Police have issued a warning about a potentially deadly drug they have seized from patrolling one of the country’s leading music festivals, which authorities warn can “melt your body.”
As The Australian reports, the drug, called PMA (para-Methoxyamphetamine) is sold as ecstasy or MDMA, despite having extremely different effects. While it goes by the street name, Dr. Death, as the Daily Mail reports it can also be called ‘pink ecstasy’, ‘chicken yellow’ and ‘chicken powder’ to fool users, making it an enormous risk for recreational drug users.
Unlike providing the stimulated euphoric high that ecstasy and MDMA engineers, the lethal PMA can lead to an agonising death as it heats your body from the inside out, consequently leading to the grizzly melting of the internal organs. Also in contradiction to ecstasy, PMA is designed an anti-depressant and takes longer to affect the brain. Consequently, an overdose is more likely, as users often increase their intake.
Yahoo 7 News reports police seized the fatal drug from a South Australian woman in possession of 78 pills at Future Music Festival in Adelaide, as well as another Adelaide man found with 88 pills in the city’s Light Square.
A NSW Drug Squad spokesman who spoke to The Australian has warned users to be extremely careful, saying “with any manufactured drug there is no guarantee of quality or quantity.” “The body starts to heat up very quickly and that can be with disastrous effects, the liver shuts down, the kidneys shut down, the body starts to melt.” – Dr Robert Ali, SA Health Department
“You don’t know the dosage you’re taking, or what you’re actually taking. You’re basically in the hands of criminals who are trying to turn a profit rather than looking out for your safety,” note authorities.
Speaking to The Australian, South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner, Paul Dickson warned of the differences between PMA and ecstasy. “They are completely different drug and the result is quite different,” he cautioned. “The issue that we have here is that we’ve got people selling PMA as ecstasy in our nightclubs,” said Dickson.
The effects can include irregular heartbeat, blurred vision, nausea, and hallucinations with an overdose potentially resulting in a muscle meltdown. Signs of an overdose include overheating, raised heartbeat and blood pressure, agitation, confusion and body convulsions.
Speaking to Yahoo 7 News, Dr. Robert Ali from the SA Health Department warned of its deadly effects: “The body starts to heat up very quickly and that can be with disastrous effects, the liver shuts down, the kidneys shut down, the body starts to melt.”
Dr. Ali also warned users who experience unusual effects after taking a pill, saying: “The lack of euphoria, the feelings of agitation, the feelings that things aren’t quite right – that should be a warning sign that it’s time to go and get help.”
“The longer you leave this the more difficult it is to reverse the effects,” concluded the health official.
However, Police have warned that it can be extremely difficult to notice the difference between ecstasy and PMA as they are often made by the same people and created to imitate the look of ecstasy pills.
PMA has made a comeback after it was last seen on the streets in 2004 and particularly in Adelaide, with Assistant Commissioner Paul Dickson calling South Australia “a hotspot in relation to PMA.” The ecstasy knock-off led to the death of 11 people between the ages of 18 and 36, who died from 1995 to 2001 after overdosing on the drug.
As The Australian reports, it is believed the ‘body melting’ drug made its way to Australia from the UK, where five people have died in the past months after taking the drug they believed was ecstasy but contained lethal traces of PMA. As The Daily Mail reported in April, three victims were reported in Cheshire, England, including two females in their mid-30s.
Chesire Police issued a statement saying: “While we would always urge people not to take any illegal substances, I am particularly keen to emphasise the dangers and potentially life threatening consequences of PMA.”
While no further seizures of the drug have been recored this year in Australia, police warn they are still unsure of whether the drugs are being made in South Australia or imported from elsewhere. South Australian police have also issued an image to the public to help identify and distinguish the lethal PMA from other illegal substances.
