Category: Drug Warning

Pink tusi is a strange phenomenon. Despite having a name that appears to be deliberately confusing it with the psychedelic drug 2C-B, it has nothing in common with it, either effects or chemistry.

What makes pink tusi even stranger is that it’s composition changes every time, the only thing that doesn’t change is the pink dye. Pink tusi is a mixture of drugs depending on who’s making it, which usually contains at least two of: caffeine, ketamine, MDMA and of course the famous pink dye. In rarer cases it has also contained cocaine, methamphetamine or stimulants from the cathinone class. Ketamine is the second most common ingredient after pink dye.

Analysis results recorded by DrugsData.org show the strange selection of drugs that pink tusi can contain.

Why is pink tusi so popular?

So, why is this strange mixture of drugs so popular? There are many theories but one is that people actually enjoy ketamine more when they take less! By mixing it with caffeine or MDMA they have mild effects from both drugs that feel quite different to any experience they have had before, so this makes it more enjoyable than accidentally taking too much ketamine and ending up in a K-hole.

Should I take pink tusi?

If it’s just a mixture of ketamine and pink dye, does that mean that a person who enjoys ketamine would enjoy it? Perhaps they would enjoy that mixture, but we can never know what a drug is by looking at it or by knowing what colour it is. The mixture could easily contain anything at all, including something you don’t want to take.

As always, it’s critical to test your drugs before you consume them, to be sure you know what you’re actually taking. Besides, it’s better not to support dealers that conceal the truth about what it is they are selling.

The Trimbos Institute in The Netherlands have issued a Red Alert about a batch of pink tesla pills. The pills were sold as containing a psychedelic drug called 2C-B. Instead, these pills contain DOC.

DOC has a duration of 24 hours and the pills contain a very high dose of this drug. The effects take 2-3 hours to kick in, so if a person took more because they “were not working” then the effects would be very dangerous.

• DOC causes long (24h) trips.
• One pill from this batch is a large dose, so the trip would be intense and overwhelming.
• It can take 2-3 hours to notice the effects
• Some people have already been hospitalised by these tablets
• If you take these tablets and experience intense negative effects then you can call for medical attention.

We consider this to be good advice because of the strength of the dose in the tablets. Trimbos issue 1-2 red alerts per year. This is an extremely serious alert and should be spread very widely because the risk is very high.

Tesla tablets are a popular design that have been in circulation since around 2014. They normally contain the drug MDMA (sometimes called “ecstasy” when in tablet form). Since it is easy to make a tablet it is possible for a producer to put any drug in these, and we have seen this in the past.

DOC in tablets is easy to detect using the mecke reagent. MDMA turns blue/black. 2C-B turns yellow. DOC turns green/brown.

The easiest way to prevent risk from drugs is not to take them, but if you do take them then testing is the fast way to avoid situations like this.

Some people do take DOC on purpose – it is a strong psychedelic drug. The dose needs to be controlled carefully and there needs to be enough time for the experience (24 hours). https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/DOC

The DrugsData lab run by Erowid has tested this Red Bull tablet from Texas which has the bull logo on one side and “Red Buli” written on the back. There is a breakline and the pill is coloured red. The lab reports the pill does NOT contain MDMA but instead an unknown amount of a drug called “N-ethyl-pentylone“.

The tablet appears to be very well-made. This pill has fine details visible, a slight sheen on the surface and no crumbling. This is quite unusual for a pill with no MDMA, which tend to be much lower quality.

Testing Pills

This sample was tested by DrugsData.org who will run a full lab test on ecstasy tablets for $40 US Dollars per whole tablet (100 USD for partial tablets). You can also test pills and other drugs at home using reagent tests. These use a small piece of the pill to give a fast result to alert you if there is no MDMA in a pill. Reagent tests cost around £20 for a pack which lasts for 30 samples.

The picture below shows a test result for N-ethylpentylone. MDMA gives a result of purple/purple/blue, you can see this is VERY different to the sample results from the photo.

Effects of N-ethylpentylone

N-Ethylpentylone is a fairly unpleasant drug because it initially has similar effects to MDMA – stimulation, energy and sociability. Some people do get extremely anxious depending on the dosage, but most have fairly normal effects. These enjoyable effects only last about 2 hours though, so people think they are coming down a bit early.

The big problems start when they don’t want the party to stop so they take some more. Drugs in this class are known to be very more-ish, making people want to keep chasing a high even if they know that the effects aren’t what they should be.

As a rule of thumb, each time someone takes another dose of N-ethylpentylone they will be unable to sleep for an additional 6 hours. If they are partying for 8 hours and they have to take more every 2 hours that’s an extra 24 hours after the party that they cannot sleep.

With a stimulant on board messing with dopamine and no sleep for 2 nights in a row the brain starts to literally go crazy and most people experience horrible anxiety with physical symptoms. More vulnerable people experience panic attacks, paranoia and in cases where people cannot sleep for more than 2 nights, temporary psychosis can emerge.

What to do if you can’t sleep after taking ecstasy

It’s a truly horrible experience for those who go through it but the good news is that as soon as someone sleeps the effects start to reduce massively. Doctors should prescribe a benzodiazepine (like valium), not an antipsychotic. This is because antipsychotics can have severe interactions leading to fatal heart problems when combined with N-ethylpentylone.[1][2]

Remember, it’s the drug, not you. As soon as you have slept you will start to feel normal. We wrote the advice sheet above in partnership with The Loop in 2018.

The notorious hexagonal Philipp Plein pill, aka PP Skull or QP Skull has been around since July 2017 where it was first detected in Austria by Checkit! and was a gold pill with 225mg of MDMA. It’s 2019 now and that is no longer reality, as a recent detection in Austria has found the Philipp Plein skull tablets containing 4-FMA, a completely different drug.

Although the colour of this batch is pink, the colour comes from a dye and doesn’t indicate what’s in the tablet. Many different colours of this pill have been produced, and it was one of the most common pills in europe in 2018.

It’s easy to tell if a tablet contains 4-FMA instead of MDMA because the marquis and froehde reagent give no colour change, compared to the (extremely strong) purple/black colour they give with MDMA. The test takes about 60 seconds for each reagent and allows people to test for many different drugs in their own home.

As is so often the case with ecstasy tablets, the first batch isn’t in circulation for long, as the first producer runs out and other producers figure out how to copy the design so that they can make their own tablets for less money, allowing them to make more profit.

In many cases over the last few years, this re-pressing of tablets has just meant putting less MDMA into the tablets but this is an unregulated market and that means some of the most unscrupulous sellers may choose to put a different drug altogether, which means that people may grossly misjudge the risks that they are being exposed to.

4-FMA is a much longer-lasting stimulant but is often described as having extremely disappointing effects because it does not produce the empathy and energy that MDMA produces, even at high doses. What it does do though, is prevent sleep for 8+ hours, which is longer than the 4-6 hours of MDMA and could cause problems for people who need to sleep for their health after a weekend of partying which might be very taxing on the body.

The two tablets analysed contain 45 and 55mg of 4-FMA respectively, which is a fairly low dose of 4-FMA since it is more often taken around 100mg. It does take a long time to kick in, often around an hour, so if someone does take this tablet then they should be careful not to take more because they think “it’s not working”, especially since a second tablet could push the dose to be excessive for their personal body characteristics.

Reagent Tests UK makes tests for common drugs to help reduce the risks associated with taking them. Even though drug use is never safe, we can neuter some of the worst risks by testing and using other harm reduction techniques. You can get a test for MDMA here.

One of the other most important techniques is education about the substance being taken. Understanding the risks can have a huge impact on the ability to control them. Even pure MDMA has plenty of risks, but there are lots of resources online which go into depth about these. Some good resources for drugs information can be found here:

• Rollsafe
• Drugs and Me
• Psychonaut Wiki
• TripSit.Me
• Tripsafe

Thank you also to www.ecstasydata.org for preparing the photos. EcstasyData offer lab testing of tablets and powders which are sent in the post.

White UPS ecstasy pills containing alpha-PVP from Manchester, UK

The pills are described as “badly made”. Read the history below for more information about why this might be. It is also possible that they are well made but have been exposed to moisture, which causes them to be crumble. Although this batch is known to be dangerous, it does not mean that batches which do not look like this will be less dangerous. You can determine if a pill contains a different drug instead of MDMA using Reagent Tests. It takes about 2 minutes and does not need special equipment. Each of the kits can be used for up to 40 tests.

Alpha-PVP is a long-lasting cathinone. It initially has pleasurable effects which lead people to think it is MDMA but these wear off quickly, causing people to take more. As more is taken, the anxious side effects build up. Each dose increases the time which a person will be unable to sleep for by about 6 hours. This is a severe problem as dosing through a whole party can prevent sleep for several days.

During this time the person will develop symptoms of severe sleep deprivation such as horrible anxiety, paranoia and eventually temporary psychosis. If you are suffering these effects then it is important to get sleep. See a doctor and show them this Reagent Tests UK blog, or this information from The Loop.

These pills contain 7-8x the normal dose of alpha-PVP which will massively increase the risks. As a stimulant, doses like this could cause a risk of heart complications as well as the other side effects. Carry on reading the blog post for more information about UPS pills and alpha PVP.

The history of UPS ecstasy tablets

UPS ecstasy tablets have been popular for a long time. They were among the first very high strength tablets to emerge in the 2010s and quickly obtained a reputation as being well made tablets with a large amount of MDMA in them. MDMA is the active ingredient that is supposed to be in all ecstasy tablets and people who use ecstasy pills will be seeking out those which contain only MDMA.

The market for MDMA tablets is, of course, completely unregulated and uncontrolled and there is nothing to stop sellers from being dishonest. Counterfeit tablets quickly begin to appear after a tablet gains a good reputation as less scrupulous manufacturers try to use the popularity to sell their own pills which might be weaker, may contain no MDMA or may even contain a completely different and potentially much more dangerous drug.

Compounding this issue is the ease with which pressing equipment for pills can be obtained. Ten minutes searching online easily reveals sellers of “tablet dies”, the moulds use to press tablet material into a tablet, for around £50.

So it doesn’t take much time or money for a pill to be cloned, and once it’s cloned the colour, shape and logo of an ecstasy tablet from someone else’s pill report tell us nothing about what’s in it. It’s impossible to tell from visual appearance if the pill is from a different batch, maybe even from a different manufacturer.

UPS pills are no different. The first test result on Ecstasydata.org is from May 2015. Within 8 months there is a clone which contains a mixture of drugs including caffeine and methamphetamine (“crystal meth”). Fast forward to 2019 and the original batch of UPS pills are long gone. Even half sensible manufacturers will not make UPS pills because they know that the reputation has been ruined by pill reports of bad UPS pills. The only manufacturers remaining are the most amateur available, looking to make some quick cash as easily as possible.

Hospitalisation

In the third week of January 2019 three teenage boys were taken to hospital in Manchester, UK with severe symptoms, one of which was put into an induced coma due to the risk. They had all taken “UPS” ecstasy tablets, thinking that they would contain MDMA. After police were able to submit the tablets for testing, they turned out to contain a completely different drug called “alpha-PVP”.

The lab was not able to determine the exact amount in the tablets but it is thought to be 7-8x a typical dose, which is a huge amount. Even drinking 7-8 cups of coffee in one go would cause problems, especially for a teenager.

What is Alpha PVP?

Alpha PVP is a stimulant from the cathinone family. While this family includes mephedrone, it is a very distant relative of mephedrone itself and has much higher risks attached. Alpha-PVP has been called “flakka” and “gravel” by media in the US but there is no evidence to suggest that people using the drug call it this.

Stimulants activate the body’s reward system to create a sense of wellbeing and make people talkative, and alter how the body manages alertness and rest, causing people to feel energetic and prevent sleep. They also significantly increase blood pressure, heart rate and cause sweating. In high doses, side effects become much more pronounced and the body finds it harder to excrete the drug out through its normal mechanisms. This is especially true with cathinones like alpha-PVP. Although the pleasurable effects last for about 2 hours, the drug lingers in fatty tissue for much longer. The more doses that are taken, the longer that the drug has a chance to build up and therefore the longer it is released back into the blood for, after people want the effects to stop.

People are tricked by the initial pleasurable effects of alpha-PVP into thinking they have just got “weak MDMA”. Not wanting the party to stop (and unknowingly compelled by the action of the drug on their reward system) they take some more. This cycle continues until the party is over, by which time the drug has been building up in the body for hours.

This becomes a huge problem as the drug prevents sleep, a vital recovery process for the body. Even without drugs, sleep deprivation can cause severe paranoia and temporary psychosis, but with a stimulant drug on board this happens MUCH faster. Coupled with the horrible comedown that cathinones cause, this can lead to intensely distressing and even very dangerous behaviour.

You can see the original warning issued by the Manchester Early Warning System here: UPS ecstasy pill alpha-pvp drug warning 2019

Four people were hospitalised around Manchester on Saturday and a further four were hospitalised on Sunday, but a simple home reagent test could have prevented this for all of them. A batch of something they had bought as MDMA turned out to be purified crystals of synthetic cannabinoids (ADM-FUBICA), more commonly known as “spice” which comes heavily diluted onto plant leaves and is smoked. In this diluted form the effects are slightly like cannabis but with much higher risks. In their crystalline form, an amount the size of a match head can cause serious harm, as has been seen here.

The crystals had the same appearance as MDMA, but those who know their chemistry will be all too aware that many chemicals look incredibly similar and just a small impurity can change the appearance as much as switching two completely different compounds.

 

Because of the very high potency and risk of cannabinoids, taking a test dose alone is not enough to prevent harm – the amount that is a “test dose” for MDMA is an overdose amount for a cannabinoid. Therefore the only reliable way to distinguish compounds when a mix-up like this occurs is to test, either using a lab test or a home test such as the MDMA reagent test multipack. A home test like this takes about 4 minutes and gives a triple black reaction for MDMA, but a completely different colour reaction for ALL different kinds of cannabinoids and other possible substitutes (accidental or deliberate).

This makes testing for “spice” in MDMA incredibly easy, without the need to take a test dose that could be dangerous even if it’s small. Those in the area around Manchester buying “magic” as a drug or “pink champagne” are urged to be especially careful – try to use chemical names instead of slang names if you do decide to use MDMA, as this can increase confusion around what you are buying.

The Mitsubishi print is one of the most well known presses of ecstasy tablet, dating back to the 1990s when MDMA first became popular. Many batches of the tablets have been produced over the years in varying quality but generally at the lower end of the spectrum because sophisticated manufacturers do not want their products tainted by the hit-and-miss reputation of the logo.

This year brings nothing different, and the Spanish testing service, Energy Control, have detected a green mitsubishi pill which contains a cathinone stimulant called a-PVP with no trace of MDMA. This is easily detected with reagent tests as a-PVP gives no colour change for the reagents in the MDMA test multipack whereas MDMA goes black with all three.

a-PVP* is a stimulant and does give energy like MDMA but the comparisons pretty much stop there. It is most similar to cocaine but has a much longer uncomfortable “tail” after the main high ends and a much higher chance of causing paranoia. The lack of enjoyable effects can easily lead to people taking a couple because they’re getting something and think it’s just a weak pill but this can result in sleep being prevented for much longer than MDMA would, and this sleep deprivation can further feed into the risk of paranoia and psychosis.

You can see the image Energy Control provided below. The tablet is 4.9mm thick and 9.9mm wide with a mass of 422 mg. The amount of a-PVP inside is not known.

You can see the original post by Energy Control in Spanish here.

This is a great reason why trying to determine what’s in a pill by asking if people have taken one with the same design is really never a good idea. a-PVP may not be common but counterfeiting is rife and it only takes a couple of months for fakes to emerge – this is why pill logos change so often, so that sophisticated manufacturers don’t have their reputations hurt by dodgy bedroom presses.

*a-PVP is sometimes called “flakka” by american media but this appears to have been made up by the media and has also been used to describe other stimulants.