Dutch Institute Issues Red Alert Over Trump-Shaped Ecstasy Pills With 550,000 Dutch Users at Risk
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Aug 29
Dutch Institute Issues Red Alert Over Trump-Shaped Ecstasy Pills With 550,000 Dutch Users at Risk
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Aug 29
Summary
Several Trump-shaped ecstasy pills handed in at Dutch testing centres in August contained a very high dose of PMMA, prompting Trimbos to tell users not to take them under any circumstance.
PMMA acts later than MDMA and often lacks the usual stimulant effect, the institute said, increasing overdose risk and potentially causing overheating, nausea, rapid heart rate and convulsions hours after use.
Anniek Groothuis, a Trimbos spokesperson, said no deaths or serious illnesses linked to the pills had been reported so far.
The warning lands in a country where ecstasy remains widely used despite being illegal; a 2024 government report said a record 550,000 people had taken it at least once in 2022.
Trump-themed pills have surfaced before: German police seized about 5,000 Trump-head ecstasy tablets in 2017.