Photo 1

The Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E Laboratory (Cape Girardeau) recently received one round, green tablet with a poorly defined logo, suspected “Ecstasy” (see Photo 1). The tablet was seized in Sikeston, Missouri by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety (details sensitive; Sikeston is about 150 south of St. Louis). The tablet was 9 millimeters in diameter by 3 millimeters thick, and weighed 290 milligrams. Analysis by color testing (Marquis and Methedrine) and GC/MS, however, indicated not MDMA but rather benzyl piperazine (BZP), methamphetamine, and caffeine in an approximate 300:6:85 ratio (based on the TIC; not formally quantitated). This was the first submission of BZP in any form to the laboratory.

[Editor’s Notes: The logo may be four “playing card”-type diamonds arranged in a diamond pattern. Informal inquiries suggest that this is a new logo, not previously reported in either Europe or the U.S. The weight of the tablet (290 milligrams) is rather high for the tablet dimensions (9 x 3 millimeters), but was confirmed by a second weighing, suggesting that it was very highly compressed.]