A dangerous MDMA spin-off, N-Ethylnorpentylone, has apparently been flowing from China into the pockets of unsuspecting party-goers.



Between 2016 and 2018, the drug has been linked to at least 125 deaths according to World Health Organization (WHO), in a report seen by Mixmag. The majority of these deaths occurred in Britain, with other incidents being reported in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.

WHO has identified a “dramatic” increase in seizures of the drug since 2016. In response, the United Nations has issued a worldwide ban on N-Ethylnorpentylone.

The Loop, a non profit that offers drug safety testing and harm reduction information, has found the harmful substance in 1-out-of-20 tested samples of pressed pills or MDMA. They found these results while providing free drug-testing services at music festivals across the UK.

This month the conversation around N-Ethylnorpentylone increased once again. Fiona Measham, founder of The Loop, recently spoke to The Telegraph about the dangers of this new substance. “The real problem is that the effects are not that dissimilar at the start to what a user might expect from MDMA but it takes longer. What people might think is that they have a weak sample of MDMA so they take more and inadvertently re-dose or overdose.”