{"id":37304,"date":"2024-06-26T08:40:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T08:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/warning-over-double-dose-ecstasy-pills\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T08:40:26","slug":"warning-over-double-dose-ecstasy-pills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/warning-over-double-dose-ecstasy-pills\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over ‘double dose’ ecstasy pills"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By\u00a0Jared Evitts,\u00a0<\/span>BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TheThe Loop<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Drug testing at festivals is part of an approach known as harm reduction<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A drug testing charity has warned festival-goers that potentially deadly super-strength MDMA pills are being sold in the UK.<\/p>\n

The Loop, based in Bristol, conducted tests in the city and at the recent Parklife festival in Manchester.<\/p>\n

CEO Katy Porter told BBC Newsbeat the charity checked more than 150 pills sold as MDMA, and found the average strength had increased since last year.<\/p>\n

She said some had effectively contained a “double dose” of the substance, and this posed a “much greater risk of overdose and potential fatalities”.<\/p>\n

This was the highest strength recorded by The Loop since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Katy said this was a particular concern in the current hot weather.<\/p>\n

She said drugs increase body temperature, and “dancing and being out and possibly dehydrated” adds to the risk.<\/p>\n

The Loop says it doesn’t condone or endorse drug-taking, but wants people to have as much information as possible about the ones that are available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TheThe Loop<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Loop says the content of pills can vary even if their appearance does not<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The charity said the average strength of pills tested last year was “around 140mg”. <\/p>\n

This has risen to 180mg this year, with one in ten drugs tested being above 250mg in strength, it added.<\/p>\n

Katy said one of the most important findings during its tests was the wide variation in pill strengths.<\/p>\n

“It’s important to remember that even if a drug looks the same, it doesn’t mean that it is the same,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It may not be what has been previously taken, previously sold to you.”<\/p>\n

Katy told Newsbeat that younger and less experienced users were the ones at most risk from taking a high-strength pill without realising.<\/p>\n

“I think it can sometimes be thought that a pill is a single dose,” she said. <\/p>\n

“Therefore, when someone is considering taking MDMA pills, it’s really important that one pill isn’t considered to be one dose.”<\/p>\n

She said it was important for information to be available over festival season because the drug market constantly changes, and testing helps to keep people up to date.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How does festival drugs testing work?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\"TheThe Loop<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Loop publishes warnings and alerts about potentially dangerous drugs online<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Drug testing at festivals is part of an approach known as harm reduction.<\/p>\n

Organisers and police will try to stop drugs getting in, but most agree it’s almost impossible to stop it from happening at all.<\/p>\n

On-site testing is done “back-of-house” using confiscated drugs or substances left in amnesty bins.<\/p>\n

If testers find that something is potentially dangerous – stronger than usual, contaminated, or sold as something it’s not – they’ll put a warning out to festival-goers.<\/p>\n

Studies by The Loop have suggested drug-checking can reduce deaths.<\/p>\n

Another method, called front-of-house testing, is where people can take drugs to be tested to make sure they’re safe.<\/p>\n

It’s been trialled but has less support from authorities. The boss of Leeds and Reading Festivals has previously said he was concerned it could give people false confidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Festival drug testing in 2024<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Drug testing was absent at many UK festivals last year in a row between organisers and the government over licences.<\/p>\n

Event bosses, including Parklife’s Sacha Lord, accused it of doing a “dangerous U-turn” on the issue.<\/p>\n

But the Home Office, which is in charge of drugs policy, insisted its position hadn’t changed.<\/p>\n

It maintained that stance when it announced earlier this year that it had issued testing licences under strict conditions for the 2024 festival season<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to Newsbeat live<\/a> at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 hours ago By\u00a0Jared Evitts,\u00a0BBC Newsbeat The Loop Drug testing at festivals is part of an approach known as harm reduction A drug testing charity has warned festival-goers that potentially deadly super-strength MDMA pills are being sold in the UK. The Loop, based in Bristol, conducted tests in the city and at the recent Parklife […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[279],"tags":[13273,3695,14070,2511,1146],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37306,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37304\/revisions\/37306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}