www.pathology.health.nsw.gov.au

An illicit drug pre-precursor newly encountered in NSWMatthew Paul, Ankur Konnur and Daniel Coghlan Ph.D

Illicit Drugs Analysis Unit,NSW Health Pathology,Forensic & Analytical Science Service

Methylamphetamine is a routinely seized illicit drug and has been encountered in manufactures in NSW over a long period of time.

The common precursors to manufacture methylamphetamine are listed in the NSW Drug Misuse and Trafficking Regulation and recently this list was expanded.

One newly listed precursor is methyl alpha-phenylacetoacetate, commonly abbreviated to MAPA.

MAPA is a precursor for 1-phenyl-2-propanone (P2P), which is one precursor that can be used in the manufacture of methylamphetamine.

When police prosecute offenders, the courts need to understand the potential yield that seized precursors can achieve as well as an understanding of the success of the methods undertaken.To date, there is no published data for the yield of P2P from MAPA nor an understanding of the best methods to carry out this conversion.The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of the factors that affect the conversion of MAPA to P2P.

One batch of MAPA was treated with different acids and solvents under varying conditions (time and heating) to measure the amounts of P2P produced.

The solvents used during the experiments were methanol, toluene and dichloromethane, with the acids used being hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acid. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS) was used to identify the formation of P2P. The relative amount of P2P formed was determined by purity analysis using Gas chromatography with Flame Ionisation Detection (GC-FID) of the recovered P2P oil.

MAPA powder

Of the solvents and acids used, the highest relative yield was attained with methanol and hydrochloric acid combined with heating. Toluene was also found to have a reasonable conversion to P2P, however the conditions used in this study did not yield a significant conversion.The following graph summarizes the varying yields for toluene and methanol under the experimental conditions used in this study.

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that affected the conversion of MAPA into P2P. This study has found that methanol used in conjunction with hydrochloric acid and heating at 70 degrees for 4 hours gave the best conversion under the conditions examined.It is expected that a higher conversion of MAPA to P2P could be achieved by varying the experimental conditions beyond the scope of this studyWe are also examining methods to determine the purity of the MAPA.

1. United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 (update 04 MAR 2020)

2. Drug Misuse and Trafficking Regulation 2011 (NSW) (update 01 APR 2021)

3. UNODC Global Synthetic Drugs Assessment 2020

P2P oil formed after conversion

Introduction

AimResults

Method

References

Conclusion

3

4

5

20

0

0

1

1.5

0 5 10 15 20 25

Room temperature

50 deg C - 1 hour

70 deg C - 1 hour

70 deg C - 4 hours

MAPA - P2P Conversion

Estimated MAPA-P2P (%) in tolueneEstimated MAPA-P2P (%) in Methanol