Citation

Sulaiman M, Kunalan V, Whei AYT, Lee WLJ, Yee JNJ, Xiong SLW, Bian CK. Drug Test. Anal. 2018; 10(1): 109-119.

Affiliation

Illicit Drugs Laboratory, Applied Sciences Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dta.2238

PMID

28670869

Abstract

Heroin clandestine laboratories have been a feature of the Malaysian illicit drug scene soon after the abuse of heroin emerged in 1972. The first few heroin clandestine laboratories which synthesised heroin via the acetylation of imported morphine were uncovered in 1973 and 1977. By the mid 1980s this type of laboratories was replaced by heroin cutting laboratories whereby imported high grade heroin was cut to street heroin. This was to meet the rising demand for the drug owing to the rapid escalation of the number of drug users. Over the years, the most significant change in the composition of the street heroin is the decrease in its purity from 30-50% to 3-5%. Caffeine has remained the major adulterant and chloroquine is detected in virtually all recent seizures.

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Language: en

Keywords

Heroin No. 3; Heroin clandestine laboratories; chloroquine