These are the dodgy MDMA pills from last year’s festival season you need to look out for

Whether you’ve chewed your jaw off at Boomtown or melted into a k-hole at Lost Village, you’ll know this statement to be true: drugs and festivals go hand in hand. And for many people, drugs contribute positively to their festival experience, taking what is already a good thing and garnishing it with a sweet sweet chef’s kiss.

But every year when festival season roles around, we hear about the dodgy drugs in circulation. Unfortunately, research by The Loop has shown that last year, festivals were awash with fake drugs. In fact nearly half the MDMA pills sold at UK festivals last summer contained none of the substance at all.

Some of the chemicals inside these pills can be very harmful so it’s important to know what to look out for and if possible, to get your gear tested before you take it. With that in mind, here are the dodgy pills and substances miss-sold as MDMA last summer, to help you know what took out for as the festival season gets into full swing.

Pharaoh pills

Ranging in colours and with an unmistakable stamp, the Pharaoh pill was found to contain a range of substances. While the brown version of the pill was in fact MDMA, the pink pill was made up of eutylone which can potentially cause severe insomnia and even psychosis.

Louis Vuitton pills

These Louis Vuitton pills were reportedly bought in Manchester and contained metaphedrone, a strong stimulant that encourages users to repeatedly re-dose

Crystal MDMA with caffeine in

Among some groups, there’s a perception that taking MDMA in its crystal form is somehow safer than taking pills, with users claiming to be able to tell if it’s real MDMA or not just by looking at it. But other chemicals look very similar to MDMA, like these caffeine crystals which were miss-sold as MDMA at Parklife 2021. Too much caffeine can cause an increased heart rate as well as insomnia.

Spongebob pills

No MDMA at all was detected in these Spongebob pills. Instead, the substance in them was found to be Clephedrone- nearly two times stronger than MDMA.

More stimulating and less empathogenic than MDMA, these Spongebob pills were linked to medical problems at festivals and clubs.

Donkey Kong pills and Ferrari pills

Both miss-sold as MDMA, these pills also had Clephedrone in and were linked to medical problems for people who had taken them.

Superman pills

These Superman pills also had Clephedrone and were found at last year’s Lost Village.

Information on how you can get your drugs tested can be found at The Loop’s website.  Other sites like Pill Report offer home-testing kits and information about drugs in circulation.

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