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Ecstasy intake falls after global crackdown

By Lisa Potter on Wednesday 23 June 2010

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Real ecstasy pills are rapidly disappearing from the British club scene as legal alternatives flurry in the face of massively reduced MDMA supplies.

Almost all of the tablets seized by police are now testing negative for MDMA - the active chemical in ecstasy - an investigation for Radio 1 Newsbeat suggests. Of the 1,848 tablets seized by authorities last year, just 154 contained MDMA.

'It's a huge drop,' said Dean Aimes at the Forensic Science Service. 'The pill market has changed and we see very few ecstasy tablets now.'

Both dealers and law enforcement agencies say a global crackdown is to thank for huge decline in the infamous party drug. Authorities across the world have tightened up controls on the export and import of substances like PMK - a synthetic chemical used in the manufacture of MDMA.

However, some believe the shortage has caused people to seek alternatives in relatively uncharted grounds of drugs, like mephedrone and methylone.

'People might think they're taking ecstasy, but they aren't,' said Dr John Ramsay, from St George's. 'You can take too much and overdose or just have a bad time. The truth is you never know quite what you're going to get.'

The annual British crime survey suggests more than 540,000 16 - 59-year-olds take ecstasy at least once a year, making it third most popular drug after cannabis and cocaine.

Is ecstasy outdated? Tell us what you think in the comments box below.

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Wednesday 23 June 2010

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Ecstacy is most definately not an outdated drug, it produces very similar effects to the now very popular mephedrone. Yet MDMA is a cleaner substance, and the goverment have extensive knowledge of the side effects, yet know very little of the side effects of mephedrone. If the government wants to save young people experimenting with possibly dangerous "research chemicals", they could very easily legalise Mdma, by doing so they could regulate the production of MDMA. They would ensure the ecstacy if a person chose to take, as many millions each weekend do, was perfectly safe to consume. They could even tax the MDMA as if it were alcohol or tobacco, this would no doubt be of finacially benefit to the government if they chose to do this.
Comment by Matt a student on June 25 00:55

Seriously this sucks. Why crack down on a safe drug just to have it replaced by a more dangerous variant. Stupid laws.
Comment by Luke on June 25 05:38