Warnings have been issued after a UK-based drugs awareness charity unveiled details of several new ecstasy pills found in circulation at Parklife Festival, which took place last weekend.
Taking to Twitter, The Loop shared an infographic about eight MDMA pills they tested for the first time during the Manchester festival. Amongst the Class A drugs, researchers found the average strength of an individual pill to be about 1.5 times higher than the typical tablet, with the weakest having 118mg of MDMA and the strongest having nearly double that dosage, with 223mg of MDMA.
The Loop, which attends festivals across the UK to test and educate users about the dangers of on-site drugs, tweeted: “New pills in ‘22: Here is a selection of MDMA pills tested for the 1st time by The Loop @ParklifeFest, our 1st festival of the 2022 UK summer festival season. Average MDMA pill strength was ~170mg, ~1.5x an average adult dose. #JustSayKnow #TakeQuarterAndSipWater #GoSlowStayLow.”
They also found that a significant number of fake ecstasy pills which contained no MDMA—an improvement on the 2021 festival season’s result, which revealed that half of the pills marketed as MDMA didn’t contain any of the drug itself.
In a TikTok video, The Loop researcher, Jay Jackson, said: “Last year, around half the samples we thought were MDMA turned out to not contain any MDMA whatsoever. I don’t want to speak too soon but if we look at the results from the lab at Parklife, we can maybe say the MDMA shortage is over. We have seen a significant reduction from the unprecedented high level of fake MDMA in circulation last year that was caused by a mixture of Brexit and COVID. It’s back down to a level of around 11% and the average pill strength and the range of doses are pretty much in line with historical average. However, this doesn’t mean that taking drugs is any safer than it was before. If you are going to take them, remember to stay low and go slow, drink water and #JustSayKnow.”
