent and then electrocute you eventually you would subconsciously associate lavender and being shocked, to the point where if you smelled lavender you would become stressed.

PMK glycidate which is itself made from piperonal will disappear in the next few years as the international restrictions on it bite. It will be inevitably replaced by something else (my guess would be one of the really obvious 4 carbon pre precursors) over time but there are clearly large stocks of PMK glycidate in producer areas already. There is not a one step reaction from pmk glycidate to MDMA but there are ways to do it in one pot, how common this is who knows, the current forensic impurity profile fits with reductive amination of PMK with the PMK being isolated. There is another theoretical route to MDMA from PMK glycidate which does not need conversion to PMK, there is no evidence in the forensic literature this route is being used.
PMK glycidate is chiral but the commercial product is a racemic mixture and in any case the PMK it makes is not chiral.

MDMA made by reductive amination of PMK with nitromethane(as an in situ methylamine source) or methylamine is racemic. MDMA made by reduction with a chiral amine is chiral, chiral amines like chiral N-alphadimethylbenzylamine would give chiral N-alphamethylbenzyl MDMA which on deprotection would give chiral MDMA. Nobody is going to do this as chiral alphamethylbenzylamine is expensive and the chiral precusor is used up. There are ways to make chiral amines using chiral catalysts but this is way out of the league of clandestine MDMA cooks.

Significant mercury in MDMA is pretty much a myth
Raman spectroscopy cannot detect parts per million concentration of mercury whether it is methyl mercury halide or dimethyl mercury.
ICP-MS or ICP-OES can detect down to parts per trillion of mercury but I am not aware whether anybody has done this on clandestine MDMA.
Mercury in the form of mercury salts are used to amalgamate aluminium in the reductive amination of PMK this is generally a small scale route. the mercury ends up absorbed onto the aluminium and in the aluminium oxide hydroxide residues and it is in the form of elemental mercury, it is not converted into methyl mercury or dimethyl mercury. Amalgamated zinc has been used occasionally in pharmaceutical manufacture and the levels of mercury carried into the product are negligible.
the grey and brown colouration of impure MDMA means nothing it could be metal oxides, carbon or tar.
There is not commonly cyanide in cocaine either.

t-BOC MDMA and MDPH
There is no conceivable chemistry that can generate MDPH (methylenedioxyphentermine) from BOC MDMA, even the most inept clandestine operator can heat BOC MDMA with hydrochloric acid.
t-BOC MDMA itself is unlikely because it would need PMK or isosafrole to make it.
If there is MDPH methylenedioxyphentermine in circulation it is deliberate but I am highly skeptical quality of the source of the supposed data.

Things that are interesting but unexplained significance.

Pills aren't what they used to be.
in mid to late 2000s the Brabant Dutch manufacturers came up with a pill binder that is really good at binding pills making rock hard lumps but is not as good at allowing the pills to dissolve and disperse. I think it is polyvinylpyrrolidone co-polymer and replaced the earlier gum binders. This seems to be everywhere now. It has a couple of problems, it can bind stuff in solution further reducing availability and it also causes allergies in some people.

Crystals
There also appears to be some kind of bulking agent that can be crystallized with MDMA to make nice crystals which look pretty but are not pure MDMA.HCl I have a good idea what it is but this shouldn't be public information.

Nostalgia will continue to be a big thing in the future and you can't swim in the same river twice meaning that people change much more than the drug does and the river flows on.
MDMA in general now back to being as good as it ever has been, MDMA contents of pills are pretty high up to 100mg which is much higher than the 90s the precursors are plentiful and have been since 2010, perhaps the drugs haven't changed, the users have and the world we live in has.

Pharmaceutical (GMP) MDMA as MAPS have was originally made by the Nichols group, by the reductive amination of PMK just like all the clandestine processes. The only real difference is they distilled the MDMA in the final step it is not complicated.

I really want to understand the point your making. Could you dumb it down a little bit for me?
 
This thread is extraordinary for almost zero signal to noise ratio and it reminds me of the circular LSD purity arguments.
so I'll start with what I know.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine 3,4-MDMA and 2,3-MDMA are distinguishable by GC-MS, the GC bit does the separating. A DB5 or HP5 MS column which is pretty standard separates the two with the 2,3 isomer eluting first. The EI spectra of the fragments is not identical either.
https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/1304/AWAD_TAMER_45.pdf;sequence=1 page 56
This is my experience also with ortho para isomers. Labs identify by retention time AND spectra.

2,3 MDMA would require a 2,3-methylenedioxy precursor. These are commercially available but more expensive than the 3,4-methylenedioxy compounds, if 2,3 methylenedioxy MDMA was around then it is substitution by the chinese manufacturers of the precursors but most of the manufacturers also make the cheaper 3,4 methylenedioxy compounds, so it is very unlikely that 2,3 methylenedioxy is widespread.

Since 2009 2010 most PMK has been made from PMK glycidate and is plain old PMK, just the same as that made from safrole. PMK itself smells similar to but lighter than safrole. People associate the safrole smell with good MDMA experiences and smell is great at evoking memories (of good pills) and contributing to set and setting. If someone was to spray lavender scent and then electrocute you eventually you would subconsciously associate lavender and being shocked, to the point where if you smelled lavender you would become stressed.

PMK glycidate which is itself made from piperonal will disappear in the next few years as the international restrictions on it bite. It will be inevitably replaced by something else (my guess would be one of the really obvious 4 carbon pre precursors) over time but there are clearly large stocks of PMK glycidate in producer areas already. There is not a one step reaction from pmk glycidate to MDMA but there are ways to do it in one pot, how common this is who knows, the current forensic impurity profile fits with reductive amination of PMK with the PMK being isolated. There is another theoretical route to MDMA from PMK glycidate which does not need conversion to PMK, there is no evidence in the forensic literature this route is being used.
PMK glycidate is chiral but the commercial product is a racemic mixture and in any case the PMK it makes is not chiral.

MDMA made by reductive amination of PMK with nitromethane(as an in situ methylamine source) or methylamine is racemic. MDMA made by reduction with a chiral amine is chiral, chiral amines like chiral N-alphadimethylbenzylamine would give chiral N-alphamethylbenzyl MDMA which on deprotection would give chiral MDMA. Nobody is going to do this as chiral alphamethylbenzylamine is expensive and the chiral precusor is used up. There are ways to make chiral amines using chiral catalysts but this is way out of the league of clandestine MDMA cooks.

Significant mercury in MDMA is pretty much a myth
Raman spectroscopy cannot detect parts per million concentration of mercury whether it is methyl mercury halide or dimethyl mercury.
ICP-MS or ICP-OES can detect down to parts per trillion of mercury but I am not aware whether anybody has done this on clandestine MDMA.
Mercury in the form of mercury salts are used to amalgamate aluminium in the reductive amination of PMK this is generally a small scale route. the mercury ends up absorbed onto the aluminium and in the aluminium oxide hydroxide residues and it is in the form of elemental mercury, it is not converted into methyl mercury or dimethyl mercury. Amalgamated zinc has been used occasionally in pharmaceutical manufacture and the levels of mercury carried into the product are negligible.
the grey and brown colouration of impure MDMA means nothing it could be metal oxides, carbon or tar.
There is not commonly cyanide in cocaine either.

t-BOC MDMA and MDPH
There is no conceivable chemistry that can generate MDPH (methylenedioxyphentermine) from BOC MDMA, even the most inept clandestine operator can heat BOC MDMA with hydrochloric acid.
t-BOC MDMA itself is unlikely because it would need PMK or isosafrole to make it.
If there is MDPH methylenedioxyphentermine in circulation it is deliberate but I am highly skeptical quality of the source of the supposed data.

Things that are interesting but unexplained significance.

Pills aren't what they used to be.
in mid to late 2000s the Brabant Dutch manufacturers came up with a pill binder that is really good at binding pills making rock hard lumps but is not as good at allowing the pills to dissolve and disperse. I think it is polyvinylpyrrolidone co-polymer and replaced the earlier gum binders. This seems to be everywhere now. It has a couple of problems, it can bind stuff in solution further reducing availability and it also causes allergies in some people.

Crystals
There also appears to be some kind of bulking agent that can be crystallized with MDMA to make nice crystals which look pretty but are not pure MDMA.HCl I have a good idea what it is but this shouldn't be public information.

Nostalgia will continue to be a big thing in the future and you can't swim in the same river twice meaning that people change much more than the drug does and the river flows on.
MDMA in general now back to being as good as it ever has been, MDMA contents of pills are pretty high up to 100mg which is much higher than the 90s the precursors are plentiful and have been since 2010, perhaps the drugs haven't changed, the users have and the world we live in has.

Pharmaceutical (GMP) MDMA as MAPS have was originally made by the Nichols group, by the reductive amination of PMK just like all the clandestine processes. The only real difference is they distilled the MDMA in the final step it is not complicated.
Good, informative post. But your nostalgia argument falls down somewhat when even us old and jaded users have found what we call good product recently - the problem is that for many of us, it is no longer the norm.

I'm no chemist, and by the sound of your post you probably are. But what you're talking is theoretical chemistry, where 1+1 always = 2. But in the real world things aren't that simple. As you know, there are so many variables that can influence a reaction that it is almost impossible to control them all - especially when clandestine operations are involved. 1+1 can easily end up being 1.5 or even 2.5, and no one will have a fuckin clue why this is...
 
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old and jaded too, it still works pretty well, everything else seems shitter though, so its a lot further down back to reality than in the old days.

The newer pills seem to have plenty of MDMA in them but they don't dissolve and release it like they used to, I remember some of the older pills sometimes used to disintegrate all on their own.
It seems some of the crystal around is far from pure MDMA. I think it is being co crystallized with a cutting agent, people consume a gram of MDMA and are not be dead or in hospital.

caveat emptor

Industrial chemistry, theoretical chemistry and clandestine obey the same rules, there are only limited possible opportunities to fuck up available to the typical MDMA maker lets call him Clevis Klootzak, he can screw up a lot but some outcomes would require a rewrite of some laws of nature.
Clevis Klootzak can only generate certain impurities and actually MDMA chemistry is really simple.
 
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Caveat emptor indeed. But the proof of the pudding is still in the eating...

Also, aren't the 'rules of nature' constantly being rewritten as our knowledge progresses?
 
MDMA in general now back to being as good as it ever has been, MDMA contents of pills are pretty high up to 100mg which is much higher than the 90s the precursors are plentiful and have been since 2010, perhaps the drugs haven't changed, the users have and the world we live in has.
I wont even try to comment on and critique the gist and full extent of what you are saying.

But I must query this statement as it appears very innacurate. 100 mg is a moderately small dose by today's ecstasy pill standards.

More like 200-300 mg is extremely common with 200mg being the sought-after norm bench standard I would suggest.

Original, full potency, banging old skool pills, like the classic White Dove of the early 90's, 120-130 mg would have been the standard.

With higher and lower doses of course. And actually there was a remarkably high proportion of those white doves which actually contains very high dose MDEA, like up to 170 mg plus.

Doses dropped heavily by 1996, when 60 to 70 mg became pretty standard and were regarded as "decent" pills. Towards the end of the millennium in 1999 especially at the festivals and parties I attended in the United Kingdom, ecstasy pills contained much higher amounts of MDMA again.

From 2003 to 2005, it seemed pretty normal to get very clean pills well over 100 mg. I stopped taking it in 2005, just as it all went downhill.

So today's 200-300 mg pills are indeed stronger than ever practically in terms of amounts and maybe on par with the original double doves which I never took myself but I assume would have been between 200 and 250 mg.
 
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