Sapu days

sapudays

Those dreaded Fridays and Saturdays…also known as Sapudays. I hate them!

Sapu is the colloquial term for police drug raids at entertainment venues.

99 kuching

The night started out at 99. It was packed and pretty uneventful.

99 may 16

Some people had some pills (not me, of course *cough*).

waterworld closed

We headed down to Waterworld and found that it was closed. This is a bad omen.

earthquake may 16

We adjourned to Earthquake. This venue is usually packed during the weekends but was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night.

equake may 16

Our group sat there for a while before one of the Earthquake staff
(we know them) whispered to us that there are sapu vans outside. Time
to leave? The first photo was taken there – it’s one of the sapu vans,
there were 2 police trucks preceding that, but I didn’t get a photo and
I don’t want to get too close anyway for obvious reasons. It turns out
the police was just scoping out the area – staring at the patrons, most
of which started leaving in droves. The place was soon empty.
Earthquake didn’t get raided (coz it was empty) but since there was no
one there anyway, we left.

passion closed

We went to Passion at 4 1/2 mile. It was closed early too (it was
just 3 AM when we got there). It seems that Kuching is the target of
the inaugural drug raids at entertainment venues again. *sigh*

We tried the MJC outlets, but all of them were closed too. News of
raids spreads fast and no chemical brother would want to be in one of
them when the police barges in, except foolhardy ones. πŸ˜‰ We saw three
sapu trucks filled with people while on the way back…now that’s a
really bad omen, so we decided to call it a night.

Related:

Orange blanks pill review

orange blank

Pill name: Orange blanks
Contents: Tested out to be MDMA
Circa: February – May 2004
Rating: 7/10

It’s a relatively strong MDMA pill. It has no logo or imprints
whatsoever – people just ask for it by name (i.e. the orange pill).
It’s quite nice, if you like MDMA…but MDMA has lost its magic for me.
I did feel classic MDMA characteristics, but I’ll go for crystal
methamphetamine or ketamine any day. MDMA just doesn’t feel good to me
anymore. Such is the life of a tweaker…nothing beats good old crystal
meth.

Marquis:

orange blank marquis
Reagent to black indicating MDMA.

It’s MDMA, from reagent testing and personal qualitative experience.
Go for it if you still like pills, stay away if MDMA has lost its magic
for you.

Those dreaded Fridays and Saturdays…also known as SAPUDAYS. I hate them!

EZ-Test substance testing kit (Ecstasy pill tester)

ezpack.jpg
You’ve got mail!

EZ Test
[eztest.com]. It’s a set of chemical solutions for testing substances.
The reagents produce different reactions to different chemicals so you
can test for Ecstasy (MDMA), methamphetamine, 2C-B, DXM etc. It’s very
useful to have around for testing pills, although personally I’ve never
had any problems about this in Australia. MDMA pills are sold as MDMA
pills and ketamine/speed pills are sold as such. It is useful to verify
the contents of a pill though, so I usually use a Marquis reagent which
I get at Off Ya Tree, a local headshop.

ezpkcont.jpg
Inside the package is the EZ Test container and a booklet

That ran out some time ago and I found out that EZ Test has a Australian distributor
[ez-test.com.au] which mails their substance testing kits cash on
delivery, so I ordered a set from them. This is the EZ Test Xtreme,
which has 4 different chemicals – the EZ Test (Marquis reagent),
Simon’s reagent, Robadope and the buffer solution. The Marquis reagent
is probably the most well known for testing Ecstasy pills, but the
other reagents compliment the Marquis solution to provide more
comprehensive results. Hmm…I feel like I’m writing this for a report! πŸ™‚

ezcase.jpg
The EZ Test container – a closer look

Anyway, the Marquis reagent is able to detect MDxA type substances
(eg MDMA, MDA, MDEA), amphetamines (speed), 2C-B (also called Nexus,
pretty rare chemical), and DXM.

ezcontin.jpg
A peek inside the container

Simons’s reagent is used to test for a “secondary amine”, which to
my limited chemistry knowledge means the substances that have a longer
chemical name than usual. πŸ˜‰ These are things like methamphetamine (a
methyl group added to -amphetamine), MDMA and so on. This one is good
for testing meth, it won’t react with amphetamines (primary amine),
only with methamphetamines (secondary amine). Anyway, there isn’t a
burning need to have this around either, since most of the ‘speed’ sold
in Australia is methamphetamine, or so I’ve heard. It’s not that hard
to subjectively differentiate meth and speed (I use speed to refer to
amphetamine) when consumed anyway.

ezbunch.jpg
The 4 bottles of reagents

Robadope on the other hand does the opposite of what Simon’s reagent
does. Robadope is used to detect the presence of a primary amine (like
amphetamine). Unfortunately, this test requires quite a lot of the
substance to work. The instructions say at least 1/8th of a pill is
needed to produce a reaction. That’s quite wasteful, but it’s
interesting to have around, if only to test things at random. =D

marquis.jpg
EZ Test (Marquis reagent)

There is also the buffer solution, which I think (don’t quote me on
this) is used to speed up the reaction times. Either that, or it’s the
“missing link” that’s needed for Simon’s and Robadope to react, perhaps
the solutions are not that stable and won’t keep as long when combined.
Again, I don’t really know what the buffer is for, just that it’s used
with Simon’s and Robadope but not Marquis.

simons.jpg
Simon’s reagent

The tests are done in sequence and by inference and extrapolation
(just love this phrase), you can detect whether a
pill/powder/capsule/whatever contains MDxA (MDMA, MDEA, MDA),
methamphetamine, amphetamine, PMA, 2C-B, DXM, combinations (primary
amine – secondary amine like a MDMA/amphetamine combo pill) and even
heroin. Each reagent changes color when it’s exposed to the
recreational substances that it’s able to detect.

robadope.jpg
Robadope

I don’t know why I’m in a mood for writing something like this, but
anyway. πŸ™‚ Here’s an example, using the EZ Test kit on a dexamphetamine
tablet. I had 2 pills left, which isn’t enough to do anything, so I’ve
left it lying around…until today! Today, I’m going to strike the fear
of God into the little white pills. Or something. I’m tweaking again,
verbal diarrhea and mindless chatter ahoy! =D

buffer.jpg
Buffer solution

Anyway, if you’ve read my posts, you’ll know that I have a
dexamphetamine script for my…ah, narcolepsy. πŸ˜‰ I can’t stop with the
wink wink nudge nudge every time I mention this, my apologies, I’m
actually privately gloating about my script. Heh. Okay, enough
silliness, sorry about that.

ezdex.jpg
5 mg dexamphetamine tablets

Back on topic, dexamphetamine is a primary amine, from what I’ve
read, amphetamine is a racemic mixture containing both the + and –
isomers. Those are dextro and laevo and Collin’s English Dictionary
defines it as such:

racemic
adjective
(Chem) of, concerned with, or being a mixture of dextrorotatory
and laevorotatory isomers in such proportions that the mixture has no
optical activity
[ETYMOLOGY: 19th Century: from RACEME (as in racemic acid) + -IC]
racemism
noun

Anyway, the laevo (or levo) isomers of both amphetamine and
methamphetamine isn’t recreational compared to the dextro isomers. I
don’t know if this is true for all -amphetamines, but its true for
(meth)amphetamine. The stuff you get off the street is a racemic
mixture, so looking from a recreational perspective, it’s inferior to
dextro only isomers. In other words, pure dextro (meth)amphetamines
will get you higher than a racemic mixture. Personally, I like
dexamphetamine (dextroamphetamine sulfate) because it’s much more
stimulating that street speed (racemic amphetamine), but I’ll take
racemic methamphetamine over it any day! =D

ezdexpill.jpg
Dextroamphetamine sulfate – our test subject

I digress. I suspect I’m boring half of you with the background
information and insulting half of you by elaborating on things that you
already know. Nevertheless, I shall continue. πŸ™‚ Oh, and you might have
noticed that I don’t use the word “drug” or “drugs”. I dislike that
term because of the negative connotations that’s associated with it. I
use the term “substances” and “chemicals” instead to refer to
recreational compounds. Okay, instead of digressing again and again and
being self indulgent, I’ll continue to the tests.

Substance: 5 mg dexamphetamine pill (dextroamphetamine sulfate)

exdexpdr.jpg
Dexamphetamine pill, crushed into powder

The pill is crushed up with a dog tag as if to prepare for
insufflating (snorting). Half of the powder is used for the tests and
the other half was, er…insufflated. The first test is done using the
Marquis reagent. A small portion of the powder is isolated into a
corner of a CD jewel case and two drops of the Marquis reagent is
applied to it.

Test: Marquis Reagent

The pill’s content is already known, so this is just a test for fun
and to show how reagents work. The Marquis reagent will react by
changing color to orange/brown when it detects amphetamine (speed).
Let’s see how it goes in the test.

mdex1.jpg
Yellow as soon as it came into contact with the powdered dexamphetamine pill.

mdex2.jpg
The color started to look orange after a couple of seconds.

mdex3.jpg
It’s noticeably orange now.

mdex4.jpg
Yup, unmistakably orange. Indicates the presence of amphetamine (dexamphetamine = amphetamine).

mdex5.jpg
The reaction settled to become a brown goo after a minute.

Marquis Reagent result: Orange, indicating either methamphetamine or amphetamine.

Test: Simon’s Reagent

Two drops of Simon’s reagent and 4 drops of the buffer solution is
applied to another portion of the powdered dexamphetamine pill. This
should turn blue if there is a secondary anime (methamphetamine) but it
won’t react if it’s amphetamine (primary amine).

sdex.jpg
No reaction. The red drops are the reagents, accidentally dropped it outside the sample.

Simon’s Reagent result: No reaction, ruling out
methamphetamine. This indicates that it’s amphetamine, from the
positive result from the previous Marquis test.

Test: Robadope

There’s actually no point in doing the Robadope, since the substance
is already known from the two tests. Robadope is mainly used for
testing for combinations eg MDMA/amphetamine combo pill. The Robadope
will proceed nevertheless. πŸ™‚ The reaction will be reddish/purple if it
detects a primary amine (like dexamphetamine).

I fudged up the first test by dropping too much Robadope on too little sample.

rdex1.jpg
Slight salmon color.

The second attempt uses only a single drop of Robadope + 2 drops of buffer on quite a large sample.

rdex2.jpg
Slight reddish tint. It is noticeable to the naked eye (if you squint
really hard), but the colors translated poorly to the digicam. It
wasn’t the shade of red I expected, but that’s probably because the
sample was mostly binders + fillers instead of dexamphetamine. There’s
heaps of binders in a dex pill, which is why snorting is such a chore
that I just eat them after heavy urinary alkalization.

Robadope result: Salmon red tint. This indicates a primary amine – dextroamphetamine.

This is how Ecstasy pill testers work – by cross-referencing reagent results. πŸ™‚

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