National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy Background Paper: Monograph Series No. 69
1.4 Forms of illicit amphetamine-type stimulants
Table of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction- 1.1 Background to the National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy
- 1.2 Defining amphetamine-type stimulants
- 1.3 History of amphetamine-type stimulants
- 1.4 Forms of illicit amphetamine-type stimulants
- 1.5 Australian data collections
- 1.6 Availability
- 1.7 Price
- 1.8 Purity
- 1.9 Routes of administration
- 1.10 Summary
Chapter 2 Setting the Context- Chapter 3: Effects of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants
- Chapter 4: Prevention and Harm Reduction
- Chapter 5: Treatment and Service Provision
- Chapter 6: Law Enforcement
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
Meth/amphetamine
Until the late 1980s the form of amphetamine most available in Australia was amphetamine sulphate. During the 1990s, the proportion of ATS seizures that were methamphetamine (rather than amphetamine) steadily increased until methamphetamine dominated the market. Currently in Australia, the powder traditionally known as ‘speed’ is almost exclusively methamphetamine rather than amphetamine (Topp et al., 2002). Methamphetamine is available in a number of different forms as the result of different modes of production and levels of purity. Aside from more common forms of powder, base and crystal, methamphetamine sometimes used in the production of pills and in liquid form, referred to as ‘oxblood’ (Black et al., 2005). Variations in colour and texture occur because the purifying process involved in the manufacture of methamphetamine is complex and many manufacturers of the drug lack the relevant expertise. The result is a wide range of products at the end of the manufacturing process which look different and contain different impurities. As shown in Table 1.2, up until 2002 at least three types of meth/amphetamine could be viewed as distinct commodities:- speed, or methamphetamine powder that is locally manufactured, generally of low purity, and is usually administered by snorting or injecting;
- base or paste, which is a gluggy, pasty or oily kind of methamphetamine powder that is locally manufactured and often has a brown or yellow tinge due to the presence of iodine and other organic impurities; and
- crystal methamphetamine which is high purity, imported crystalline methamphetamine that comes in the form of large translucent to white crystals that are usually smoked or injected (Topp et al., 2002).
Table 1.2: Amphetamine types, forms and routes of administration
Source: Drug and Crime Prevention Committee (2004, p.28)
MDMA, or ecstasy
Like amphetamine, MDMA and its related compounds are amines that can exist either as volatile free bases or as salts of various acids (Kalant, 2001).While the free bases are volatile, the salts are quite soluble in water and can therefore be administered intravenously, orally or by snorting the powder (Kalant, 2001). MDMA is typically prepared in tablet or pill form and stamped with a wide variety of symbols, as shown in Figure 1.1. The tablets contain MDMA in varying amounts combined with other substances such as meth/amphetamine and ketamine (a dissociative anesthetic), while some contain no MDMA, but chemicals such as MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine), MDEA (3,4 Methylenedioxyethylamphetamine), or substances like caffeine or paracetamol (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre 2003). When selfreported use of MDMA was compared with urinalysis results, 44% of police detainees tested positive for methamphetamine not MDMA (Mouzos et al., 2007).Top of Page
Figure 1.1: MDMA (ecstasy) tablets
Source: Victorian Police
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