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Is there such a thing as "liquid molly" which is pure MDMA?
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Is there such a thing as "liquid molly" (or "liquid mollie") which is pure MDMA? I've seen a blue vile for sale for $20, containing a yellowish liquid with a bitter chemical smell. The seller claimed it was pure MDMA in liquid form. People were going crazy to get their hands on it. |
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There appear to be four distinct possibilities here as to what the substance in question might be:
- GHB.
- An MDMA salt dissolved in water.
- MDMA freebase.
- Something else entirely, or one of the above with adulterants or impurities.
- The reason for suggesting the possibility that this "liquid molly" is GHB is that "liquid ecstasy" and "liquid molly" are slang terms for GHB. You can read a previous Ask Erowid question about the term "liquid MDMA" being used for GHB, as well as check these forum threads which discuss "liquid molly":
http://www.erowid.org/ask/ask.php?ID=110
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?p=8583750
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51141
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=liquid%20ecstasy
While the above threads aren't definitive sources to cite for pharmacological or chemical observations, they are good places to see drug slang usage "in the wild". This is also a great example of the confusing and slippery nature of drug slang: GHB and MDMA are completely different chemicals with very different effects, yet in this case, GHB is being sold under what is effectively the name of another substance, since MDMA is much more commonly associated with the names "ecstasy" and "molly".
GHB generally has a strong salty/soapy flavor.
- If the substance in question is an MDMA salt (the most common form) dissolved in water, this would seem to indicate that some coloring was also added, as pure MDMA is a synthetic chemical compound that is a white crystalline powder. Alternately, it could be impurities in the MDMA leading to the yellow color. MDMA solution has a sharp/bitter flavor if the volume of water is relatively small per dose, for instance if 10ml held more than 10mg of MDMA, the liquid should have a distinct detectable chemical taste.
- While MDMA is almost always found in hydrochloride salt form as a powder/crystals, it also has a freebase form that occurs as a liquid oil. Both can accurately be called "pure MDMA", just two different chemical forms.
The freebase form is an oil that is initially colorless, but which changes color to yellow or brown upon exposure to air. This could match the description you provide, although you don't describe whether the liquid you saw was watery or oily. If it were MDMA freebase, it would be distinctly thicker than water.
However, in our opinion, this is somewhat unlikely given how uncommon this form of MDMA is on the black market (Erowid has only seen it once).
- It is also possible, of course, that the substance in question is none of the above, or some combination of the above with impurities from synthesis, active adulterants, inactive adulterants, etc.
When all is said and done, the best thing to do would be to have a trustworthy lab test the substance to determine what it is and what its purity level is. A service such as ecstasydata.org (http://www.ecstasydata.org/send_sample.php) can test samples of such material and identify the substances present, if sent in a clean container. Just make sure to identify what you're sending on a note with the sample.
Though not nearly as reliable or comprehensive as lab testing, there are also home and "field" test kits that could be of some use.
http://www.erowid.org/mdma/mdma_faq_testing_kits.shtml
http://dancesafe.org/products/testing-kits
While these won't give you a definitive answer as to what the tested material is, it may at least be able to provide you with increased confidence that what you expect to be present is present in some concentration. Or it could tell you if what you expect to be present isn't there at all. These tests can reliably rule out substances: if the Marquis reagent does NOT react with it, it is definitely NOT MDMA. On the flip side, these tests cannot confirm the presence of any drug: if the Marquis reagent does react with the material, that tells you the substance contains one of the many chemicals that Marquis reacts with.
One more important note regarding home test kits: it may be necessary to allow the liquid solvent to evaporate off of the sample that's being tested. Some Marquis reagent test kits specifically have the warning "these tests are NOT designed for use with liquid samples". If the substance in question is MDMA powder in a solvent, the solvent (water? alcohol?) can be evaporated off. But if it is freebase MDMA, this won't be possible, as the liquid itself is what needs to be tested. In this case, the reagent test kit may or may not work as expected. We've been unable to find specific information about anyone using reagent tests on freebase MDMA.
Unfortunately, with the data provided, it's difficult to narrow down the answer further. A "yellowish liquid" and a "bitter chemical smell" could describe many, many things, including any number of possibilities not included here. However, considering the context in which the substance was found and what it was described as, the above four possibilities seem the most likely. In these situations they is no substitute for impeccably trustworthy sources and/or reliable chemical analysis.
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Categories:
[ Chemical ID ]
[ MDMA (Ecstasy) ]
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