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CALLOUS drug dealers are selling fake ecstasy tablets filled with a dentists’ anaesthetic

that can kill.

The British Dental Association, police and drug workers have issued chilling warnings about the dangers of benzocaine, known as benzo.

Clubbers who take too much could stop breathing, suffer deadly seizures or end up in a coma.

Benzocaine mixed with alcohol can make users choke on their vomit.

And kids fooled by the bogus pills can suffer other frightening problems including blackouts, panic attacks and bleeding tongues.

The BDA said bluntly: “An overdose of benzocaine can cause life-threatening side effects.”

They added that the drug could also leave users’ bodies numb, increasing their risk of serious accidents.

Dentists numb patients’ teeth with benzocaine. It’s also used in first aid ointments, throat sprays and treatments for sunburn.

It’s widely available online, and it’s only illegal to sell it if police can prove it’s destined for the black market.

Websites will sell up to 25kg of it at a time, with disclaimers on their pages saying it should only be used properly in medicine.

Dealers are exploiting the loophole in the law to boost their profits by using benzocaine as a bulking agent for fake ecstasy pills.

It is also often used to “cut” – or bulk out – cocaine, because it mimics some of the drug’s effects.

Police Scotland said benzocaine and other bulking agents put drug users at serious risk.

A spokesman said: “More and more people are going to hospital with specific symptoms after taking these substances.

“They include nosebleeds, bleeding tongues, sickness and diarrhoea, blackouts, short-term memory loss, panic attacks and severe mood swings.”

Alastair Bohm, of drug rehab charity Addaction, said benzocaine could be particularly deadly when mixed with alcohol.

He explained: “The main danger is that it can lead to the suppression of the gag reflex so people choke on their vomit more easily.”

Police have stepped up efforts to warn kids about the dangers of fake ecstasy since Regane MacColl, 17, died after falling ill at Glasgow’s Arches nightclub in February. It’s feared she took a red Mortal Kombat tablet.