Drugs.ie launches “What’s in the Pill?” campaign

Last week, Drugs.ie along with the student unions of TCD, UCD and DIT launched their ‘What’s in the Pill?’ campaign. This campaign aims to promote harm reduction for students who use Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is a common club drug. It comes in pill form, and the main active ingredient is the chemical MDMA. However, Ecstasy often contains many other chemicals that the user may not know about, and these chemicals can pose very serious health risks. In 2014, there were a number of deaths across Europe related to PMA, a drug that is often sold as Ecstasy.

‘What’s in the Pill?’ aims to raise awareness of the different drugs that can be contained within an Ecstasy pill. These drugs can all have different, unpredictable risks associated with them, including hospitalisations, deaths and possible mental health issues. The campaign urges that you can never tell what’s in a pill just by looking at it.

The safer option is always to not take drugs at all, but if you do decide to use Ecstasy, the campaign suggests some precautions, including:

• Only take half a pill at a time, although half can be risky as well.
• If you don’t come up as quickly as expected, don’t assume the pills were fake. Some pills take longer to take effect than others.
• Never “double drop”, or take two pills at once.
• Never mix your drugs. Alcohol, other club drugs and prescribed drugs call all interact dangerously with pills, and with each other.
• If dancing, drink water regularly, but don't go over a pint per hour.
• Take breaks from dancing.

For more information, visit Drugs.ie.