The drug of choice in the Nineties rave scene is coming back as a powder that can be shared socially like cocaine and distinguishes its more fashion-conscious users from 'pill heads'

Ecstasy, the drug of choice for the clubbers of the early 1990s, is making a comeback. Once synonymous with the rave scene, its popularity declined as the diminishing amount of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, the potent chemical once found in ecstasy tablets, saw a new generation of clubbers seek alternative substances.

At the peak of its popularity, ecstasy was rarely out of the news with the designer drug blamed for a spate of deaths, often wrongly.

Just under 7% of 16 to 24-year-olds reported using ecstasy, according to the British crime survey of 2000-01, with more recent figures suggesting that the proportion had fallen to less than 4%.

Now, according to Drugscope, the organisation that monitors street prices of illicit substances, ecstasy is back in demand as producers reintroduce it as a "premium" product. The Drugscope survey found that, after an absence of more than a decade, high MDMA-content ecstasy was on sale in half of the 20 towns and cities featured in its annual survey of the UK drugs scene.

In some parts of the country, pills are selling for up to £15 each, pushing the average price of ecstasy up to £4 from last year's average of £2.65. At the millennium, some very low strength pills were selling for as little as £1 each.

The increase in potency has reduced the number of pills people are taking, with one or two pills sufficing instead of five or more, according to Drugscope, whose findings correspond with a growing body of research produced by a team at Lancaster University that suggests the market in ecstasy is fragmenting.

The team, led by Fiona Measham, a senior lecturer in criminology, observed that a two-tier market in ecstasy had opened up. "Generic" ecstasy pills, which have a minor stimulative effect but which do not necessarily contain an active dose of MDMA, sell for about £3 each, as compared with those ecstasy pills that contain an active dose of MDMA, which sell for about £10 each.

The team also noted that in the summer of 2011 there emerged "exceptionally high strength ecstasy" that contained a "much higher dose of MDMA than seen in recent years".

Earlier work by the team identified a burgeoning market in MDMA powder or "crystal". Its survey of 109 clubbers found evidence that the popularity of MDMA in powder form was usurping that of ecstasy tablets. In terms of recent usage, 31% of respondents reported having had MDMA powder or crystal within the last month, whereas 28% reported having taken ecstasy pills.

The powder is also popular on the post-club scene. The Lancaster survey found that 21% of respondents reported that their favourite drug, or combination of drugs, to take at "chill out" parties after clubbing included MDMA powder, compared with 15% who preferred ecstasy pills.

"People who do ecstasy really love ecstasy," Measham said. "There's a real fondness for it, and so when good quality MDMA has come on the scene people have started using it again. People say they become more the person they want to be when doing it. If you want to be more loving or affectionate, there is a belief that ecstasy will help you. If you want to be the best dancer on the dancefloor, the same goes."

A belief that mephedrone would usurp ecstasy has not been realised, according to the Lancaster study, which found evidence that the former "legal high", also called "meow", has supplemented, "rather than displaced, ecstasy use among ecstasy users".

Ecstasy is traditionally manufactured in the Netherlands, but there is emerging evidence that Chinese chemists are stepping up their production of the high-strength version of the drug and are exporting it direct to the UK.

Some of the ecstasy now being sold in the UK contains the same amount of MDMA as the premium strength pills sold at the height of the rave scene 20 years ago.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the powder form of ecstasy is becoming increasingly popular on campuses. There are suggestions that younger users enjoy the ritual of taking a drug in powder form, associating it with cocaine. "There's a social element to it now," Measham said. "People will buy a bag and share it round, 'redosing' throughout the night. In the past, when it was just tablets, people would take it in the toilet and off they would go. It's now like cocaine in the 90s. People chop up lines and do it together. It's become a shared experience."

The increased MDMA levels found in ecstasy, a class A narcotic that, according to the drug advice service Frank, produces "an energy buzz that makes people feel alert, alive, in tune with their surroundings, and with sounds and colours often experienced as more intense" offers only one explanation for its resurgence in popularity.

Measham believes that, as ecstasy was the drug of choice on the club scene for 10 to 15 years, the emergence of the powder version has given it new cachet, as "each generation of young people want to make its own mark on the world".

But the emergence of ecstasy in powder form has also seen the drug attract new types of user. Measham and her team noted: "MDMA powder/crystal potentially offers increased profit margins for suppliers, as well as – for adult users of recreational drugs – an apparently 'premium' product with which to distinguish themselves from teenage 'pillheads'."

According to Frank, short-term risks associated with ecstasy can include a feeling of anxiety, paranoia or even psychosis. Its effects take about half an hour to kick in and tend to last between three and six hours, followed by a gradual comedown.

"The interesting issue is how this will affect the night-time economy," Measham said. "How will it change the atmosphere in clubs where currently it's all about cocaine and drinking?

"When ecstasy first came on to the rave scene there was a lot of hugging and affection, but that's not cool now in clubs. Are we going to see another summer of love?"