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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Steven Morris

FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Brexit helping cause harmful increase in fake ecstasy study warns - The Untold Story

Ecstasy pills
Many pills were made up of ingredients such as cathinones and caffeine, and users reported panic and psychosis. Photograph: portokalis/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Summer festivalgoers are being warned that an “unprecedented shift” in the drug market caused by a combination of Brexit, Covid lockdowns and police operations against supply chains has led to a sharp and potentially harmful increase in fake MDMA.

Criminologists and chemists have found that almost half of substances sold as MDMA (ecstasy) at festivals in England last year did not contain any of the drug.

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