It's so frustrating. I feel that if we could get a few samples looked at by some of the authors of papers cited in this and the previous thread, we'd really start to get some understanding of what's going on here.
We already have some understanding of what's going on. Firstly, I assure you not all MDMA on the black market is this supposedly ubiquitous, sub-par, "meh" MDMA. So—as it goes w/black market contraband—there is a spectrum of varying quality. Until some official regulatory body or agency steps in to assure safety and quality standards are being met by professionally licensed manufacturers, this issue will persist. For that matter, the majority of cocaine on the black market is "meh"… not all, but
most cocaine outside of Peru, Bolivia and Columbia is not pure. The same holds true for methamphetamine, even “superlab” meth from Mexican TCOs tends to vary wildly in quality and purity. Doesn't seem to be drastically different in Asia in terms of quality variance, but I'm speculating here and admittedly don't have stats in front of me on the Asian stimulant black market.
Secondly, samples are analyzed all the time and reports are published by various law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. DEA. They're getting the data they want and thankfully publishing it so the rest of us can parse through it and make determinations on how that data can be useful in alternative ways. But to the narcoswine, “addiction” clinic profiteers, drug-war nazis, NA zealots, and the Academic Industrial Complex™, they couldn't give a rat's ass about the recreational pharmacodynamics of MDMA. They study impurities as a way of identifying the same batch of a drug as a means of tracking its spread throughout an area.
Sure, there are academics driven purely by their passion for science, and there are psychiatrists out there who want new tools to help people, like guided MDMA sessions and the sort. But Big Pharma is looking into how to profit from MDMA if it can indeed be harnessed safely enough to treat PTSD, dealing with end-of-life anxiety disorders in the terminally ill, and other psychiatric/therapy-assisted uses like that. Once it's going through the legit pipeline, the pharmaceutical industry will be producing
very pure MDMA, and it could raise the bar for clandestine manufacture. Sandoz set the bar high for LSD purity, so pharmaceutical-industry production of MDMA could be a beneficial thing in many ways…
But how to get them involved?
Idk if this particular topic would appeal to the aforementioned authors – maybe so; maybe not… From the eyes of an institution, university, or govt. agency, why grant funds to a study of a thing like this, when its results would only run contrary to the establishment of legitimately produced MDMA.HCl for human consumption and medical benefit (but not intended for recreational use)? For users, conscientious drug dealers, and those interested in harm reduction, of course, this shit matters a lot. But it's vexing working within the establishment on these things, unfortunately, as many researchers can attest.
On a more helpful note, I reach out to researchers/authors of published science lit. papers all the time, and they almost invariably respond enthusiastically. If you ever read a paper's abstract but you hit a paywall, for instance, just search for an email address of the papers' author(s), which is usually very easy to find (many of them are .edu email addresses), and then ask them if they wouldn't mind sharing their paper directly with you. Most of them are thrilled somebody actually wants to read their papers, and it gives them direct recognition for their work, which is good vibes all around. At any rate, strike up some conversations with these people and see what they have to say back. Nothing ventured; nothing gained, right? Oh and then let us know what you find out,
s'il vous plaît.
I feel we've exhausted the public services like Energy Control, Wedinos etc... They either aren't able to do a better analysis or aren't interested (or both).
I agree, but I don't think it's for lack of interest on their part. Their business model is predicated on supplying a very particular market's demands. Then again, there comes a point where that pursuit might become prohibitively expensive to them should said demand for precision MDMA tests be only a small minority of the overall demand for their services in general… Either way, they seem genuine in their noble pursuit, even if their services leave a bit to be desired, let's just say.
We have a body of anecdotal evidence saying there's something wrong,
Correlation does not prove causation.
3 byproducts in the literature known to inhibit MDMA,
But these byproducts are synthetic route-specific, and there are
many ways to synthesize MDMA as well as safrole, isosafrole, MDP-2-P, MDA, MDE, MDDMA, etc. It would be hard to convince me that one synthetic route is so globally dominant that it accounts for a massive amount of a specific impurity going all over world map like that.
a plausible reason for a change due to changing precursors (via careless synth procedures).
You're kinda conflating two problems here. Careless lab technique will almost always produce impure results. If a precursor is changed, then at least some part of the synthesis will need to change as well to account for this different starting point. With clandestine chemistry, this can be venturing into uncharted waters mostly because highly accurate analytical lab equipment is both expensive AF and difficult to procure without unwanted attention. Ultimately, the answer is to repeal all drug prohibition, globally, but that's a tough pill to swallow (ah thank you).
What we need though is detailed investigation by people who really know they're stuff to tie it all together.
Any ideas?
If you want something done right… well you know the rest.