Unknown psychoactive ingredients in drugs

A fresh batch of previously unknown substances have been found in the pockets of recreational drug users.

Drug-testing group Know Your Stuff, which offers drug testing at festivals, has released the results of the 445 tests taken at seven summer festivals.

Know Your Stuff director Wendy Allison said 20 previously unseen psychoactive substances had emerged in this year’s results.

And a number of MDMA pills – also known as ecstasy – containing twice the average adult dose were found, a first in the four years of festival testing.

Of drug users who voluntarily sought drug testing, 21 per cent of users were ready to consume a substance that was not as advertised – 40 per cent of those being cathinones or ‘‘bath salts’’.

A third of these cathinones were n-ethylpentylone, a substance which hospitalised 13 people, including a 15-year-old, at a Christchurch music festival in February.

‘‘We observe what’s going on overseas and the emergence of cathinones has been happening overseas for a number of years,’’ Allison said.

‘‘The big thing for us this year is that high-dose MDMA pills are here, and potentially causing trouble for people.’’

Of the 260 people who provided MDMA for testing, 83 per cent had a genuine sample. A further 7 per cent contained additional psychoactive substances, impurities and fillers.

When faced with drugs that were not as presumed, 58 per cent decided not to take the substance.

The testing of recreational drugs is a legal grey area, as the Misuse of Drugs Act makes it illegal for festival organisers to knowingly allow recreational drugs on their premises.

Ross Bell, director of NZ Drug Foundation, which partnered with Know Your Stuff, said: ‘‘The issue now is, rather than doing it under the radar like we’ve had to do it, we want to see a law change and we want to see some funding go into it so that more festivals and events can run this service.