Purity - not quite right mdma?

[p$2]

last month swip$ came upon some "mdma" sold loose by weight in the english capital area. it did not have the kind of crystally transparent appearence swip$ has come to associate with purity in this particular substance. actually the look of the product reminded swip$ of asprin. indeed upon tasting it had a bittersweet taste which also brought asparin to mind. because of this, swip$ rather foolishly speculated the product was of low purity and proceeded to eat over a quarter gram of this stuff. swip$ friend remarked that although there was indeed a slight bittersweet taste present he would speculate that the product was at least 75% pure. swip$ would subsequently agree with this because swip$ was rolling hard after eating that dose; very characteristic mdma effects.

although swip$ had speculated that this funny product had simply been mixed with crushed up asprin (or something else.... caffeine?) at the level of the "retail" dealer swip$ came across the same product more recently.. a dealer swip$ knows and considers reasonably trustworthy has some of it and said something like, "i need to sell it but i think there's something not quite right about it." he then allowed swip$ to try some for free. again the same potent product.
so could it be that the product has either been adulterated in a more sophisticated fashion (mixed in solution then recrystallised) at a wholesale level or that the odd taste and texture is a result of some different manufacturing process? the trustworthy dealer was concerned about the latter.
swip$ may acquire some more of the same and do a marquis reagent test on it, but would be very surprised if it would show up as anything other than high-ish purity mdXa. having observed threads on methamphetamine production, swip$ realised that the "crystally" stuff is not nescessarily purer, it just looks purer because it makes the presence of powdered adulterants a bit harder to detect visually.

swip$ knows these kind of threads speculating on purity of street drugs are not always constructive, but would nevertheless be interested if others have come across the substance described.

[thv20]

Obviously the test SWIY mentioned is important, please post results here. A photo of the substance might also be helpful (well, interesting but in no way conclusive in determining purity)
Has SWIY encountered piperazine stuff yet? Some enjoy it, many don't, but it could be that SWIY is one of the lucky ones in that respect.

[RaverHippie]

If no negative reports have followed the product then it would be safe to assume that it is okay and good to look out for since its consistency is so unique. It even has almost a trademark since it strays from the normal crystalline powder.

[p$2]

swip$ does not think this stuff is pips... pips are nasty and this stuff is niiiice

as regards the marguis reagent test it might also be interesting to dissolve it in acetone and recook it slowly to get it to crystallise, just to prove a theory. kinda like this nice pictorial in the meth chemistry forum:
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10006

swip$ kind of thinks the marquis test might not tell swip$ more than swip$ already knows, it would confirm the presence of mdma-family chemicals but not give any indication of the presence of other adulterants (other than speed and even then the "red" speed colour can be obscured by the "purple" md- colour). still it wouldn't do any harm to test all and every batch of md- as a matter of course.

p$2 added 57 Minutes and 15 Seconds later...

^^^for clarification: the thread linked to actually refers to dissolving in water then recrystallising, although the acetone wash is another interesting idea, if one can obtain anhydrous acetone.

[RaverHippie]

actually you may want to browse the thread about washing ecstasy tablets in acetone because you can make anhydrous acetone at home with OTC supplies.

here's the thread I mentioned. It's stickied at the top of the ecstasy forum. http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29652

[p$2]

yeah RH i had a wee look at that pill-wash thread but good you mentioned it for the sake of having a clear reference in thisthread. i will re-read over it in detail when i have the time.