“SIZE MATTERS”: High strength ecstasy pills are back, so harm reduction communications need to adapt

I missed this post when it first appeared at Drug Science, but it's worth knowing about. The authors write: "So far this year, between city centre and festival testing, The Loop has tested over 150 products bought as MDMA, allowing us to build a picture of the market as we go into the summer festival season. The key finding of note is the increase in the average strength of ecstasy pills. High strength MDMA is regarded as one of the biggest contributors to MDMA-related deaths, with The Loop already having tested a number of pills found to contain 300mg or more of MDMA (around three times a common adult dose) and one in ten pills are over 250mg in strength. Significantly, this is the first time that The Loop has tested any pills containing over 300mg of MDMA since before the pandemic ... Summary ...

• Average pill strength has increased in 2024, back to pre-pandemic levels (>180mg MDMA);
• The proportion of stronger pills has increased to pre-pandemic levels (>1 in 10 are 250mg+);
• Total pill weight can be a simple indicator of high strength pills and flag up the need for extra caution;
• Timely and context-specific harm reduction communications are extremely important this summer, especially given wider concerns about drug market adulteration."
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