Precursor chemicals: new alternatives for amphetamines available

Drug precursors are essential chemicals needed to manufacture illicit drugs. As many of these have legitimate uses, EU regulations schedule certain chemicals, and their trade is monitored and controlled. The availability of precursors has a large impact on the market and on the production methods used in illicit laboratories. In 2015, producers continued to circumvent control mechanisms by introducing non-scheduled chemicals to produce drug precursors close to production locations. This practice, however, increases the risk of detection, as more processing requires more chemicals and creates more waste.

Data on seizures and stopped shipments of drug precursors confirm the use of both scheduled and nonscheduled substances in the production of illicit drugs in the European Union, in particular for amphetamines and MDMA. The amphetamine precursor BMK (benzyl methyl ketone) was seized in large quantities in 2015, with Polish authorities seizing 7 000 kilograms in a single shipment linked to production in the Netherlands. The control of the BMK precursor APAAN (alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile) in late 2013 appears to have had an impact, with seizures falling from 48 000 kilograms in 2013 to 780 kilograms in 2015. However, this control measure appears to have prompted some innovative developments, with alternative chemicals such as APAA (alpha-phenylacetoacetamide) and glycidic derivatives of BMK reported for the first time in 2015.

Seizures of non-scheduled MDMA pre-precursors remained steady at around 5 500 kilograms. However, while safrole seizures were negligible, PMK seizures resumed, with the Netherlands reporting 622 kilograms in 2015 compared to zero in 2014.

Summary of seizures and stopped shipments of precursors used for selected synthetic drugs produced in the European Union, 2015