Correlation between the synthetic origin of methamphetamine samples and their 15N and 13C stable isotope ratios.

The active ingredient of ecstasy, N-methyl-3,4-methyldioxyphenylisopropylamine (MDMA) can be manufactured by a number of easy routes from simple precursors. We have synthesised 45 samples of MDMA following the five most common routes using N-precursors from 12 different origins and three different precursors for the aromatic moiety. The 13C and 15N contents of both the precursors and the MDMA samples derived therefrom were measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry coupled to an elemental analyser (EA-IRMS).