As New Year’s Eve rolls around, clubbers engaging in a little extra-curricular activity (aka taking copious amounts of drugs) are more at risk than usual this year, according to sources who have discovered high strength MDMA in circulation across London.
Over the past few months, two London nightclubs, Fabric in Farringdon and Fold in Canning Town, have issued warnings over the extra-strength pills, in addition to a warning distributed by drug-testing charity The Loop.
This October, the government released statistics that show MDMA-related deaths in 2023 were the third highest on record. “Drug-related deaths have increased year on year in the UK to their highest level on record,” says Fiona Measham, co-founder of The Loop. “MDMA-related deaths increased by over 50 per cent in 2023 compared with the previous year.”
This is a problem that has been going on for months. A post from Fabric on Instagram on October 18 warned clubbers: “We are aware of several hospitalisations across multiple London venues last weekend where people have had seizures and become very unwell.”
That same month, Fold reposted a warning from The Loop that advised clubbers to look out for pills with the Louis Vuitton and Timberland logos as well as pills shaped like shooting stars. Fold also reminded clubbers to take regular breaks outside and drink plenty of water.
The pills tested by The Loop in October contain an average of 200mg of MDMA, twice an adult dose. In addition to this, quarter of pills tested are over 250mg in strength.
Double an adult dose might not sound like much to big ravers, but if anyone takes a whole pill, it’s the equivalent to taking two pills at once - an incredibly risky decision when taken knowingly, even riskier when someone has no idea what they’ve done. And that’s when we’re talking about the 200mg pills, let alone the 250mg ones.
“Low doses of MDMA are relatively low risk but 500mg of MDMA can be a potentially fatal dose,” says Measham. “This means that double dropping two pills of today’s strength could result in overdose, hospitalisation or even death.
“It cannot be emphasised too much in relation to MDMA that ‘the dose makes the poison’. A strong pill cut into 4 may pose relatively low risk but that same pill swallowed whole could be a significant risk to health.”
This is evident in the drug death statistics released by the government, showing that MDMA-related deaths in the UK increased from 51 in 2022 to 79 in 2023, the third highest amount on record. “These are avoidable deaths,” Measham says.
The Loop’s statistics about double strength (and greater) pills are “a summary of pills tested by The Loop this year, across the whole year, across all locations.” It’s not new: Glastonbury goers may recall a similar situation plaguing this years festival, with many revellers caught off guard by the strength of their pills.
But why do these extra strength pills suddenly show up on the market? For one, it’s because of a complete misreading of consumer’s interests. “MDMA producers often wrongly view the best product as the strongest product,” says Steve Rolles, a Senior Policy Analyst for Transform Drug Policy Foundation. “And I'm not convinced that is the view of consumers.”
And then it’s down to competition. This is far from the first time extra strength MDMA has entered the market. The Loop regularly warns of high strength pills in circulation, an unfortunate consequence Rolles says is due to producers competing to make stronger pills.
“We’ve seen the market skew towards increasingly strong pills before,” says Steve Rolles, a Senior Policy Analyst for Transform Drug Policy Foundation. “It first happened ten or twelve years ago, related to innovations in the production process where producers found a way to produce MDMA in the laboratory without the precursor of safrole oil.
“There was tonnes of MDMA flowing around and they [producers] basically had access to unlimited, cheap production of MDMA, so strength went up because it didn’t cost them anything, and rival producers were competing with each other to access the market.”
Rolles describes this period as like “an arms race between rival pill manufacturers to produce stronger pills.”
As for the high strength pills going around London at the moment, Rolles reckons it’s strength inflation starting up again “after a lull in the market during COVID, when use and supply dried up and strength and purity fell.”
Measham has noticed the same things through via her direct research. “Covid and the closure of nightlife severely curtailed the MDMA market and what we are see now is pill strength return to its pre-Covid levels,” she says.
On a practical level, Measham suggests testing your drugs before you take them, but understands this isn’t always an option. “If The Loop is not testing nearby, there are a few ways that people can try to stay safer. Reagent kits can highlight if a product bought as MDMA contains no MDMA. They don’t assess strength, however.
“People can also weigh their whole pill. Usually pills contain about 40 per cent active ingredient and 60 per cent filler so a pill that weighs 500mg in total on the kitchen scales is an indicator that it is of high strength, potentially twice an adult dose, and additional risk, so caution should be applied.
Moreover, Measham advises following The Loop on social media for all the latest information on the UK drug market and any high strength pills in circulation.
