MDMA
HEIGHT OF
ecstasy
Summer brings the festivals
– and a new young crowd
experimenting with MDMA.
Kevin Flemen gives the
guide to staying safe
‘W
ho is Leah Betts?’ The question, from a recently qualified
social worker on an NPS course, brought home to me
some important issues. Leah died in 1995, aged 18, after
using MDMA and drinking a large quantity of water.
Campaigns by her family, the media and advertising
agencies saw her posthumously become the ‘poster girl’
for the dangers of MDMA.
That was 1995, and my newly-qualified social worker was a baby when this
happened. She and a whole cohort of children and young adults have not grown up
in the shadow of Leah’s death. They didn’t read about it in the papers, see the video
at school or learn about it from earnest drug educators.
This matters now more than ever. This MDMA-naïve generation are going out at
a time when MDMA pills have never been as strong, cheap, or widely available.
Alongside the pills containing dangerous adulterants, powder and crystal MDMA
may also be adulterated or misidentified.
Alongside the Leah question, I hear another: ‘Frank – is that still going?’ The days
when the drugs helpline enjoyed TV adverts and a budget allowing for innovative
cross-platform promotion are long gone. It became a casualty of cuts along with the
club outreach that helped reduce the risks to a generation of young people.
So with exams coming to an end and the festival season underway, it is
imperative that those MDMA harm reduction messages are dusted off, refreshed
and communicated to the new generation of users.
As ever, drug terms and slang vary from place to place and over time. The drug
MDMA is variously known as Mandy, Molly, ecstasy, E and XTC and some young people
may not be aware of its ‘proper’ name. Terms may link to form (‘ecstasy’ had referred
primarily to pills, MDMA to powder and crystals) but this isn’t always the case.
Pill strength has increased significantly over the past couple of years and has
become a key concern. There is no routine, consistent monitoring of available pill
strengths in the UK, so comparisons are partly estimates. Back in the late ’80s and
early ’90s, MDMA pills contained around 80mg per pill and would retail for £5-10.
Looking at the range of pills currently available on dark web sites such as Dream
Market, there are a few at the 160mg mark but most claim strength of between
220mg and 250mg, so average pill strength has probably trebled.
New production methods and the massive marketplace that is the dark web
have seen manufacturers competing on strength and price, so low cost is no longer
14 | drinkanddrugsnews | July/August 2017
indicative of a low-dosed pill. For older users accustomed to swallowing two or
three pills at a time, or for younger users with no tolerance, these high dose pills
can cause fatal overdoses.
Crystal contamination
Just as pills can vary significantly in terms of dose and composition, the same is true
for products sold as powder or crystal MDMA. Alternative substances or adulterants
may be present and whereas one can check online for pill warnings, powders and
crystals are harder to identify visually.
Looking at submissions to the Welsh testing site WEDINOS, samples bought as
powder or crystal MDMA contained a range of compounds including previously
legal NPS such as methylone, mephedrone and a-PVP, alongside cocaine, caffeine,
speed and a host of other compounds.
There is no easy way for end users to assess pill strength, or the content of powders
and crystals. The claimed strength of dark web retailers cannot be relied on, and as fast
as ‘genuine’ pills are sold online, fake ones are likely to appear on the streets.
Other options for information include Erowid’s Ecstasy Data (www.ecstasydata.org)
the user-run Pill Report (pillreports.net) and WEDINOS, (www.wedinos.org) from Public
Health Wales. Each carries useful information on components or user experience, but
little on pill strengths.
Thanks to the efforts of The Loop (wearetheloop.org), club and festival pill
testing has increased, and at a small but growing number of events it is now
possible to have drugs tested and results passed back to users and health
professionals in a short timeframe.
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