A number of illegal amphetamine tablets were seized from three different cities of Jazan province of southern Saudi Arabia and were analyzed for amphetamine and methamphetamine contents using LC-MS/MS technique. Analyses were performed using a previously reported method taking 0.1 M ammonium formate buffer (85%) and 15% acetonitrile with 0.1% formic acid as mobile phase with a total runtime of 12 min. This method was successfully applied for the routine analysis of amphetamine and methamphetamine in the seized tablets using amphetamine-D5 and methamphetamine-D5 as internal standards. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to establish the similarity between samples. The retention times (RT) for internal standard, amphetamine and methamphetamine were observed to be within 6.0–7.1 min. Ten tablet samples from each city were subjected to analysis and the amount of amphetamine in all the samples were found to be in the range of 9.07–14.77 mg, whereas, the amount of methamphetamine ranged from 0.12 to 0.24 mg in each tablet. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed presence of five clusters of samples indicating different characteristics and possible sources of amphetamine tablets. The largest cluster consisted of 15 samples which are expected to be of the same origin. Both amphetamine and methamphetamine are considered to be illegal products and their illegal trade and use is banned in many countries including Saudi Arabia. Therefore, there is an urgent need of strict regulations worldwide to check the illicit trafficking of these psychoactive substances and should be considered on priority.

从沙特阿拉伯南部贾赞省的三个不同城市中缉获了许多非法的苯丙胺药片，并使用LC-MS / MS技术分析了苯丙胺和甲基苯丙胺的含量。使用先前报道的方法进行分析，采用0.1 M甲酸铵缓冲液（85％）和15％乙腈与0.1％甲酸作为流动相，总运行时间为12分钟。该方法以苯丙胺-D5和甲基苯丙胺-D5为内标，成功地用于了缉获片剂中苯丙胺和甲基苯丙胺的常规分析。进行层次聚类分析以建立样本之间的相似性。观察到内标，苯丙胺和甲基苯丙胺的保留时间（RT）在6.0-7.1分钟内。对每个城市的十个片剂样品进行了分析，发现所有样品中的苯丙胺含量在9.07至14.77 mg之间，而每片中的甲基苯丙胺含量在0.12至0.24 mg之间。层次聚类分析表明存在五个样本簇，表明苯丙胺片的不同特性和可能来源。最大的群集由15个样本组成，这些样本预期具有相同的来源。苯丙胺和甲基苯丙胺都被视为非法产品，在包括沙特阿拉伯在内的许多国家都禁止其非法贸易和使用。因此，迫切需要在世界范围内采取严格的法规来检查这些精神活性物质的非法贩运，应优先考虑。