UK - Ecstasy: the new generation

[edgarshade]

The Herald

Sunday 9 February 2014

With reader comments

Behind the scenes of dancefloor euphoria in clubs aross the country is "an endless cat-and-mouse game" between criminal drug producers and the police.

It is a game in which the criminals are gaining ground. It had seemed the widespread use of ecstasy, the drug which fuelled the rave scene 20 years ago, had faded, replaced by other stimulants including alcohol and cocaine. But the tragic death of 17-year-old Regane MacColl in a Glasgow club last weekend suggests ecstasy is back in new and dangerous forms. Doctors have reported a recent rise in the numbers of patients arriving at A&E units after taking ecstasy, with one major hospital in Glasgow now seeing up to 10 people in every weekend, some as young as 15. And analysts suggest ecstasy production is recovering from a lull brought about by various factors, including a crackdown by China on smuggling one of the main ingredients used to make ecstasy, or MDMA. Laurent Laniel, scientific analyst at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, said the availability of MDMA had dropped between 2009-11. But he added there were signs ecstasy production was now picking up again in a "big way", with manufacturers sourcing other ingredients to make the drug. He said: "There have been seizures or dismantlement of very large labs manufacturing MDMA, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands, which is where ecstasy manufacturing is concentrated in Europe. "Every time they find a new substance to make their drugs, we control it and make it difficult for them to procure it, but then they jump to another one.

In the 1990s, the most high-profile ecstasy death was Leah Betts, who died after taking the drug at her 18th birthday party. A picture of her on a life-support machine became a defining image for anti-drugs campaigns.

Kenny Simpson, a drugs expert at Police Scotland's STOP unit, said issues around "quality control" of ecstasy ranged from those containing in excess of 200mg of MDMA - around a 30-50% increase in strength compared to previous years - to pills containing other controlled drugs.

One 18-year-old regular at The Arches who was there last Saturday said: "You see ecstasy everywhere - it is not as if it is one place, anywhere you go it is happening. I don't take it myself, but it is really common. "To be honest I wasn't shocked [at the ecstasy death], more that she was underage. "Last Saturday I got asked for my identification twice going in to The Arches and they don't let you in without being searched." The clubber said Regane MacColl's death was likely to be an "eye-opener" for a lot of people, but she added: "Is it going to change people's behaviour? Probably not."

More...
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/ecstasy-the-new-generation.23387867

 

[ComfortablyNumb95]

replaced by other stimulants including alcohol and cocaine.

yeah right
anyways, they talk about "ecstasy" like you always find pure MDMA in pills. but i don't think they are wary of the fact that you can find any kind of shit in "ecstasy", and that pure MDMA isn't likely to cause death unless you take a very very high amount that is.
also

"Every time they find a new substance to make their drugs, we control it and make it difficult for them to procure it, but then they jump to another one.

i wasn't aware of the fact that you could make MDMA from many things other than sassafrass (spelling?) or maybe nutmeg (but here i think it's MDA) but i may very well be wrong - my chemistry and synthesis knowledge is too limited

The clubber said Regane MacColl's death was likely to be an "eye-opener" for a lot of people, but she added: "Is it going to change people's behaviour? Probably not."

yeah, because all the people taking MDMA responsibly (testing their gear, dosing carefully) and having a great time should now stop because someone died from a likely unstested pill/substance. it's like saying, someone dies of heart attack on an rollercoaster knowing he has heart issues so everyone should stop taking rides on roller coasters. if by "changing behaviour" he means testing the pills before taking them and using HR precautions I very much agree though

 

[Si Dread]

I don't believe there are a huge number of ways to produce MDMA without the usual precursors. I think the article is referring to drugs such as bk-mdma, which is of course quite often mis-sold as MDMA, which is produced using differing precursors & techniques to MDMA & is also, apparently, easier.

I don't feel that the prevelance of new drugs sold as MDMA is much more likely to bring health problems than MDMA itself. Health problems, often serious, do regularly occur with MDMA use, even light use, & it shouldn't be assumed that every death associated with "Ecstasy" is one that might have been avoided had pure MDMA been used instead. I doubt there are much statistics for bk-mdma reactions & fatalities but perhaps one day it might be possibe to ascertain if bk-mdma or MDMA itself are the more dangerous.

 

[caballero]

I don't believe there are a huge number of ways to produce MDMA without the usual precursors. I think the article is referring to drugs such as bk-mdma, which is of course quite often mis-sold as MDMA, which is produced using differing precursors & techniques to MDMA & is also, apparently, easier.

I don't feel that the prevelance of new drugs sold as MDMA is much more likely to bring health problems than MDMA itself. Health problems, often serious, do regularly occur with MDMA use, even light use, & it shouldn't be assumed that every death associated with "Ecstasy" is one that might have been avoided had pure MDMA been used instead. I doubt there are much statistics for bk-mdma reactions & fatalities but perhaps one day it might be possibe to ascertain if bk-mdma or MDMA itself are the more dangerous.

I think you're talking bollocks to be honest. Pills containing PMA are a huge worry in the UK, and MUCH more dangerous than MDMA.

bk-MDMA (Methylone) was legal and widely available before the Cathinone ban, but i have seen nothing to suggest it's widespread use in "ecstasy" in the UK since. In the USA it's a different story as it reportedly widely sold as "Molly".

 

[poledriver]

Kenny Simpson, a drugs expert at Police Scotland's STOP unit, said issues around "quality control" of ecstasy ranged from those containing in excess of 200mg of MDMA - around a 30-50% increase in strength compared to previous years - to pills containing other controlled drugs.

And this is why it's a good argument to legalise it and make it with quality control at set, labeled doses in clean industrial pharmaceutical environments by highly trained chemists. But of course that will never happen, so we will always have the problem of more people being harmed than should, because alot of the time they don't know what they are dosing or what chemicals are being taken, testing with reagents is good and all, but hardly a complete analysis and doesn't tell you how strong the substance is in terms of mg's.

 

[Si Dread]

I think you're talking bollocks to be honest. Pills containing PMA are a huge worry in the UK, and MUCH more dangerous than MDMA.

bk-MDMA (Methylone) was legal and widely available before the Cathinone ban, but i have seen nothing to suggest it's widespread use in "ecstasy" in the UK since. In the USA it's a different story as it reportedly widely sold as "Molly".

I have seen plenty of people in BL's EADD who are recieving bk-MDMA/mephedrone instead of MDMA.

I don't think that there are many MDMA-like drugs that are as likely to cause harm as PMA though, obviously.

The constant use of the term MDMA to refer to "new" substances in "Ecstasy" tablet is innacurate. The article refers to "new drugs" used to produce Ecstasy tablets but also refers to "precursors. I feel that there is some confusion here.

"But he added there were signs ecstasy production was now picking up again in a "big way", with manufacturers sourcing other ingredients to make the drug.
.
"Every time they find a new substance to make their drugs, we control it and make it difficult for them to procure it, but then they jump to another one."

This "new substance to make their drugs" to which they refer is not, I suspect, a new synthesis technique to produce MDMA but more likely a new drug (such as Methylone or 5-mapb, perhaps 4-fa) to use in Ecstasy tablets instead of MDMA. I don't feel that any of those drugs pose any bigger a risk to life than MDMA itself. I'm sure data will come to light in future that will support or undermine my view.

PMA does of course pose a huge risk to health!

 

[Lazaraus45]

does anyone have a link to the number of deaths proven to be caused solely by MDMA with no other substances or adulterants taken with it?

 

[poledriver]

No, but I recall we were discussing an article a while ago on here about quite a few deaths and some really sick people from some rave in America (San Fran?) where they had huge doses of what I believe what MDMA on the tox reports.

 

[Si Dread]

The older the deaths from MDMA, the more likely they are due to pure doses. Some are obviously large doses, I knew people happy to take 8 or 10 pills a night back in 1993, so there's obviously alot of scope for overdoses with that kind of tolerance. Deaths from pure MDMA, at low doses outside of the rave enviroment are extraordinarily rare. I remember that, despite the fact that MDMA had been legal, popular & pure in America long before the rave scene of the UK took hold, only one or two people had died & found to have been under it's influence. Within a couple of years of it's appearance in UK clubbing, a dozen people had died & found to have been on it. The enviroment of the English rave combined with MDMA & frenetic dancing, was much more dangerous than MDMA itself.

Prior to about 2010, I had come across "ecstasy" about which I had reason to be or was definitely suspicious about ID only about 3 times. I probably took about 200 pills between 1991 & 2010. I had some 4-MTA in Flatliners, & huge doses of MDA in a snowball. I also had an extremely trippy pill in about 1993/4 which may have had MDMA in it but then also contained something that produced amazing brain movies. I have no idea what this drug was & in all my experience since then, with everything from opium to 2c-e, I have found nothing that produced this brain movie effect.

So, anyway, if you use my experience as an example, it could be said that only about 1 in 100 pills, between 1991 & 2010 might contain a drug other than MDMA, & as such, a vast percentage of those people who have died on ecstasy in that same period, probably died from taking pure MDMA, possibly in large doses or over long sessions, & probably combining it with clubbing, dancing &/or alcohol.

The last 5 years have seen the situation become considerably more complicated with many new drugs masquerading as MDMA appearing & making it difficult to quantify the continued risks of the use of street "ecstasy".