title: Illegal route estimation of the seized illicit drug, methamphetamine, by the comparison of striation marks on plastic packaging films.
abstract: In Japan, the most common illicit drug is methamphetamine. It is possible to trace the origin of this drug by analyzing its organic and 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 light method. Other alternative methods include analyzing the heat sealer pattern, layer thickness surface characteristics, and/or components of polymer sheet layers using infrared spectroscopy. Several of these alternative methods were used to analyze the origins of 29 packages confiscated from three regions over a 1000 km distance in Japan. Results indicated that packages seized from different regions had some polymer sheet layers which contained striation lines and heat sealer patterns that were similar.
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Police Science, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-0882, Japan.
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sasagawa
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki