Warning over ‘double dose’ ecstasy pills

A drug testing charity has warned festival-goers that probably lethal super-strength MDMA drugs are being bought within the UK.

The Loop, primarily based in Bristol, carried out assessments within the metropolis and on the current Parklife pageant in Manchester.

CEO Katy Porter informed BBC Newsbeat the charity checked greater than 150 drugs bought as MDMA, and located the common power had elevated since final 12 months.

She stated some had successfully contained a “double dose” of the substance, and this posed a “a lot better danger of overdose and potential fatalities”.

This was the very best power recorded by The Loop because the begin of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Katy stated this was a specific concern within the present sizzling climate.

She stated medication enhance physique temperature, and “dancing and being out and presumably dehydrated” provides to the danger.

The Loop says it would not condone or endorse drug-taking, however desires folks to have as a lot info as attainable in regards to the ones which can be accessible.

The charity stated the common power of drugs examined final 12 months was “round 140mg”.

This has risen to 180mg this 12 months, with one in ten medication examined being above 250mg in power, it added.

Katy stated one of the necessary findings throughout its assessments was the extensive variation in tablet strengths.

“It is necessary to keep in mind that even when a drug seems the identical, it does not imply that it’s the identical,” she stated.

“It will not be what has been beforehand taken, beforehand bought to you.”

Katy informed Newsbeat that youthful and fewer skilled customers had been those at most danger from taking a high-strength tablet with out realising.

“I believe it will probably typically be thought {that a} tablet is a single dose,” she stated.

“Due to this fact, when somebody is contemplating taking MDMA drugs, it is actually necessary that one tablet is not thought-about to be one dose.”

She stated it was necessary for info to be accessible over pageant season as a result of the drug market continuously modifications, and testing helps to maintain folks updated.

Drug testing at festivals is a part of an strategy often called hurt discount.

Organisers and police will attempt to cease medication getting in, however most agree it is virtually not possible to cease it from occurring in any respect.

On-site testing is finished “back-of-house” utilizing confiscated medication or substances left in amnesty bins.

If testers discover that one thing is probably harmful – stronger than traditional, contaminated, or bought as one thing it isn’t – they’re going to put a warning out to festival-goers.

Research by The Loop have recommended drug-checking can cut back deaths.

One other methodology, referred to as front-of-house testing, is the place folks can take medication to be examined to verify they’re secure.

It has been trialled however has much less assist from authorities. The boss of Leeds and Studying Festivals has beforehand stated he was involved it might give folks false confidence.

Drug testing was absent at many UK festivals final 12 months in a row between organisers and the federal government over licences.

Occasion bosses, together with Parklife’s Sacha Lord, accused it of doing a “harmful U-turn” on the problem.

However the Residence Workplace, which is in command of medication coverage, insisted its place hadn’t modified.

It maintained that stance when it introduced earlier this 12 months that it had issued testing licences underneath strict circumstances for the 2024 festival season.

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