Need informational websites on illegal drugs?

Question

Need informational websites on illegal drugs?

specifically, how to tell them apart.

Also, how they are field-tested--the process, the characteristic reaction, etc.

I need this information as research for a story I am writing; also, my friend is an aspiring prosecutor and would like to know.

Answer 1

no idea sorry love

Answer 2

http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psyc...

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/home.php

Field testing is normally done on Ecstasy so:

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdm...

I'm not going to take the time to find everything for you, I'm not that nice. But everything you are looking for should be in that first site. If not, register and ask on the second site (forum).

Answer 3

Why rely on websites?  Try a library.  There;s nothing I hate more in a research project than a bibliography filled w/URL's.

Drugs are identified several ways prior to being tested:

There physical appearance:

Crack is this white, rocky substance.

Cocaine looks like white powder.

Heroin is soemwhat off-white according to what I've heard.

Marihuana is green and leafy, though there are several variants (for now) like Haze, sour diesel, and Hydro.

Prescription drugs sold illegally have their own unique appearance, although I don't know how generics will affect this.

In narcotics trafficking, police officers having little contact with a crime before it happens (in other words, street level narcotics sales rather than transactions covered by long-term investigations) and have to rely on the physical appearance of the narcotics, its packaging (pills are frequently sold by people with a valid prescription to use for themselves, using the prescription bottle itself, readily identifying it; ziplock bags are used for any number of narcotics, but heroin is typically sold in glassine envelopes with brand names) and field testing.  

Field testing requires a special training course.  To use a field test, the officers must first have an idea of what he's testing for - this is because there are several different tests for cocaine (salt based reagent), Heroin (Meckes reagent) or MJ (Duquenois).  I don;t know of any field tests used for prescription drugs or other exotic drugs.  (I;m in NY where meth is still considered an exotic drug).

Field tests only test for the presence of the substance - they won't tell you purity or how much narcotic is actually in the recovered substance.  In NY, possesion of a controlled substance in the 4th degree can include possession an 8th of an ounce of a compound containing a narcotic like heroin or cocaine; the lesser degree offense involves possessing 500 milligrams, but that;s of cocaine rather than just a substance containing cocaine - that requires a lab report by a trained narcotics lab technologist.