Precision scales and volumetric dosing
This version has been translated from Polish and links to the relevant test kits have been added. In a life-threatening situation call 112. This article is informational and serves harm reduction. It does not encourage the use of psychoactive substances and does not replace medical advice.
A pocket scale reading to 0.1 g cannot see the difference between a light dose and a heavy one of anything active in milligrams, because 0.1 g is 100 mg and the entire useful range of many compounds sits inside one of its steps. For those substances the scale is not an accessory to the test kit, it is the more important purchase, and we would say so even though we sell the reagents.
Precision scale, 0.001 to 50 g, 24.10 EUR
When 0.001 g is not enough either
Even a milligram scale struggles below about 10 mg, because static, air movement and the weight of the paper you are weighing on all matter at that scale. Below 10 mg the answer is volumetric dosing: dissolve a weighed, larger amount into a measured volume of liquid, then measure the liquid. Dissolving 100 mg into 100 ml gives 1 mg per ml, and a syringe measures 0.1 ml far more reliably than any scale measures 0.1 mg.
Distilled water works for some compounds; ethanol or propylene glycol is used where solubility or stability requires it. Label the bottle, refrigerate it, and remember that solutions do not keep indefinitely.
Which substances need this
Anything where the common dose is under about 20 mg. That includes the substituted tryptamines such as 4-PrO-MET, 4-AcO-MET and 4-HO-MiPT, the research chemical benzodiazepines, the lysergamides, and several of the newer dissociatives where published dose ranges come from user reports rather than data.
The new tryptamines · alpha-PVP, MDPV and NEP · Substance library
The scale also makes the purity test work
A TLC plate estimates percentage by comparing your spot against a reference of known concentration, which only works if your sample is a known weight too. Eyeballed quantities produce spot intensities that mean nothing, so the scale is part of the purity method rather than a separate hobby.
What a TLC test does · TLC purity kit, 84.95 EUR
Questions?
Is a 0.01 g scale good enough?
For substances dosed in hundreds of milligrams, yes. For anything in single or double milligrams, no.
What is volumetric dosing?
Dissolving a weighed amount into a measured volume so you can measure a small dose as a liquid rather than as a powder.
Does the solution keep?
Not indefinitely. Refrigerate, keep it dark, label it with the concentration and the date.
Why does a reagent article recommend a scale first?
Because for these compounds the dose kills people more often than the identity does.