If you’re new to the drug testing scene, you likely have no idea what reagents you need, and may only have a vague idea of what they do.
Starting from the basics, reagent testing kits are chemical mixtures that react with a given compound(drug) such as MDMA, and produce a predictable color when they come in contact with that drug. For MDMA and Marquis reagent, the color change thats seen (when its pure) is a deep purple to near black color. Marquis is probably the most popular of all drug testing reagents, as it reacts with a very broad range of drugs and compounds. But what about the other reagents tests that are offered on our website, which of those are helpful for testing MDMA?
I would like to go through test-by-test and describe our personal recommendations for molly testing reagents and explain why we recommend each.
Marquis Reagent- The gold standard
We have already described in another post, the chemistry behind why exactly marquis reagent works, but in short, it reacts with nitrogen groups in a compound to produce a specific color for each drug. Unfortunately, sometimes two different drugs may have a nearly identical reaction with a given reagent, such as MDMA and MDA with marquis reagent( both turn purple-black). So you can’t always depend on the reagents to produce a specific reaction. This is why multiple tests are recommended when testing a compound, because the more reagents you use, your confidence increase since you reduce the risk of a false positive.
Methylone, a drug thats one of the more common drugs sold as molly, will turn a bright yellow color. Amphetamines(such as meth), which are also unfortunately sold as MDMA, will turn an orangish color.
Right here we have great insight into why Marquis reagent is so versatile because we can use it to differentiate between 3 of the most common drugs sold as molly.
Mecke Reagent for MDMA
Much like Marquis, Mecke changes to a dark purplish color when testing pure MDMA. It may have a slightly more olive-green color before turning purple black, but it’s generally regarded that marquis,mecke and mandelin turn a similar color when testing pure MDMA within 60 seconds (a dark black)
If your “molly” turns yellow with Mecke, you can have a strong suspicion that you may have been sold a bath salt like methylone or butylone, since these cathinones turn a yellowish collor with mecke, instead of olive-black like MDMA should
It also acts as a good negative control for amphetamines, since it should not react with them. So, if marquis turned orange, and mecke doesn’t change color at all, you have another confirmation that you have some type of amphetamine instead of MDMA.
Mandelin Reagent for MDMA
Mandelin is particularly useful for testing molly samples, because it’s able to detect a potential deadly adulterant that is now rarely(thankfully) sold as MDMA. That drug is PMA/PMMA. A good question would be why do people sell a deadly drug as MDMA? Well one of the classic precursors in MDMA synthesis is safrole oil. As this precursor became harder to find, it’s possible that unscrupulous precursor vendors sold fennel oil, which smells similar to safrole oil, to black-market labs looking to synthesize MDMA. These labs then unknowingly synthesize PMA/PMMA, and the rest is history.
Mandelin reagent will turn a greenish brown with PMA/PMMA, instead of a dark-black color with MDMA. And while PMA is rare in the US, was reported to be seen as recently as the year 2001 in a Mitsubishi pill sold as MDMA. PMA is much more frequently seen in Europe, even in the last decade.
Simon’s Reagent for MDMA
Lastly, we have Simon’s reagent. Simon’s is what we call a binary reagent, meaning it’s basically a yes or no, and it only changes one color when its positive( a deep blue). What it tests for is the presence of a secondary amine group (which is a nitrogen that has two carbons attached.) So every drug that Simon’s reacts with will theoretically have a secondary amine group.
Why is this useful for testing Molly?
Well, we have already covered most of the common drugs that are sold as molly: MDMA, amphetamine, and bath salts(methylone/butylone etc.), however one other important drug we didn’t mention is MDA (also known as sass or sassafras)
What makes testing MDA tricky, is the fact that it has the same exact reactions as MDMA for marquis, mecke, AND mandelin. This is because structurally, MDMA and MDA and very similar. However, MDA is a primary amine, and MDMA is a secondary amine. Therefore, MDMA will react to turn a bright blue with MDMA and will not change color at all with MDA.
In short Simon’s is necessary to tell MDMA from MDA
This post should give you a good broad overview for why we include Marquis, Mecke, Mandelin and Simon’s reagent in our MDMA test kit package, and now you even understand some of the chemistry behind some of these tests as well.
Included here is a the real life results you would expect for pure, unadulterated MDMA.
Please share this article if you found it informative, and as always reach out to us if you have any harm reduction questions at all.
Elevation Chemicals Molly test kit package can be found below at this link.