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Oh how the mighty have fallen…
In what’s sure to be some disappointing news to anyone who’s frequented the notorious UK nightlife, the quality of England’s ecstasy is at an all-time low, so much so that a bunch of scientists have gotten together to figure out what the hell is going on.
In what’s the first peer-reviewed study of the phenomenon, researchers have come to the conclusion that almost half of the drugs being touted as MDMA/ecstacy at last year’s music festivals didn’t actually have any of the drug. Rather, they contained elements of a psychoactive substance named cathinones and, get this, caffeine.
They’ve also come up with a potential explanation as to why the drug is so absent from the UK at the moment, concluding that the combined effects of police operations, Brexit and COVID lockdowns have significantly diminished the supply of the drug. It’s a stark contrast to 2019, in which only seven percent of pills tested at UK festivals were found to not contain ecstasy.
No doubt UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his gang of lockdown partygoers are probably jumping with joy with the news. But considering rates of fake MDMA and other significantly more dangerous substitutes are now rising as a result, is this really the best outcome? Check out the full study below and decide for yourself.
New paper:
Ahead of the festival season, read our mixed methods study which found 1/2 of MDMA tested by The Loop last summer contained no MDMA.
Guardian article here: https://t.co/CFil35iPWN
Academic paper here: https://t.co/1L1F65yB3b
Blog here: https://t.co/zNTerVra6e— The Loop (@WeAreTheLoopUK) June 8, 2022
