Up to 19 deaths in North linked to lethal ecstasy

Gardaí and health officials are scrambling for information on a new drug which has been linked with up to 19 deaths in the North in less than a year.

The drug, known as 4,4DMAR, has been found in both tablets and powders and is thought to be sold to users as ecstasy, chemically known as MDMA.

An inquest in Belfast on Thursday heard that 4,4DMAR had been mentioned in connection with 19 deaths between June 2013 and February 2014.

Garda sources said it seemed to be “an extraordinary number of deaths” linked to one substance. The sources have said they would have expected at least some seizures of the drug here in the last year given its prominence across the border.

Gardaí are seeking information from Forensic Science Laboratory and the State Laboratory to check for any detection of this drug in tablets or tests here.

The Health Service Executive is also checking for any reports of the substance. So far, no records or reports of the drug have been found.

The emergence in the North of the drug, a form of amphetamine, follows at least four deaths in recent months in the Republic linked to other amphetamines, PMA and PMMA. They were also contained in tablets sold to users as ecstasy.

Gardaí and health experts were caught unawares on Thursday when the reports of 4,4DMAR emerged in the media, particularly given its involvement in such a huge number of deaths.

However, one recent piece of research, partly conducted by scientists at Trinity College and Dublin Institute of Technology examined 18 of the deaths in the North and eight cases in Hungary.

It found that the drug had “much more potent” effects on key parts of the brain and said there was the “potential for serious side-effects such as psychotic symptoms, agitation, hyperthermia and cardiovascular stimulation, especially after high dose exposure or following combination with other psychostimulants”.

It said the drug was “freely available” on the internet, where it was sold as a ‘research chemical’.

Last March, the EU drugs agency issued a warning both about 4,4DMAR and ecstasy tablets with dangerous high levels of MDMA.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said 4,4DMAR was not controlled in the EU and that it had been seized in tablets and powder in Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. It said 4,4DMAR appeared to have been a factor in “most” of the 18 deaths in the North and the eight deaths in Hungary.

It said the drug was associated with “agitation, hyperthermia, foaming at the mouth, breathing problems and cardiac arrest”.

It said the drug had been found in tablets with a variety of logos, colours and shapes. The cases in the North included tablets known as speckled cherries (with cherry shapes embossed) and speckled cross (with crosses embossed).

Garda sources are wondering were other substances, such as PMA, were also involved in some of the deaths linked with 4,4DMAR.