3-MMC, 4-MMC, 4-CMC: which cathinones are labs finding?
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.
Mostly not 3-MMC, which is the one almost everybody asks about. In the samples European drug checking services published over the first eight months of 2026, the cathinones turning up are 4-CMC, 2-MMC and 4-MMC, and 3-MMC appears four times in the whole set. The share of samples containing any cathinone has roughly tripled in the German and Swiss data, held steady in Slovenia, and not moved at all in Spain.
Mephedrone and cuts kit, 28.97 EUR
Cathinones as a share of tested samples
| Service | Where | Jan to Aug 2025 | Jan to Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| drugchecking | Switzerland, Germany | 14.3% | 42.6% |
| druglab | France | 14.8% | 26.5% |
| DrogArt | Slovenia | 19.8% | 24.3% |
| Energy Control | Spain | 2.0% | 1.7% |
Energy Control is the useful comparison here. Its sample count barely moved between the two years, 540 against 526, and its composition barely moved either, so the Spanish market genuinely has not taken this up. Whatever is happening is happening north of it.
Which ones, specifically
Cathinone detections across those services, January to August 2026:
| Compound | Samples |
|---|---|
| 4-CMC | 376 |
| 2-MMC | 320 |
| 4-MMC | 268 |
| NEP | 146 |
| 3-CMC | 78 |
| 4-BEC | 35 |
| 4-BMC | 25 |
| 3-MMC | 4 |
Read the top and the bottom of that table together. 3-MMC is the cathinone people ask about, by a wide margin, and it is the one the labs are not finding. 4-CMC and 2-MMC have taken its place, NEP has arrived from almost nothing, and 4-BEC and 4-BMC are new enough that most people reading this will not have heard of them.
How we counted this
Trend claims from this kind of data are easy to get wrong, so here is the method. We compared each service against itself, January to August in both years, and used only services with real volume in both. We excluded WEDINOS entirely: it contributed one record in 2025 and 2,153 in 2026, because that is when it was added to the database rather than when anything changed on the street. We also treat the DIZ and Saferparty records as one service, since the source label changed between the two years.
Counts are of samples containing a compound, so a sample holding both 4-CMC and caffeine appears in both rows.
Testing for them
Zimmermann is the anchor reagent for the family, mecke and marquis narrow it, and morris separates cathinones from cocaine and ketamine. Together they answer the question that matters first: is this a cathinone at all, or one of the stimulants being sold as one. Naming the specific cathinone is a laboratory job, and the kit is what tells you whether you need one.
Mephedrone and cuts kit, 28.97 EUR · Mephedrone purity and identification, 100.29 EUR · How to identify MMC and CMC
If the dose matters, weigh it
The compounds in that table are not interchangeable by weight and the market is substituting them for each other without telling anyone. A TLC purity test separates a sample into its components and estimates how much of each, which is the only way at home to find out that what you bought as one cathinone is another one, or two of them together.
TLC purity kit · What a TLC test does · Full lab analysis, 99 EUR
Questions?
Is 3-MMC gone?
From the published lab data, largely yes, at least in the services we compared. Four samples across eight months against 376 of 4-CMC. That is a statement about what labs received, not proof that nobody has any.
What is the difference between MMC and CMC?
A methyl group against a chlorine on the ring. Effects are reported as broadly similar, potency is not identical, and no reagent separates them. We wrote that up separately.
Is NEP new?
New in this data. It went from a single sample to 146 across the same services and months.
Can a reagent tell 4-CMC from 4-MMC?
No. It can indicate that a cathinone is present. Separating them needs chromatography or a laboratory.
Why does Spain look so different?
We do not know. Energy Control's sample mix is dominated by MDMA and 2C-B in both years, so it may be who walks into that service rather than what is on sale.