Europe’s criminal groups are expanding MDMA production, refining their trafficking methods and ‘extending their reach to new countries and regions’, says a new joint report from Europol and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA).
The European MDMA market is estimated to be worth almost EUR 600m a year, the document says. This equates to around 72m ecstasy tablets consumed in the EU, with more than 12m Europeans having used the drug at least once in their lifetime.
While MDMA is usually made using large industrial reactors – the ‘high pressure’ method – manufacturers are constantly adapting their production processes in response to shortages of precursor chemicals or equipment. Restrictions on the availability of high-pressure reactors, for example, has led to producers in the Netherlands switching to the ‘cold method’, which is associated with increased risk of fires and explosions.
Precursor chemicals are usually obtained by criminal networks with links to legitimate businesses, the report points out, while producers also bypass legal controls by sourcing unregulated alternative substances from China and elsewhere. Producing MDMA can also generate up to 3,000 tonnes of chemical waste a year – which is ‘typically dumped away from the production sites, causing health hazards, environmental damage and costly clean-ups’.
Outside of the ‘buoyant’ EU market and profitable markets in Asia and Oceania, there are signs that Latin America is becoming an increasingly important destination for European MDMA, the report states – using traditional cocaine trafficking routes ‘in the opposite direction’. Gangs also sometimes engage in ‘barter deals’, it says, where MDMA is exchanged for cocaine ‘with no monetary exchange’. Meanwhile, social media platforms and instant messaging apps are increasingly being used to sell MDMA to customers online, in addition to traditional dark web markets.
In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, ecstasy pills typically contained around 80mg of MDMA – by the mid 2010s, however, tablets containing as much as 250mg were being found for sale on the dark web. The average MDMA content per tablet was as high as 170mg in 2019, the report states, but had fallen to 144mg three years later – likely the result of the temporary fall in demand during the pandemic. Research by The Loop found that almost half of the MDMA sold at English music festivals in 2021 was in fact fake – up from just 7 per cent two years previously.
While the trend of seeing rising amounts of MDMA in pills ‘seems to have reversed’, potent tablets are still very much in circulation, the report warns. ‘Serious harms associated with exposure to MDMA are considered relatively rare, but MDMA acute toxicity is known and the availability of high-strength products increases the risk of adverse health effects – including fatal outcomes,’ it states.
‘Understanding the evolving MDMA market is essential for developing effective responses,’ said EUDA executive director Alexis Goosdeel. ‘MDMA remains a popular drug in nightlife and music festival settings, so ecstasy tablets that contain high amounts of MDMA, or unexpected ingredients, pose serious risks. Harm reduction measures, like drug-checking services, are crucial to mitigate the dangers. Tailored prevention and treatment services are more critical than ever, as MDMA tablets may contain new psychoactive substances that could have harmful consequences.’
EU drug market: MDMA – in-depth analysis available here