Awang, Noor Azlina
(2022)
Forensic investigation of methamphetamine tablets using physical and chemical profiling.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Illicit methamphetamine seizures have reached record levels worldwide and its
widespread use threatens societal well-being. Thus, attention from various parties is
required to stem methamphetamine trafficking; however, routine forensic analysis is
generally limited to identifying and quantifying the controlled substances according to
standard operating procedures. Although further analytical characterization and drug
profiling via physical and chemical methods is not routinely conducted, it warrants
further exploration for forensic comparison and intelligence. In this study, evaluation of
physical and chemical profiles of illicit methamphetamine tablets collected from case
work was carried out through various analytical techniques, including physical
examination, thin layer chromatography (TLC), attenuated total reflectance-Fourier
transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and lastly gas chromatography (GC).
The analytical outputs were compared and evaluated for possible discrimination.
Generally, physical characterisation did not enable the identification of
methamphetamine with only six samples were discriminated from the main cluster
through their unique logos and dimensions. Tablets with logo ―wY‖ dominated the
samples (94.5%), and majority of them were measured between 6.01 and 6.20 mm in
diameter (74.1%). ATR-FTIR coupled with PCA suggested caffeine as adulterant in
majority of the samples (99.4%), while TLC analysis determined that Ponceau 4R was Illicit methamphetamine seizures have reached record levels worldwide and its
widespread use threatens societal well-being. Thus, attention from various parties is
required to stem methamphetamine trafficking; however, routine forensic analysis is
generally limited to identifying and quantifying the controlled substances according to
standard operating procedures. Although further analytical characterization and drug
profiling via physical and chemical methods is not routinely conducted, it warrants
further exploration for forensic comparison and intelligence. In this study, evaluation of
physical and chemical profiles of illicit methamphetamine tablets collected from case
work was carried out through various analytical techniques, including physical
examination, thin layer chromatography (TLC), attenuated total reflectance-Fourier
transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and lastly gas chromatography (GC).
The analytical outputs were compared and evaluated for possible discrimination.
Generally, physical characterisation did not enable the identification of
methamphetamine with only six samples were discriminated from the main cluster
through their unique logos and dimensions. Tablets with logo ―wY‖ dominated the
samples (94.5%), and majority of them were measured between 6.01 and 6.20 mm in
diameter (74.1%). ATR-FTIR coupled with PCA suggested caffeine as adulterant in
majority of the samples (99.4%), while TLC analysis determined that Ponceau 4R was the major dye added into the composition of the tablets (95.6%). Lastly, the GC
technique confirmed the presence of methamphetamine (98.8%) through mass spectral
comparison with similar index greater than 80% and the purity was determined. In
conclusion, a methamphetamine tablet profiling strategy was implemented to gather
important information regarding the similarities and differences among illicit
methamphetamine tablets, potentially beneficial for sample-to-sample, case-to-case, and
seizure-to-seizure comparisons.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(Masters)
|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Drug and narcotic control |
| Subjects: |
R Medicine |
| Divisions: |
UNSPECIFIED |
| Depositing User: |
Mr Abdul Hadi Mohammad
|
| Date Deposited: |
12 Sep 2022 07:50 |
| Last Modified: |
12 Sep 2022 07:50 |
| URI: |
http://eprints.usm.my/id/eprint/54596 |
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