Twenty years ago, Leah Betts from Essex went into a coma after taking a single ecstasy pill on her 18th birthday and died five days later. It was later found she died from water intoxication, having drunk seven litres to avoid dehydration. But it was too late to curb the moral panic that erupted over rave culture's drug of choice.
Ecstasy's popularity among middle-class club-goers waned during Ireland's boom and a changing popular culture, to be replaced by cocaine. It has been staging a comeback - along with cheaper, more sinister versions that are passed off for the drug.
While the exact cause of death has yet to be established for Ana Hick, the beautiful 18-year-old who collapsed outside the Twister Pepper club last weekend, it has been reported she had taken PMMA (paramethoxymethamphetamine), an amphetamine-based drug often sold as ecstasy.
PMMA, like PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine), belongs to a breed of drugs similar to ecstasy that is flooding the country. Because they are cheaper or more readily available than MDMA, they are increasing present in pills or powders - even dealers themselves may not realise the drug they are selling is not pure ecstasy.
PMA and PMMA are both more unpredictable and poisonous than MDMA, the active component in ecstasy that causes the euphoric rush popular among clubbers. They also have a much slower onset, so users often take a second pill in the mistaken belief the first one didn't work. PMMA and PMA are toxic at lower doses than MDMA, increasing the threat of seizures, convulsions, and heart attack.
Source: Gabrielle Monaghan, The Irish Independent, 20/05/15
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