Analysis of synthetic drugs by differential scanning calorimetry

Synthetic drugs are found on the market mixed with different kinds of cuts (caffeine, lactose, glucose, paracetamol, etc.) and the street samples of these kind of drugs are generally composed of one or two compounds including a drug and a cut. For legal purposes, it is compulsory to know the exact quantity of the drug present in each sequestered sample. In this paper, amphetamine-type stimulants drugs (ATS) are directly analyzed and quantified by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) without any preliminary sample treatment, thus avoiding artifacts due to the sample pretreatment or to the analytical operative conditions. Three systems composed of ATS and cuts including Caffeine (1) + Amphetamine-Sulfate (2), Methamphetamine-HCl (1) + Caffeine (2), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDEA)-HCl (1) + Caffeine (2) are studied. Quantification results obtained by DSC are in good agreement with those given by HPLC–DAD method.