Test Kits Useless?

[Broshious]

SWIM searched but doesn't believe this article is on here so here goes:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/462698_print


Putting an Ecstasy Test Kit to the Test: Harm Reduction or Harm Induction?

This resulted in five false positives and two false negatives for Novice A, and five false positives with no false negatives for Novice B.

So basically one found no MDMA when it was there and ID'd only Morphine as positive for MDMA. Novice B only had two negatives, Ketamine and d-Norpropoxyphene. He thought Codeine, Dihydrocodeine, Dextromethorphan, and Morphine were positive for MDMA as well as the two MDMA samples.


The DanceSafe Complete Adulterant Screening Kit is inadequate for identifying MDMA in the hands of inexperienced users. On no occasion in this study would our findings have led to avoidance of a contaminated drug. These tests have the potential to provide a false sense of security, encouraging the consumption of tablets whose composition is in question irrespective of the potential toxicities associated with MDMA use. Several toxic ingredients may contaminate tablets sold as MDMA. The kits we studied failed to identify several potential contaminants. Further, the test reagents themselves caused injury to a tester and damage to the surroundings. Although colorimetric tests such as these may have a place in the hands of experienced personnel for forensic purposes, a decision to ingest a tablet should not be made solely on the basis of these tests. Indeed, a defective identification process can lead to "harm induction" rather than "harm reduction."

Sorry that the formatting sucks SWIM doesn't know how to do it quite right.