Trends of clandestine laboratories manufacturing methamphetamine in New Zealand between 2009-2021: Evolution, enforcement, legislative, and COVID-19 effects.

The most common method of domestic methamphetamine manufacture encountered in New Zealand is the hydrogen iodide (HI) reduction of pseudoephedrine/ephedrine. While the overall method used to manufacture methamphetamine has remained consistent, the processes and chemicals utilized have evolved. Understanding the reason for any changes to methamphetamine manufacturing trends can assist jurisdictions with predicting the potential effects of enforcement and legislative initiatives.

Quantification of mixtures of analogues of illicit substances by benchtop NMR spectroscopy.

This paper investigates the possibility of using benchtop NMR spectroscopy for quantification of illicit drugs (methamphetamine) in binary and ternary mixtures with impurities and cutting agents (N-isopropylbenzylamine, phenethylamine and dimethylsulfone). To avoid handling regulated substances, methamphetamine in our experiments is substituted with amino-2-propanol, which has similar functional groups and chemical structure to methamphetamine and hence a related NMR spectrum. Binary and ternary mixtures at concentrations from 30 mmol/L up to 500 mmol/L for each of these species were measured using a 60 MHz benchtop spectrometer.

Fantasy islands - The emergence of NMP in GBL-containing liquids in New Zealand.

Over the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of "Fantasy" type drugs seized in New Zealand, with gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) being by far the most prevalent. In 2018, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was detected in a liquid, along with GBL, for the first time in New Zealand. Since this seizure, the number of seizures containing mixtures of GBL and NMP that have been submitted for analysis by New Zealand authorities have significantly increased, with 82% of submitted samples containing GBL also containing NMP.

Establishing likelihood ratios for evaluating opposing propositions concerning the activity causing methamphetamine contamination: Smoking or manufacture?

In New Zealand, concerns have been raised over the presence of methamphetamine contamination in households, especially when the activity causing the contamination is unknown. The cause of contamination is also a contentious issue in clandestine laboratory cases concerning charges in relation to "Use of Premises" (Section 12: Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, New Zealand). Regardless of the cause, other than scientific opinion, there is currently no analytical technique that can satisfactorily address the provenance of methamphetamine residues.

Identification and characterization of chemically masked derivatives of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, methamphetamine, and MDMA.

The emergence of chemically masked illicit drugs represents a challenge to global initiatives that are working to prevent their manufacture and distribution. Targeted analytical techniques currently used by law enforcement to identify unknown materials rely on spectroscopic and spectrophotometric databases that do not currently include some of these compounds, making their identification challenging. This study aimed to update compound spectral libraries to aid in the rapid detection and identification of these masked drugs, as well as to provide insight into their synthetic procedures.