Dangerous ‘fake ecstasy’ that causes hallucinations and memory loss floods UK

Unscrupulous drug dealers are flooding the UK with a dangerous fake ecstasy which can cause horrifying hallucinations and permanent memory loss.

Chinese-made drug 4-Chloromethcathinone, known as 4-CMC, has been described by some users as more like meth than ecstasy.

The collapse in trade with Europe following Brexit, and worsened by Covid lockdowns, has slowed the supply of genuine MDMA into the UK, according to drugs experts.

4-CMC has been used to bulk out other drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy for the past few years, but researchers from the Manchester Drug Analysis and Knowledge Exchange, or MANDRAKE, posted a warning about the sudden increase in 4-CMC sales on its Twitter account last month.

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They said they had confirmed the presence of the synthetic drug in pills mis-sold as MDMA (ecstasy) circulating in Manchester and added: "If unwell please seek medical attention."

MANDRAKE director Dr Oliver Sutcliffe told the Daily Mail: "These compounds are potentially more harmful, but the fact is they're not fully understood therefore people don't really understand what doses of things to take or what happens if they are taken in combination."

He said it was particularly dangerous when the new synthetic drug was mis-sold as something else.

"The stuff we found on the recreational market was worrying because it was actually mixed in a tablet with MDMA, and the user would assume that it was MDMA but you don't know how these compounds will react in the body."

Like ecstasy, 4-CMC, makes users feel euphoric and more alert, more sociable, and sexually uninhibited – along with side-effects such as disturbed sleep, tooth-grinding, and dehydration.

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However, some 4-CMC users on online forums have described terrifying hallucinations with one describing the feeling that a "shadow guy" was trying to get into their house and another saying that their memory was just "not there anymore".

One user said they "literally can't even tell the difference" between 4-CMC and methamphetamine, the notorious Nazi "marching drug" that has destroyed lives and caused a growing number of deaths in the US since the mid-1980s.

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