Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA)
The Vienna Counseling Center for Psychoactive Substances “Checkit!” analyzed 1,836 samples submitted last year and has now presented the results in the annual report. Warnings were issued several times because the compositions proved to be particularly hazardous to health. For example, eight percent of ecstasy tablets contained more than 200 mg of the active ingredient MDMA. According to “Checkit!” but a woman weighing 60 kilograms should not exceed 78 milligrams.
Dewormers for horses in cocaine
258 ecstasy samples were tested in 2022, warnings were issued most frequently for this substance at eleven percent. If the recommended amount is exceeded, “Checkit!” against a sharply increasing risk of undesirable effects such as nausea, vomiting, muscle tremors, jaw spasms and a sharp rise in body temperature.
However, as in the previous year, cocaine was tested most frequently, 599 being almost a third of all substances examined. 70 percent contained more than 800 mg/g, the average was 891 mg/g, but 29 percent also contained extenders such as Levimasol, phenacetin or local anesthetics.
Levimasol is a vermifuge for horses and other even-toed ungulates that is hazardous to human health. The substance was formerly approved by the drug authorities as an appetite suppressant (“Menocil”) before it was withdrawn from the market in 1968. The agent can lead to allergic reactions and impairments of the central nervous system, but also to changes in the blood count.
Caffeine at speed
In many of the speed samples, on the other hand, caffeine was found as a cutting agent, which also has the potential to be harmful to health. In the case of the new psychoactive substances (NPS), which were detected in around eight percent of all samples examined, an unexpected substance was found in almost half – bringing the number of unexpected cases from 3.1 percent in 2021 to 3.7 percent a year 2022 has increased.
“The shape or the color do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the ingredients. Even if the products look identical. After all, a warning had to be issued for eight percent of the substances tested due to a composition that was particularly harmful to health. More than a quarter of the substances tested contained exclusively or additional unexpected active ingredients,” summarizes Checkit! manager Bettina Hölblinger.
- More information at checkit.wien
Increased “Blue Punisher” in circulation
In May of this year, the drug analysis project warned on its online presence that “there had been an increase in blue Punisher XTCs in circulation” for the past two years. In this case, too, the drug checking showed that neither the logo, color nor weight said anything about ingredients and dosages. Some tablets did not contain the active ingredient MDMA at all, but others contained between 298 or four milligrams. At the end of June, a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old girl died in Germany, presumably as a result of using this drug.
Source: Nachrichten
