Survey of drug use finds MDMA is back in mainstream due to ‘creative and aggressive marketing’ and has a higher purity

Ecstasy is making a comeback as the drug of choice for young people in the UK and across Europe – and it is much stronger than before, the EU’s drug agency has warned.

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The 2016 European Drug Report says there are clear indications that ecstasy – the common name of MDMA – is returning to popularity with both established drug users and a new generation, but this time powders and tablets are likely to contain much higher doses than in previous years.

The rapidly expanding electronic dance music industry is now worth £4.5bn a year, promoting events such as the Belgian festival Tomorrowland, which in 2014 attracted almost 360,000 people over two weekends. This growth has introduced MDMA to a new generation of young people who were not even born in the drug’s heyday during the 1990s house, rave and techno scenes.

The EU drug experts also point to “creative and sometimes aggressive marketing” tactics, including the use of logos such as Superman and UPS, and the production of MDMA tablets specifically for individual events, typically music festivals. Dutch police reported more than 170 tablet designs in circulation in 2014.

Ecstasy use had been falling since its mid-2000s peak, but the Lisbon-based European monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction (EMCDDA) said the latest survey data suggested 2.1 million people aged 15-34 had used ecstasy in the last year, 300,000 higher than the estimate in 2015.

The EU report suggests this ecstasy comeback follows a period when they were replaced by newly emerging legal highs such as piperazines and cathinones, because many tablets sold as ecstasy contained little or no MDMA due to a shortage of key ingredients or precursor chemicals. The tide seems to have turned again in favour of much more potent forms of ecstasy as the shortage of precursors has ended.

Nine out of 12 countries report higher estimates of the drug’s use in the last year. The UK reported the second highest level of use, with 3.5% of young adults saying they had taken it in the last 12 months. The highest usage was in the Netherlands, where 5.5% of young adults said they had taken it in the last year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Latest data suggests 2.1 million young Europeans had used ecstasy in the last year. Photograph: Alamy

The report suggests that ecstasy producers may have adopted a deliberate strategy to improve the drug’s image after a lengthy period in which poor drug quality and adulteration led to a decline in popularity.

“Innovation in sourcing precursors, new production techniques and online supply all appear to be driving a revival in a market now characterised by a diversity of products,” the EMCDDA said. “High-dose powders, crystals and tablets with a range of logos, colours and shapes are available, with evidence of production to order and the use of sophisticated and targeted marketing.”

The experts say MDMA is no longer a niche or “sub-cultural” drug used in dance clubs but is again being taken by a wider range of young people in bars and at parties and festivals. They say this suggests a need for new prevention and harm reduction responses to target a new population of users who may be using high-dose products but lack an understanding of the risks involved.

The agency says that in the 1990s and 2000s the average MDMA content of tablets was between 50-80mg; now average purity is closer to 125mg, while some “super-pills” are available in some countries with a reported range of 270-340mg.

Alexis Goosdeel, the EU drugs agency director, said: “The revival of MDMA brings with it the need to rethink existing prevention and harm-reduction responses to target and support a new population of users who may be using high-dose products, without fully understanding the risks involved. Intoxications and even deaths associated with this drug are highlighted in our new report. This is particularly worrying since MDMA is moving into more mainstream social settings and is increasingly available via online markets.”

The 2016 review of the European drugs market says that while most illicit drug transactions still take place in person, the rapid expansion of the online market represents the “growing dark cloud on the horizon”.

The number and type of legal highs or new psychoactive substances continues to grow with more than 560 new substances now being monitored by the agency, with 98 of them being reported for the first time in 2015. The market continues to be dominated by synthetic chemicals that claim to imitate the effects of cannabis or stimulants such as amphetamines, ecstasy or cocaine.

More than 2.4 million young adults used cocaine in the last year in southern and western Europe. Analysis of city wastewater showed the highest levels of use last year in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An ecstasy pill with a Superman-style logo. Photograph: Suffolk police/PA

Cannabis remains the most popular illicit drug in Europe. An estimated 16.6 million young European adults used it in the last 12 months, and there are no signs that overall levels are falling. Cannabis use in the UK has, however, fallen steadily over the past decade from 20% to 11% of young adults in the past year.

The European drugs agency says more than 88 million adults – or one in four of Europe’s population – have tried illicit drugs. They note the overall trend across Europe in the past 15 years to reduce the use of imprisonment for minor drug offences and increasing use of non-criminal sanctions such as fines for personal possession.

The report raises concerns about the rise in the number of deaths from overdoses in some countries. The UK accounted for 2,332 of the 6,800 drug-related deaths notified to the authorities in 2014. Heroin and other opiates such as methadone accounted for 1,786 of these UK deaths – a rise of 194 on the previous year. Deaths due to cocaine use also rose from 169 to 247. A similar pattern was seen in Ireland, Lithuania and Sweden.



“The reasons behind these rises in fatal overdoses are unclear, but a number of factors may be involved, including: increased heroin availability, higher purity, ageing users and changing consumption patterns, including the use of synthetic opioids and medicines. Overdoses are most commonly reported among older opioid users [35–50],” the report says.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, said: “Europe faces a growing problem with drugs. New psychoactive substances, stimulants, heroin and other opioids continue to be in high demand and supply, with major impacts on public health … With this knowledge in hand, we will continue to call on EU member state authorities, third countries, internet companies and civil society to redouble cooperation in fighting this global challenge.”

