i've got no experience identifying white powdery overseas stuff and it seems you don't either (and that's not necessarily a bad thing). so i was wondering why you were asked to identify the stuff.

The anticipation is killing me!

My only thought would be to take it to a local testing laboratory. Not the solution that you would want.

I was in on the bust and had the test kits in my brief case. Turned out to be very high grade cocaine. Not the kind of quantity you read about in the newspaper, but it was uncut.

GFC - I was hoping / assuming that was the case with you given your past occupation. I was curious about CJS, though.

Coming from a Chemical Engineering background, sticking a torch to any unknown is not what i'd call a proper scientific approach. If that powdery material happened to be something like Magnesium, you'd have an issue on your hands pretty quick. Not to mention flaming a powder can be explosive or result in oxidation of said substance which could result in toxic gas release. Is there a college around with a chem department??

wouldn't it be safer from a toxidity perspective if the powder was doused in kerosene before torching it?

absolutely kidding here, folks. don't try that at home (or anywhere else for that matter).

"Really Officer, it's not coke, it's Boron Nitride!"

To test the stuff with a torch, you'd only need a very teensy tiny bit. Like, draw a dot with a pencil---a pile that big is oodles to test to see if it'll melt or vaporize.

Well, it melted.

Bruce, I work for a consulting firm that reverse-engineers products, mostly foods. Sometimes we get a referral from outside the food industry. A client asked us to review an existing product to see if it would be feasible to offer something competitive at a lower price. I just have to tell him what I think it is, and he does the rest.

Sure its not malamine?

interesting job. do your business cards read from right to left?

Yep, but they don't make any sense!

Ahhh, Bluce, you velly funny guy.

or maybe it looks like this:

detaroprocni gnireenigne esrever