Clubbers in the UK have been issued a warning after a dangerous batch of pills was linked to two deaths.
The message was shared by drug welfare organisation Release Drugs over the weekend, and highlighted how the pills have been connected to two people dying and one being hospitalised in London.
The pills are green and circular and can be identified by the ‘80’ marked on them. They reportedly contain MDMA, ketamine and Isotonitazene – with the latter being a powerful synthetic opioid that leads to an increased risk of overdose.
Release Drugs states that the pills are being spotted in nightclubs in London, but it is uncertain whether they are being sold as MDMA or not.
The two deaths and one hospitalisation connected to the drug took place in Southall, Ealing, and a warning shared by the drug welfare organisation states that side effects include dizziness, uncontrolled vomiting, slow reflexes, tiredness and unconsciousness. Those who have consumed the pills are encouraged to seek immediate medical attention.
Another club to issue a warning is central London’s XOYO, which shared that the pills responsible for the fatalities are similar to those identified earlier this year by harm reduction charity The Loop.
“Two people died last weekend after clubbing. Testing confirmed these were nitazene pills,” their update read. “They were very similar in appearance & contents to a pill tested by The Loop 2 months ago. However, it is not known what the pills were bought as.”
In the advice shared, the venue encourages people to take safety precautions if they are considering taking pills. These include testing drugs using nitazene test strips, making use of drug-checking services, staggering doses, and carrying naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses.
It also outlines signs of an overdose to keep an eye out for, including shallow or absent breathing, loud snoring or rasping, blue/grey lips or fingertips, and loss of consciousness.
The news comes after a separate warning around drugs in the UK was issued last October, when clubbers were told that some high-strength pills led to “multiple” hospitalisations across London.
The concerns were shared by The Loop, after some tablets contained strengths of MDMA between 90mg and 290mg. A quarter of all ecstasy tablets it tested came up with over 200mg – double the adult dose.
Over the years, UK festivals have issued warnings around drugs too. In 2022, Reading & Leeds Festival issued a statement about the use of drugs at their festivals, noting that “ecstasy deaths appear to be rising year on year”.
Around that same time, Boardmasters was forced to warn their attendees of dangerously high-strength MDMA that was found on-site at the festival, and pills tested at Secret Garden Party 2022 were found to contain more than 2.5 times the typical amount of ecstasy.
In 2023, figures from the live music industry criticised the government’s U-turn on festival drug testing, which came amid the Home Office retracting its support for drug testing at festivals.