PENNSYLVANIA, United States – April 2020: The Centre for Forensic Research & Education (CFRSE) recently issued a public health alert on the increasing prevalence of eutylone (bk-EBDB) and benzylone (BMDP) in forensic casework all around the United States in recent months, following the scheduling of N-ethylpentylone (N-ethylnorpentylone or ephylone) in the United States in August 2019, in response to its prevalence and contributions to mortality. Both substances were first identified in the second quarter of 2019 and each substance has since been associated with more than 50 seized drug and forensic toxicology cases. To date, benzylone has been identified primarily in seized drug cases whilst eutylone has been identified primarily in forensic toxicology cases including postmortem and DUID investigations. The public health alert also provides recommendations to public health officials, clinicians, medical examiners, coroners and forensic laboratory personnel.
N-ethylpentylone was included in Schedule II of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 in 2019. Between 2016 to 2019, 124 reports of the substance identified in seized materials were submitted by 41 countries to the UNODC Early Warning Advisory (EWA). Also during the same period, 20 reports of eutylone and 14 reports ofbenzyloneidentified in seized materials were submitted by 19 countries to the UNODC EWA.
Figure 1: Chemical structures of Eutylone and Benzylone
Source: The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education, 2020.
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