Reagents are colour reactions. They never fully identify a substance, but they can rule out many of the worst adulterants in seconds. A drop of reagent on a tiny scraping of the sample produces a colour that either matches what the substance should do, or does not. This guide lists the common kits, the colours they produce, and what those colours usually mean. Nothing here is dosing advice. Nothing here is a green light.
- 01Marquis first for any powder or pressed pill.
- 02Follow with Mecke and Mandelin to cross-check the initial colour.
- 03Add Liebermann if a cathinone is possible, Ehrlich for anything sold as LSD.
- 04Simon's or Robadope to tell MDMA from MDA and methamphetamine from amphetamine.
- 05Scott for cocaine. Zimmermann for benzodiazepines. Morris for ketamine.
- 06Always follow with a fentanyl strip on opioids, powders and anything unexpected.
The oldest and most useful first check. Reacts with a huge range of substances.
use · Best for MDMA, amphetamines, opioids and 2C-x. First reagent in almost every workflow.
Selenious acid in sulfuric acid. Sharpens the picture for opioids and MDx.
use · Pair with Marquis to confirm MDMA versus a substituted amphetamine, and to catch DXM.
Ammonium metavanadate in sulfuric acid. Very colourful. Useful for ketamine.
use · One of the few common reagents that reacts distinctively with ketamine.
Sodium nitrite in sulfuric acid. Excellent for catching cathinones.
use · Use when you suspect a substituted cathinone sold as MDMA or coke.
Dimethylaminobenzaldehyde. The go-to test for indoles.
use · Confirms LSD, psilocybin, DMT and other tryptamines. Distinguishes real LSD from NBOMe.
Molybdic acid in sulfuric acid. Useful confirmatory reagent.
use · Cross-check MDMA, opioids and 2C-x results.
Two-part reagent. Detects secondary amines.
use · Distinguishes MDMA (positive, deep blue) from MDA (negative). Also flags methamphetamine.
Cinnamaldehyde in ethanol. The other secondary amine test.
use · Same purpose as Simon's, sometimes faster on cold samples.
Dinitrobenzene in KOH. The benzodiazepine test.
use · Screens pressed pills sold as Xanax, Valium, Ativan and their designer analogues.
A two-part test used for ketamine and MXE style dissociatives.
use · Confirms ketamine when Mandelin is inconclusive.
Three-step reagent. The cocaine test.
use · Distinguishes cocaine from lidocaine, benzocaine, procaine and other cutting agents.
Immunoassay strip. Not a colour reagent but the single most important field test right now.
use · Dissolve a small amount of the substance in water. One line = fentanyl present. Two lines = below cutoff. Test everything, especially anything sold as heroin, oxy, xanax, coke or MDMA.
- > Colours vary with light, temperature, sample size and how old your reagent is. Fresh reagents in daylight give the truest read.
- > A positive reaction does not tell you the dose. Fentanyl-contaminated MDMA can still test as MDMA on Marquis.
- > No reagent detects everything. A "clean" set of reactions does not mean the substance is safe.
- > Colour charts are a starting point. Cross-reference with DanceSafe, EcstasyData and TripSit before you commit to an identification.