Student research may help gardaí track super-drug

RESEARCH at University College Cork could help gardaí and other police forces identify the source of a highly dangerous illegal drug.

Super ecstasy is a hallucinogenic drug with longer-lasting effects than ecstasy tablets associated with dance music. It has been available for a few years, normally manufactured in makeshift labs here in Ireland and overseas, using amateur equipment.

The work being carried out at UCC’s department of chemistry is focusing on determining the impurities in the drug, by finding how different chemical methods give a slightly different balance of ingredients in the final product. This information can be used as a chemical fingerprint to monitor and identify drug trafficking supply chains.