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4, 4 DMAR (aka Serotoni) linked to deaths, banned in the UK

Si Dread

Si Dread

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Ministers have accepted advice from the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to control the new psychoactive substances (NPS) 4,4’-DMAR and MT-45 as Class A substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

The stimulant 4,4’-DMAR has been linked to 37 deaths in the UK, with the majority of fatalities in Northern Ireland. The substance, which is also known by the street name Serotoni, has been found in tablet and powder form and can cause agitation, convulsions and hyperthermia.

The synthetic opioid MT-45 has not been detected in the UK to date, but has been detected in other EU countries in powder form – sometimes mixed with other psychoactive substances including synthetic cannabinoids. It has been linked to 18 deaths in Sweden, as well as a number of non-fatal incidents. Some individuals needed hospital treatment after falling into a coma, while others suffered respiratory problems and loss of hearing. The potential harms of the drug are similar to those of morphine.

Ministers have also decided to follow the Council’s advice to schedule both substances under Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations, which means they have no recognised medical, chemical or industrial use.

Crime Prevention Minister Lynne Featherstone said:

- We continue to clamp down on the trade in new psychoactive substances or ‘legal’ highs.

- An expert panel commissioned by the Home Office to look at the problem was very clear they present a challenge that cannot be ignored. The Panel acknowledged that our approach to date has ‘real strengths’ and should be built on, as we are doing, and should not be dismissed.

- We are currently looking into the feasibility of a general ban on new psychoactive substances across the whole of the UK, clamping down on the suppliers and head shops rather than the users.

The government has banned more than 350 ‘legal’ highs and created the Forensic Early Warning System to help identify new substances. It also continues to lead international work by keeping new psychoactive substances at the forefront of United Nations and G7 discussions.

Following the publication of an expert review of new psychoactive substances in October, the government is developing proposals for a blanket ban across the whole of the UK.
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from - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/so-called-legal-highs-linked-to-deaths-to-be-banned-in-uk
 
If the 37 deaths statistic is anywhere near right that's shocking. More likely that someone has added PMA deaths to that? Either way, not good
 
News from 26 november (yesterday) isn't well old yet!

But yeah, it's not very surprising to hear that they have decided to accept the ban on MT-45 and the terrible 4,4-DMAR with these amounts of fatalities.

I'll still keep an eye on MT-45 as it sounded quite interesting (opioid with NMDA action).
 
Honestly was interested to see 44mar but it was so damn rare that its even more surprising to me that there are so many deaths linked to it.
 
tried it got a sample form another harm reduction site and it was shite and dangerous i went through the whole 250 mg and just got really ill from it

and before anyone starts i did it at recommended doses not all at once
 
Yeah sure, that link is new but the dangers surrounding this stim have been quite well known for quite some time. I don't doubt the accuracy of the statistics but I accept that some might. It's not surprising that some people doubt pretty much every word the government utters about drugs given how much outright bullshit they come out with...
 
If death statistics were reason alone to ban anything then alcohol and driving cars should be made illegal.
 
Quite interesting that they've moved to ban these substances relatively quickly, yet other substances that have been on the market for years, yet not made any headlines or proved as harmful in the short term, have been left.
I don't hold out any hope that this is the case, but would be nice if things were actually being banned on the basis of their potential harm rather than those that the media started to kick up a fuss over. I don't recall either of these substances getting the Daily Mail's knickers in a twist, yet 4,4DMAR does sound quite nasty and like it needed to be banned.
 
cosmiccars said:
If the 37 deaths statistic is anywhere near right that's shocking. More likely that someone has added PMA deaths to that? Either way, not good
Click to expand...

A lot of people gloss over the fact that 4,4'-DMAR is actually an analogue of 4-Methylmethamphetamine, which like PMA (which is 4-Methoxymethamphetamine) has killed a lot of people, and caused some pretty severe seemingly irreversible damage in a lot of other people who took it and survived.

Aminorex = Amphetamine analogue
4-Methylaminorex = Methamphetamine analogue
4,4'-Dimethylaminorex/4,4'-DMAR = 4-Methylmethamphetamine analogue

4-MMA is a much stronger serotonergic than the likes of MDMA and so it's very easy for someone overdoing the dosage to suffer from serotonin syndrome, dehydration, or other issues that come with the territory. It doesn't help that there have been pill presses going around that combine 4,4'-DMAR, which seems to be almost identical to 4-MMA, with MDMA itself, making the risk much worse. I believe these mixed presses have killed quite a few people in mainland Europe already and wouldn't be surprised if they're to blame for a lot of the UK deaths.

4,4'-DMAR is a pretty lovely empathogen if you know the stuff you're getting is pure and keep the doses low, but there's too much room for error to make it a good drug to be available to your average "pour out a huge pill and sniff it" consumers, so I'm not too overly fussed that people are jumping to make it illegal. Those who've tried the better batches of it probably noticed there was quite a bit of cross-over and similarity with 4-MMC (which makes sense, 4-MMC is just the beta-ketone of 4-MMA) which would make things worse since while it was far from quite as fiendy as Meph it definitely made me very nostalgic for it and had I not known about the potential dangers and had more to hand when I tried it myself I'd have probably gone over the top with it and gotten myself hurt - and I'm sure others have done that.
 
Si Ingwe said:
Yeah sure, that link is new but the dangers surrounding this stim have been quite well known for quite some time. I don't doubt the accuracy of the statistics but I accept that some might. It's not surprising that some people doubt pretty much every word the government utters about drugs given how much outright bullshit they come out with...
Click to expand...

this is indeed important news that needs to be widely spread,
the 4,4' DMAR is a bit of a red herring like 4-methyl methamphetamine it doesn't seem to have a very safe profile. what is more interesting is it is being used as justification for a massive over reaction, indicated by the bolded text in the original post. this is a based on the 30th October report of the NP Sexperts group who recommended blanket prohibition of all psychoactive substances full stop. their plan is that everything should be illegal unless sanctioned by government comittee consisting of a bunch of self serving so called 'experts' like themselves.
If this is implemented it will severely impact e-cigs, nootropics, herbal tranquilizers, supplements like 5HTP and of course all research chemicals.
After all a similar law has been such a resounding success in the backward boggy country to the west of the UK where the guardai heroically and successfully managed to stamp out valerian and st johns wort.
this should also be looked at along with the recent ACMD recommendations on cannabinoids another bunch of self serving experts, yet another supposed catch all with holes that the RC companies can drive a bus through. The ACMD throwaway is that future regulation should ban everything with CB1 activity, 'something that can be done with an easy biochemical test'........in any home or office or is that home office?

V
 
I don't think anyone (in n Ireland at least) bought this on the high market but from regular dealers who didn't know what they were selling. :(
 
I'd take the fatalities with a huge pinch of salt. There were god knows how many hundreds of deaths "linked" to mephedrone and all those turned out to be either methadone or nothing to do with meph at all. They link deaths to it in order to get it banned.
 
This is true, but knowing the effects of 'drone do you really belive that it hasn't caused any fatalities? It's a powerful & addictive stimulant, I'd be stunned if it isn't quite as capable of causing fatality as cocaine. Cocaine causes numerous fatalites in the average year in the UK. It was once said that cocaine deaths plummeted during the period that meph was legal & popular. I suspect that there were may deaths due to mephedrone & probably still are.

The deaths on 4,4 DMAR are equally as likely. UKCR has been warning about Serotonin Syndrome on Serotoni for about a year after the first fatalities appeared.

I'd prefer you were more right than I though, Is. I just don't think you are :(
 
Heaven forbid they actually invest money and personell into educating people in an honest harm-reduction orientated manner about the risks involved with any kind of drug taking, from an appropriate early age.

Far easier just to go on fudging the law in a ramshackle headless chicken fashion in reaction to media and pressure group noise, pretending they are doing something useful when they are just failing to tackle the issue in a coherent and rational manner.

Meanwhile the victims continue to be the naive and most vulnerable sections of society.

Politics is toxic to education, the health services, science and at the end of the day, individuals.
 
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