Site wrote:
According to what I’ve heard they’ve definately gone down in strenght. In 94 the dutch government put out an ad campaign asking manufacturers to make their pills weaker then the ~140 mg average of the day because users were running into trouble more often than they should…
UPDATED: 09:09, April 05, 2006
Police fail to quell british appetite for dance drug
The availability and use of ecstasy in the United Kingdom is increasing steadily despite a fivefold increase in police seizures, according to new research.
The study, published on Monday in the British Journal of Psychopharmacology, is the largest survey of its kind, examining official figures for consumption, availability, police seizures, arrests and deaths between 1994 and 2003.
Young Britons are still by far the leading consumers of MDMA in Europe and the second largest worldwide, after Australia. An estimated 750,000 regular users consume about 26 million tablets a year, although the researchers concede that this is probably an underestimate.
This UK trend is due in part to falling prices. In 1994, an ecstasy pill cost 16 pounds (US$28) on average. This had dropped 70 per cent to 5 pounds (US$9) in 2003. Today, the price matches that of a pint of beer, just over 2 pounds (US$3.5).
The study also confirms that ecstasy pills are getting weaker. The average amount of MDMA per tablet has dropped by a quarter over seven years from 100 milligrams to 74mg; 100mg is generally considered the lowest amount to get the full effect.
The lower strength of pills makes them potentially more dangerous. “Users taking one of today’s weaker pills are not happy with the result so they take two pills,” says Fabrizio Schifano, the author of the study.
Source: China Daily
