UK: Ecstasy costing just 50p (approx $1)

Ecstasy costing just 50p

THE price of the drug Ecstasy has plummeted to just 50p a pill, it emerged today.

Drugs workers and police have warned parents the drugs now cost less than a packet of sweets.

The news was revealed as a drug dealer escaped jail after admitting shelling out 50p a pill for Ecstasy, which he then supplied to friends.

Police found 43 pills and a small amount of cannabis inside a Kinder egg capsule when they arrested Dean Day, after a scuffle in Peterlee town centre.

A search of the 23-year-old's home in Hedley Terrace, South Hetton, uncovered what looked like a dealer's list and £350 cash.

He admitted charges of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply and possession of a class C drug when he appeared at Durham Crown Court last week.

But it was revelations made by his solicitor Alex Burns that has worried drugs workers.

He told the court: "Ecstasy is 50p a tablet at wholesale rates, so we are talking about a man who has spent just £23."

Workers fighting to keep people clear of drugs say the price drop makes their job even more difficult.

Sandra Goggins, of Seaham's drink and drug help centre Free The Way, said clients using the service have told her tablets such as diazepam, valium and tamazipam can be bought for as little as £1.
"Parents need to be aware of this and need to know what they are looking for."

Inspector Paul Harrison, of Peterlee police, said: "We're not necessarily looking for the person who takes one tablet, but the people who have a quantity and selling them."

Day was sentenced to a 12-month supervision order and told to carry out 100 hours' of community work. He was ordered to pay £250 court costs.
Recorder Jeremy Baker QC told him: "Those who deal in class A drugs routinely go to prison, but I accept this distribution was at the very lowest end of the scale."

13 February 2006

http://www.sunderlandtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1107&ArticleID=1349830

above article said:

Sandra Goggins, of Seaham's drink and drug help centre Free The Way, said clients using the service have told her tablets such as diazepam, valium and tamazipam can be bought for as little as £1.

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both valium AND diazepam... oh the selection

So MDXX pills are selling for 50p or are they pills sold as Ecstasy? I find this incredible that it could be so cheap, how does anyone make any money from the sale of drugs if there is so little cost hence mark up... i find this confusing

me either, i guess they just mass produced somewhere so cheap..

still, i dont see how they could move them for 50p over there and make profit when we pay $35..

whats funny is that everything in the UK costs more than where i live (australia) according to my friend who just came back, except for drugs. like $12AUD for a hungry jacks meal ffs.

I'd bet for that kind of money its just stuff that someone scraped off the floor... Nevertheless can't beat those UK 'e' prices.

This is hardly breaking news.

50p pills have been doing the rounds for years and, surprisingly, it isn't always the case that you come away with completely shit gear. Admittedly, the quality isn't likely going to blow your socks off every time, and you generally have to buy in bulk (and know the dealer well) to get them that cheap... but it is do-able.

I'm also a little surprised that people have bought into the idea that they have to sell them at a high cost in order to make profit. The reason pills are so expensive in Australia is because the manufacturers are fucking raking it in... they can't believe their luck! An entire continental consumer base that has no choice but to accept their established price.

Thirty-five, forty bucks for a pill. Fucking outrageous.

these prices are for bulk ie 500's, 1000's, on the street they usually sell for like £2-£2.50 each, and price isnt really an indicator of quality as UK pills on the whole are of a good quality, and from what i read on pillreports etc they appear to be of better quality than AUS/US pills yet are much cheaper.

i fking wish i could get rolls for $1 apiece.

jam1e said:

these prices are for bulk ie 500's, 1000's, on the street they usually sell for like £2-£2.50 each

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Yes, but u can get smaller bulks such as 100's for about £80 - and it is true that the quality doesn't seem to vary with price, some £2 pills can be much better than some £3 pills.

Crazeee said:

Police found 43 pills and a small amount of cannabis inside a Kinder egg capsule when they arrested Dean Day, after a scuffle in Peterlee town centre.
...
He told the court: "Ecstasy is 50p a tablet at wholesale rates, so we are talking about a man who has spent just £23."

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Rubbish, who the hell buys 43 pills? he obviously got at least 100 (for 50p each) and sold 57 of the pills, so he didnt really pay £23.

jam1e said:

...as UK pills on the whole are of a good quality, and from what i read on pillreports etc they appear to be of better quality than AUS/US pills yet are much cheaper.

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I beg to differ. The quality of the majority of pills in the UK are crap.

Coming from Australia but been living in London for nearly 2 years now I can say that for most of the time, the quality of pills is a lot better in Australia and hence why you might pay more. It seems fierce competition in the UK brought the prices down and with it the quality of pills (theres a thread somewhere in EDD that discusses, i cant be bothered searching atm). I would never dream of double-dropping pills in OZ (i would often take them in half segments actually because they were strong) but in the UK it seems I have to take 2 before I start feeling a nice glow even though my tolerance is a lot lower than it used to be. I would GUESS most of the pills I get in the UK are around the 40mg MDxx mark.

Of course this is a generalisation for the majority of pills I have eaten here. There have been two occasions that I was very happy with the strength of the pill. But two times out of I dont know how many is not much.

well having never tried australian pills i cant really comment much, however i can say that i very much doubt i have ever had a pill in the uk that had 40mg of MDMA in it, would that even be sufficient to feel any effects?

i recall back in the summer the pacha cherries which were all over the UK for many months which people moaned about and said were weak, they were lab tested at 70mg of mdma. Also, look at the kind of adulterants used in AUS/US- there are shit loads of dirty meth based pills - how many of those do you see in the UK in comparison?

sorry i dont agree id say the majority of UK/EU pills are 70mg + of MDMA and of better quality with fewer adulterants.

bigmac74 said:

Yes, but u can get smaller bulks such as 100's for about £80 - and it is true that the quality doesn't seem to vary with price, some £2 pills can be much better than some £3 pills.



Rubbish, who the hell buys 43 pills? he obviously got at least 100 (for 50p each) and sold 57 of the pills, so he didnt really pay £23.

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oh yea, ive never seen ppl selling 100's for £50 tho, i was trying to point out that the 50p kind of prices usually come in the 500+ numbers. as for the £2 pills being better than £3 pills, well theyre all the same price really, shit pills will get sold for 50p in bulk just the same as a pill thats got 120mg of mdma in it will. pills are pills to dealers at the lower end, quality has no effect on price unlike cocaine etc.

Thats not unreal. On avg I see pills all the time for $5-8$!

Groovstarr said:

I beg to differ. The quality of the majority of pills in the UK are crap.

Coming from Australia but been living in London for nearly 2 years now I can say that for most of the time, the quality of pills is a lot better in Australia and hence why you might pay more. It seems fierce competition in the UK brought the prices down and with it the quality of pills (theres a thread somewhere in EDD that discusses, i cant be bothered searching atm). I would never dream of double-dropping pills in OZ (i would often take them in half segments actually because they were strong) but in the UK it seems I have to take 2 before I start feeling a nice glow even though my tolerance is a lot lower than it used to be. I would GUESS most of the pills I get in the UK are around the 40mg MDxx mark.

Of course this is a generalisation for the majority of pills I have eaten here. There have been two occasions that I was very happy with the strength of the pill. But two times out of I dont know how many is not much.

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It's likely the only thing which has changed is your tollerance.

I've never heard about pills with that low a dosage over here, not regularly. And to put things in to perspective I was a pillreports admin for several years.

^ well i rarely touch pills these days so my tolerance is very low compared to what it used to be.

i guy i talked to that went to england abot 18 months ago said the pills in the UK outshine aussie pills in quality hands down.

he said that for around 2/3 pounds you could get pills that were of great quality, constantly. maybe he just had a good hookup... who knows.

Jakus said:

he said that for around 2/3 pounds you could get pills that were of great quality, constantly. maybe he just had a good hookup... who knows.

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Yes you can, everywhere. Every once in a while there'll be some bad batches going around, but nothing to the scale of the USA etc... After the bad come 1000 good....and for cheap!

My brother has been to Australia many times and said the quality of pills there pale in comparasion to the pills in Ireland (we generally get the same pills as the UK) he reckoned there was a lot less MDMA in pills in Aus and more shitty adulterants I believe there was a study done not long ago saying that the pills in Ireland and the UK generally ranged from 80mg-100mg, so to the poster who said that pills in the UK are generally 40mg you are certainly wrong!

In Holland you also pay about 1 euro a pill if you buy a 100. If you buy more like 500 the prices go to 60/80 (euro)cent a pill...At partys they go for 5 euro. Geuss it's the same in the UK. To my paying $35 a pill sounds just crazy!

I used to know a guy who would pick them up for 1 pound each if he shelled out for a few hundred, never really come into contact with anyone who buys them for 50 pence each though.