Summer festival attendees are warned that an “unprecedented change” in the drug market caused by a combination of Brexit, Covid blockades and police operations against supply chains has led to a sharp and potentially harmful rise in MDMA. false.
Criminologists and chemists have found that almost half of the substances sold as MDMA (ecstasy) at festivals in England last year did not contain any drugs.
In the first peer-reviewed scientific study of the trend, experts say many pills bought by party goers as MDMA were made up of ingredients such as catinones, a new psychoactive substance (NPS) and caffeine. Some users reported harmful effects such as panic, psychosis, and prolonged insomnia.
Scientists warn that with the impact of Brexit still being intense in the legal and illegal markets, suppliers may continue to flood festivals and other events with fake MDMA, posing a risk to users.
Michael Pascoe, an associate researcher at Cardiff University and lead co-author of the study, said: “This is the first peer-reviewed article to confirm that there has been an unprecedented change in the quality of UK ecstasy. “In addition to noticing this effect at festivals, the study also presents broader UK data confirming that the same effect was observed across the country.”
The main focus of the investigation is the fieldwork carried out by the drug control charity The Loop, whose researchers visited three English music festivals last summer and tried out hundreds of pills that shoppers believed which were MDMA in a mobile lab.
The researchers found that 45% of the substances sold as MDMA did not contain any drugs and instead consisted of substances such as catinones and caffeine. Each was identified as the main component in one-fifth of the samples. In 2019, when the research was done at the same festivals, only 7% of the tested pills did not contain MDMA.
His report also highlights research by the Wedinos Damage Reduction Project which found that around 15% of products sold as MDMA that it tested in 2021 contained only catinones and 14% only caffeine. Two-thirds of the product sold as MDMA he analyzed contained the drug.
Pascoe said: “During this unprecedented turmoil in the drug market, MDMA-like substances were mis-sold to unknown customers.”
The report, published in the journal Drug Science, Policy and Law, says the findings suggest a “substantial change in the UK drug landscape between 2019 and 2021” and adds that “adulteration poses additional risks unknown to the health of people who use illicit drugs. ” ”.
He suggests that Covid’s blockages caused MDMA vendors to reduce or stop production. When nightclubs and festivals reopened in the summer of 2021, there was a sudden and high demand for “party drugs,” but MDMA manufacturers, especially in the Netherlands, were slow to increase supply. .
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every weekday morning at 7:00 BST
The report, led by The Loop, which includes researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Liverpool, says the dismantling of criminal platforms and the dark web may also have altered the availability of MDMA, adding that the impact of Brexit, ranging from truck shortages to currency fluctuations, probably played a major role.
He concludes: “This study highlights a period of unprecedented turmoil in the UK drug market. We suggest that shortages may be related to Brexit-related disruptions to legal and illicit supply chains, combined with the cessation of MDMA production “.