Report from DanceSafe

Laboratory Analysis Program Reveals
DXM Tablets Sold as "Ecstasy"

Emanuel Sferios
eman@tsoft.com

SUMMER 1999 was enormously successful for us. We now have local chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Vancouver. Donations have been steady and have enabled us to provide our laboratory pill analysis service for free to US residents. We have distributed over 250 Ecstasy Testing Kits to users across the country, and have successfully implemented an on-site pill testing program in the Oakland rave scene. The onsite testing program has contributed to a measurable decrease in the number of fake and adulterated ecstasy tablets, as well as the number of medical emergencies, in the Bay Area. Below is a summary of our programs and accomplishments.

Laboratory Analysis Program

Last Spring we launched a laboratory pill analysis program whereby US residents can anonymously send street ecstasy tablets to a professional lab for qualitative analysis using full-scale gas chromatography. The results are posted regularly to our website (www.harm reduction.net/dancesafe).

Since July the laboratory has received twenty-eight pills from cities around the US including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Nashville, Seattle, Orlando, San Antonio, Oakland, St. Petersburg (FL) and Birmingham.

Of these twenty-eight pills, fifteen contained entactogenic compounds. Eleven of them were pure MDMA, while one contained MDMA and caffeine, one contained MDE only, one contained MDA only, and one contained a combination of MDMA and MDE. Of the remaining thirteen, three contained no drugs at all, one contained only caffeine, one contained a combination of Guaifenesin and Ephedrine, and the remaining eight contained only Dextromethorphan (DXM).

The "yin yang" pill below contained MDE only. The "mitsubishi" contained caffeine only. The "wildflower" (far right) contained MDA only. All other pills pictured below contained DXM only. A brand known as "green triangles" which contained DXM only surfaced everywhere around the country. Users who had taken them reported nausea, delerium, itchy skin, loss of motor control, and audio and visual hallucinations.

The prevalence of DXM tablets on the ecstasy market is of particular concern. DXM is a cough suppressant that in high doses is a dissociative similar to ketamine. We had been receiving numerous emails from ecstasy users reporting extremely unpleasant experiences from supposed ecstasy tablets, particularly a brand known as "green triangles" which had surfaced everywhere around the country. Users who had taken these pills reported nausea, delerium, itchy skin, loss of motor control, and audio and visual hallucinations. Effects were reported by some to have lasted 36 hours or longer, particularly in users who had taken multiple pills. Some users reported that they or their friends had been hospitalized after taking these pills, and the Dancesafe volunteers personally witnessed over a dozen medical emergencies requiring hospitalization in Oakland where users had consumed the green triangles.

The rumor going around was that these pills contained heroin and/or mescaline. After testing five of these pills at the laboratory we discovered that they contained high doses of DXM (averaging 127mg per pill). We immediately posted warnings on our website and through various rave email lists. While relatively safe in the proper dosage and environment, an overdose of DXM in a rave setting, particularly by someone not expecting the drug, can be dangerous. Furthermore, DXM is contraindicated with MDMA. It is a both a serotonin releaser and a reuptake inhibitor, as well as being metabolized by the same liver enzyme as MDMA, thus preventing the proper breakdown of MDMA. Furthermore, DXM inhibits perspiration, elevating body temperature. Combining DXM and MDMA, therefore, significantly increases ones chance of "serotonin syndrome," a rare but potentially fatal condition. We witnessed a number of serotonin syndrome occurrences involving accidental DXM/MDMA combinations, and there are a number of documented cases of serotonin syndrome resulting from people who had taken DXM-containing cough syrup while on MAOIs or SSRIs, two types of serotonin-affecting anti-depressants.

DXM is cheap and legal, which is probably one of the reasons it has become such a common adulterant on the lucrative ecstasy market. It is our hope that as information about the dangers of DXM-laced 'ecstasy' tablets becomes known, its prevalence on the ecstasy market will decrease.

One positive discovery we made is that DXM is identifiable using the Marquis reagent Ecstasy Testing Kits, available through our website. Users can thus use these kits to screen against DXM-adulterated pills.

Ecstasy Testing Kits

An ecstasy testing kit consists of a chemical called "Marquis Reagent," which can be used to identify the presence of amphetamine-like compounds. A drop of the reagent is applied to a small scraping of the pill in question and the color change is observed. If an entactogen is present in the pill (MDMA, MDA, or MDE), the reagent will turn black or dark purple very quickly. If the pill contains only speed (amphetamine, methamphetamine, or ephedrine) the reagent will turn orange. 2CB causes the a yellow/green reaction, and DXM will cause the reagent to emit smoke and then slowly turn black after a distinctive initial delay of five to seven seconds.

Since launching our testing kit distribution program in July, we have distributed almost 178 kits to users in 27 States and Canada, and almost 100 more to Bay Area users. Each kit contains enough reagent to test about 150 pills. Users have reported success in screening against fake pills, including the many brands of DXM-laced pills on the market.

On-site Testing

Perhaps the most successful harm reduction program we have undertaken is an on-site testing program within the massive Oakland rave community. Almost every weekend enormous rave parties take place in Oakland, with anywhere between 4,000 and 12,000 people attending. We staff harm reduction booths at these events where, along with answering questions and distributing literature on the safer use of ecstasy and other dance drugs, we provide an on-site pill testing service. Users can bring their ecstasy tablet to us and we will test it for them using the Marquis reagent kit (we only need to scrape a tiny bit off the pill). We keep records of all the pills we test, and over the last four months have begun to notice a decrease in the number of fake pills being sold.

Most of the fake pills users bring to us at these raves were sold to them by scam dealers inside the rave. After we tell them that there is no ecstasy-like substance in the pill (and/or whether it contains or DXM) they will usually run off to find the person who sold the pill to them and try to get their money back. Oftentimes they do, after which they return to our table and thank us. At one particular rave on September 18, we tested 40 fake pills, 26 of them DXM-laced green triangles. We helped all of these people avoid ingesting the fake pills, and many of them were even able to get their money back. One of the scam dealers was ejected from the rave by a group of angry users. In another By placing direct pressure on the scam dealers in this way, our on-site testing program has contributed to a noticeable reduction in the number of fake pills being sold in the Oakland rave scene.

Funding

July was a turning point in our funding situation when we received a $10,000 donation from Paul Phillips, San Francisco resident and director of the popular internet site "go2net.com." This money helped us jump-start our laboratory testing program (the lab charges $110 for each pill analysis) and also provided us with start-up funds to begin our testing-kit distribution program, which has become a steady source of funding in itself. Special mention must be given to MAPS as well, who is our non-profit sponsor and who donates to us the use of their secure internet server.

DanceSafe: Promoting Health and Safety Within the Rave and Nightclub Community