How much to scrape?

[Black Octagon]

I did a search and the only really relevant thing I found was this

It seems that only a tiny amount of pill material must be scraped off to be tested. I'm wondering just how accurate this is. I remember reading a site a couple of years ago about lab-testing on ecstasy pills, and seeing some sort of diagram representing the results. It showed how MDMA in pills was actually clumped into different areas on most pills, rather than being uniformly spread throughout.

So if this is common to most ecstasy pills, how accurate can it really be to just test a 'pinhead' amount? Even if you do happen to scrape off a 'good bit,' mightn't you miss any any other adulterants from those parts of the pills where MDMA concentration is low?

Or am I way off?
Thanks

 

[phase_dancer]

It's quite possible some pills have an uneven distribution of active ingredient/s. However, unless a pill looks inconsistent and/or is crumbly, then chances are it's probably been fairly well homogenized prior to pressing.

It's often been suggested that several small scrapings be taken from from different parts of a pill, and if the pill is obviously varying in consistency then several portions can be tested individually.

 

[Black Octagon]

^Yeah that's what I suspected. Unfortunately it's precisely those 'unhomogenised' pills that people should be most worried about, isn't it?

I wish I could find the damn link to that page. I don't suppose anyone's seen what I'm talking about. A pill underwent some very thorough lab testing and a diagramatic representation of it was produced. It looked very much like the results of some sort of scan. The diagram was vaguely round (I assume the pill had been crushed) and there were different shades of some fluorescent colour to show how much 'concentration' of MDMA was found in certain parts of the pill. There were about four or five clumps where the MDMA concentration was very high, several parts where it was minimal, and definitely some parts that had no MDMA (or negligible amounts). It's those last areas that worry me the most. In a clean pill, one would expect to find just regular binder. But if the pill also had a speed-like substance, one could quite possibly 'happen' to scrape of just the non-MDMA bit (or just an MDMA bit) for testing purposes. Which could lead to a very limited conclusion about the pill.

So doing two or three tiny scrapings might be a better idea than just one, imho.

Anyway, just some food for thought.