People won’t stop doing drugs – but they need to be more educated on them

As people come to uni they may not have tried drugs before, but in their new found environments they may find themselves doing drugs and this may be for the first time.

Alongside ket, MD and pills are the most popular drugs to take at uni.

MDMA makes people feel euphoric, empathetic and alive, and the drug is believed to be the strongest available in an entire two decades.

It can come as a powder-based substance or as a pill, with the average pill usually containing 100-150mg.

Nowadays, one pill can include up to 240mg of ecstasy – and some users might have no idea of the amount they’re taking.

Stephanie Shevlin, a 22-year-old, went to a rave with her girlfriend and their friends, where all of them took the same amount of the drug as each other.

She then died later that night, as found in the coroner’s report, due to the “high concentration of MDMA” in her blood, while her friends are alive and okay.

A Global Drugs Survey in 2015 found it is the “worst time to be using MDMA in a generation” after asking 100,000 drug users about their drug habits.

Pippa Phillips*, a Bournemouth student who admits to having taken MDMA over 50 times, says: “It makes you more sociable and everyone loves each other.”

MDMA?

Pippa* continued: “I think other things are getting mixed into pills more and there’s definitely batches of MDMA that are a lot stronger. I would say it’s not worth the risk and I don’t advise people to do it, but thinking about how many times I’ve done it and not thought about it I can’t really say that.

“I’d just say know how much you can take and don’t go over that amount. At first, take the tiniest bit.”

Pills can contain three times the quantity of MDMA than they did in the ‘90s.

This is why The Loop, a drug-testing company, have started opening their tents at festivals and events in the UK.

If they find a dangerous type of drug being sold, they’ll basically post it on the news to warn people about it.

Another thing that’s even better is that they test drugs for people who want to know how much and exactly what it is that they’re taking.

The reality is that people won’t ever stop taking drugs – they’ll grow in popularity and be shared out in the current rave and dance culture regardless.

Rather than criminalising drugs like the government do, the one thing that will actually stop the rising deaths per year will be by people checking what is being put into their bodies.

A huge worry of this system is that it could influence more drug use, but a lot of parents will probs agree that they would rather their children be safe than to have no knowledge of what the outcome and risks are.

One thing that will potentially influence people’s choices is to know the quantity they’re taking, and to be educated enough that they are aware of the dangers of taking them.

*Name has been changed to protect identity.