Our Forensic & Analytical Science Service (FASS) has played a key role in alerting the community to the dangers posed by high dose MDMA tablets, recently seized by NSW Police.

NSW Health has issued a pub­lic drug warn­ing for the high dose MDMA (ecsta­sy) tablets that are pink/orange in colour, with the word Guc­ci print­ed on one side, along with a ‘Guc­ci’ logo.

NSW Health Pathology’s Illic­it Drug Analy­sis Unit (IDAU) recent­ly test­ed a tablet seized by NSW Police, not­ing the logo and appear­ance hadn’t been seen at the IDAU previously.

Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er, Una Cul­li­nan said the larg­er than aver­age tablet con­tained 414mg of the drug.

“That is more than four times the amount of MDMA usu­al­ly found in these tablets, which aver­age at around 100mg,” she said.

“NSW Police and NSW Health were imme­di­ate­ly informed of the results.”

Med­ical Direc­tor of the NSW Poi­sons Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre, Dr Dar­ren Roberts, said the con­sump­tion of high dos­es of MDMA has caused seri­ous ill­ness and death in NSW.

“It can cause severe agi­ta­tion, raised body tem­per­a­ture, seizures or fits, irreg­u­lar heart rhythm and death,” Dr Roberts said.

“The health risks from MDMA are great­ly increased if high amounts, includ­ing mul­ti­ple dos­es, are con­sumed over a short peri­od. Oth­er risks include tak­ing MDMA in com­bi­na­tion with oth­er stim­u­lants, such as amphet­a­mines or cocaine.

“Hot envi­ron­ments can also increase the risk of harm from MDMA. Sev­er­al music fes­ti­vals are tak­ing place this week in New South Wales, and hot weath­er is pre­dict­ed. Tak­ing a break from danc­ing, seek­ing shade, and drink­ing water are impor­tant mea­sures to reduce the risk of over­heat­ing at festivals.”

Police and health author­i­ties are remind­ing the com­mu­ni­ty that the appear­ance of a tablet is not a reli­able indi­ca­tor of its drug contents.

“It is very impor­tant to remem­ber the amount of MDMA in a tablet or cap­sule can vary a lot, even with­in the same batch,” explained Dr Roberts.

“If you or a friend have tak­en drugs, please watch out for each oth­er and know the warn­ing signs that you need help. If you or a friend feel unwell, you won’t get into trou­ble for seek­ing med­ical care. Please seek help immediately.”

NSW Health Pathology’s Illic­it Drug Analy­sis and Foren­sic Tox­i­col­o­gy teams work every day to keep the com­mu­ni­ty safe by con­duct­ing expert analy­sis of blood, urine and oral flu­id sam­ples as well as test­ing illic­it drugs seized by police.

Their work sup­ports the health and jus­tice sys­tems and con­tributes to pub­lic health alerts such as this.

For more infor­ma­tion on drug alerts, vis­it the NSW Health website.

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