UK - Concerns grow over 'PMA', a drug compound similar to ecstasy which has been impl

[edgarshade]

Concerns grow over 'PMA', a drug compound similar to ecstasy which has been implicated in 17 deaths in 2012 alone

Indepenent

Jonathan Brown
Wednesday 26 February 2014

With reader comments

Its affects are unpredictable and potentially lethal. Yet no one knows exactly how many of the estimated 30 million ecstasy pills consumed each year in Britain contain it. Growing concerns over the use of para-Methoxyamphetamin – better known simply as PMA - were highlighted again yesterday when a judge jailed a man for supplying his girlfriend with pills laced with the illegal chemical.

Nicole Tomlinson, 19, was among nearly 20 people to die in 2012 after taking the substance. The teenager had believed she was swallowing ecstasy purchased by James Meaney, 22, the father of her two-year-old son. He had bought them at a party in Darlington, Co Durham, but like many who take the drug unwittingly, Ms Tomlinson thought they were not working at first and took three to boost the effect.

Sentencing Meaney to seven months in jail at Teesside Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to supplying class A drugs, Judge Tony Briggs admitted he had never heard of PMA. “The absolutely lethal effects of it ought to be more widely known,” he said. "The danger needing to be emphasised is people think it's not working and take more, and the dose is doubled or trebled,” he added.

Many regular ecstasy users, believed to number around 500,000 in the UK, are blithely unaware of the fatal gamble posed by a substance that has been around for as long as MDMA – the active ingredient in the notorious dance drug which itself resulted in the deaths of around 35 people a year between 2006-10.

More...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...cated-in-17-deaths-in-2012-alone-9155502.html

 

[somnilicious]

I once knew a guy who died in 1999-2000 due to a Mitsubishi pill that contained PMA. Him and some friends went to an after hours club in Orlando. They started collapsing and overheating in the club. The owners threw them out because of how intoxicated they appeared to be. Two of the guys died in a hotel room the other one was treated at the hospital and survived. I mentioned in an other thread that during this time period I only knew of one person who had ever gotten a fake x pill but reading this article made me remember this tragedy. It is a shame that this is still happening 15yrs later. My thoughts go out to all the friends and families of the victims of PMA.

 

[Cambo]

If my memory serves me there was no MDMA between 2006-10 in the UK, I doubt 35 people died from it in total through they years let alone each year. Piperazines maybe yes.

 

[sartorius]

If my memory serves me there was no MDMA between 2006-10 in the UK, I doubt 35 people died from it in total through they years let alone each year. Piperazines maybe yes.

Newspapers don't let facts get in the way of a story. Particularly if it's concerning drugs.

 

[Si Dread]

& of course there absolutely was MDMA around & if you have/had the right connections, it's always around! Pills with MDMA in them can be thin on the ground during periods of high popularity & those that do contain genuine MDMA are likely to have less active compound in them. But even during the heaviest drought, MDMA is definitely still around, just not as plentiful or quite as easy to get hold of!

 

[PlayHard]

& of course there absolutely was MDMA around & if you have/had the right connections, it's always around! Pills with MDMA in them can be thin on the ground during periods of high popularity & those that do contain genuine MDMA are likely to have less active compound in them. But even during the heaviest drought, MDMA is definitely still around, just not as plentiful or quite as easy to get hold of!

Well if you go over to pillreports - and have a look at what was floating around between 2005-2010 as far as pills go you will see there wasnt to many around which contained mdma. The market was flooded with crap for years & if you did come across a pill containing mdma i guess you were lucky - There may of been crystal here and there but there was more bunk pills than anything!

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

They say this as if PMA is a new thing.
There was a bad wave of PMA 1.5-2 years ago in western canada, at one show I was at I think 5 kids overdosed on it, well supposedly.
How about the problem not being the drug but the inability to control the spread of the drug due to the unregulation of the drug market.
Maybe if people had access to pure laboratory produced mdma this wouldn't happen.
ONE CAN ONLY DREAM RIGHT?

 

[my3rdeye]

They say this as if PMA is a new thing.
There was a bad wave of PMA 1.5-2 years ago in western canada, at one show I was at I think 5 kids overdosed on it, well supposedly.
How about the problem not being the drug but the inability to control the spread of the drug due to the unregulation of the drug market.
Maybe if people had access to pure laboratory produced mdma this wouldn't happen.
ONE CAN ONLY DREAM RIGHT?

The weird thing about that is there was lots of good cheap powder at the time, there didn't seem to be an MDMA drought in Western Canada then as far as i could tell. Just all of a sudden bam PMA killed a bunch of people.
It seems to have stopped, probably the person making it got a bullet as MDMA is controlled by gangs and PMA hurts profits and brings heat.