Resumen de Illegal route estimation of the seized illicit drug, methamphetamine, by the comparison of striation marks on plastic packaging films
Ritsuko Sugita, Kaoru Sasagawa, Shinichi Suzuki
In Japan, the most common illicit drug is methamphetamine. It is possible to trace the origin of this drug by analyzing its organicand inorganic impurities and ⁄ or byproducts using several methods, such as GC, GC ⁄ MS, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). As reported here, one other method includes comparison of the striation lines of polymer sheet layers from packaging using a polarized lightmethod. Other alternative methods include analyzing the heat sealer pattern, layer thickness surface characteristics, and ⁄ or components of polymersheet layers using infrared spectroscopy. Several of these alternative methods were used to analyze the origins of 29 packages confiscated from threeregions over a 1000 km distance in Japan. Results indicated that packages seized from different regions had some polymer sheet layers which con-tained striation lines and heat sealer patterns that were similar
