The Loop details new MDMA pills in UK circulation as part of harm reduction initiative

UK harm reduction and drug-testing charity The Loop has shared its findings from Manchester’s Parklife festival, which took place this past weekend. 

In a Twitter graphic, The Loop shared information about eight MDMA pills they tested for the first time at Parklife. They found the average strength to be about 1.5 times that of the typical tablet, with the weakest having 118mg of MDMA, with the strongest having nearly double that dosage with 223mg of MDMA. 

Sharing this type of information is key to The Loop’s mission to provide ravers and festival-goers with knowledge that will help them make safer choices, and reduce potential harm in a realistic way. The graphic above was accompanied by the hashtag “#TakeQuarterAndSipWater”. 

Further findings from Parklife show that most pills that were expected to be MDMA did in fact contain MDMA. This is an improvement upon the 2021 festival season’s result that found nearly half of pills sold as MDMA didn’t contain any MDMA.

The Loop researcher Jay Jackson contextualises the results in a TikTok: “We have seen a significant reduction from the unprecedented high level of fake MDMA in circulation last year that was caused by a mixture of Brexit and Covid. It’s back down to a level of around 11% and average pill strength and the range of doses are pretty much in line with historical average.”

Parklife was The Loop’s first official testing site of the summer 2022 festival season. They expect to have on-site testing at eight festivals total this summer, with more information to come via their social media channels.

Follow The Loop on Twitter to stay up-to-date on their latest findings, and revisit Ed Gillett’s in-depth 2021 feature on the urgent necessity of the UK government adopting harm-reduction policies.