One-third of all MDMA tested at events over the past year was actually eutylone, commonly known as bath salts.
KnowYourStuffNZ, which runs free drug checking services at festivals and events, says eutylone is a stimulant that's "much more dangerous" than MDMA and has caused severe and adverse reactions. It's been linked to several hospitalisations with some people still feeling unwell up to 10 days later.
They checked 2744 samples at 27 events between April 2020 and March 2021 and found only 66 percent of MDMA tested was actually MDMA. Instead, more than 350 samples of eutylone were found.
Comparatively, 90 percent of what was believed to be MDMA the year prior actually was MDMA.
Often, eutylone feels like the user has taken MDMA but after an hour or so the euphoria fades.
Risks from eutylone include anxiety, headaches, stomach upsets, agitation, and paranoia, with the worst outcomes being vomiting, convulsions, and possibly death.
Overall, 68 percent of people whose substances turned out to be not what they expected said they wouldn't take it, which KnowYourStuff says is the highest rate of people changing their minds since they began checking drugs at events.
After surveying their clients, KnowYourStuff found that 95 percent said they're more likely to get their drugs tested before taking them, 51 percent reported they're less likely to mix drugs, and 45 percent said they're more likely to take a smaller amount.
"This is how harm reduction should work – drug checking gives people the information they need to make safer choices, and helps people become more informed," they say.
"A big change this year was the number of people who carried out their own drug checking – home testing kits sold out over the party season as people heard our warnings about eutylone and took their own steps to inform themselves."
In December, the Government announced it would be legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals over the summer, and in April, this system was made permanent.
KnowYourStuff says it's currently New Zealand's only licensed provider of drug checking services, but they hope it's expanded to help cope with the demand.
"The work we can do depends upon our resources. This year we doubled our workload. We think that's pretty good for a volunteer organisation. We are managing to grow rapidly but not fast enough to meet the demand."
