Clubbers are dicing with death
CHOOSING the red pill or the blue pill can literally be a matter of life or death for ecstasy users in Ireland.
Choose one, and within an hour the user could be up dancing as the euphoria of the evening takes hold.
Choose the other, and the user may start to feel uncomfortable and nauseous – coupled with panic and distress – before collapsing and dying.
The two scenarios are not the propaganda of anti-drug campaigners, but the reality of what is happening in Ireland.
Only today, six people suspected of taking designer party drug 2CB have been hospitalised in Cork.
In 2014, health authorities here issued a warning following the deaths of six people who had taken what they believed were ecstasy tablets.
They looked just like any other tablets, with the same kind of logos people were used to seeing, but instead of containing MDMA, they contained PMA/PMMA – also known as Dr Death.
MDMA is the chemical name for ecstasy – a drug taken by thousands of clubbers every weekend.
While taking MDMA is not without risks, PMA/PMMA is far more lethal and the number of deaths continued to rise even after the warning.
A further eight deaths were linked to the drug in Northern Ireland.
PMA/PMMA is usually sold on the streets as ecstasy and has a much higher level of toxicity than MDMA.
It also takes longer to have an effect and doesn’t produce the same level of euphoria as MDMA, which has led to people consuming higher amounts.
Dr Death pills are believed to be responsible for at least six deaths in Ireland in recent years.
Now, a website called Pill Reports is offering warnings about tablets. People who issue the warnings use testing kits on particular pills.
On several occasions users in Ireland have warned that what they thought was an MDMA tablet turned out to be PMA/PMMA.
The most recent warning on Pill Reports in Ireland was in September, when a blue pill with a Superman logo was found to contain PMA/PMMA.
The warnings are usually accompanied by a picture of the pill in question and those which contain PMA/PMMA look no different than MDMA pills.
A source said: “You tend to get waves of different type of tablets. A batch can come out and be shaped like a grenade and only contain MDMA. If that is considered a good pill other drug manufacturers will start making the same style pills, but with PMA instead.”
Deaths in Ireland from PMA include that of Shane Cotton (16), from New Ross in Co. Wexford. The youngster died in Waterford Regional Hospital two years ago. He was believed to have taken six tablets. His grand-aunt Helen Purcell said it was “an awful waste of a young life”.
Conor Murray (23), from North Road, Finglas, Dublin 11, died at the Mater Hospital in August 2013 after pals found him unresponsive in bed. An inquest found PMA, cocaine and ecstasy in his system.
Laura Richardson (26), from Balbriggan in Dublin, died in July 2013 after collapsing in her fiance’s house. A post-mortem revealed she died from the toxic effects of PMA and cocaine.
Dean Burke (43), was found dead on the couch at his apartment in Wellmount Road, Finglas, in August 2013.
His inquest revealed he died from taking a combination of cocaine, PMA and the head shop-type stimulant benzylpiperazine.
Taxi driver Desmond Mahon (51), who was found collapsed in the bedroom of his home at Cardiffsbridge Road in Finglas, Dublin 11, on the evening of June 3, 2013. He had been drinking and taking what he thought were ecstasy tablets, but they actually contained PMA.
Ana Hick (18), from Dalkey in Dublin, died after collapsing outside a Dublin nightclub last year. It is understood she had taken ecstasy tablets. Her inquest will be heard in the summer.
Over Christmas her mother Elga urged people to be aware of the dangers.
“They come sugar-coated with promises of a good night out and excitement but the truth is you are playing with a loaded gun when you decide to take ecstasy or other drugs,” she said.
“I know Ana would want you to remember her as you make your choice and she would want you to say, ‘not on my life’.
Project Know, a U.S.-based addiction education and support service, recently released a report which analysed 27,000 pill test reports from five different countries over a 10-year period.
It found that of the tablets tested in the U.K., which would be similar to those in Ireland, around 50 per cent contained MDMA or a very similar chemical.
However, around one in a hundred contained PMA/PMMA over the 10-year period, but that figure increased to more than one in 10 in 2014.
Other drugs sold as ecstasy were found to contain horse tranquiliser, methamphetamine, amphetamines, 2C-B, Mephedrone and Methylone.
The report stated: “Betting on the purity of any illicit street drug is ultimately a losing proposition. Testing out the composition of any illicit pill on oneself can be a very dangerous game. It’s unrealistic, if not impossible, to envision a scenario involving substance use and abuse if one’s long-term goal is to be happy and healthy.”