PILL TESTING - Bonger Instituut

Current testing offices
Pills submitted for testing
Ecstasy users may submit drugs to any of 23 Dutch offices that provide testing services,
where the drugs are either tested on the spot or forwarded for laboratory testing.
Most such offices are open once a week. There are considerable variations between
them, both in the absolute numbers of pills submitted for testing and in the wax
or wane between 2001 and our study in 2002. Wide variations are also seen in the
types of pills submitted both nationally and regionally. Though most pills do contain
‘real ecstasy’ (MDMA), there continues to be a remarkable diversity in the ‘types’ of
pills (logos and colours), as well as sharp fluctuations in their MDMA content.
For the identification of the ecstasy pills brought in for testing, DIMS uses a highly upto-date,
automated database containing information on pills analysed by DIMS in the
preceding eight weeks. The longer such a period becomes, the greater the risk of
encountering ‘look-alikes’ – pills with identical external features but with different contents.
Experience has learnt that an acceptable degree of reliability can be assured
over an eight-week period and that such a period is also practically viable. Restricting
the period to eight weeks does have the consequence, however, that most pills are
not recognisable on the spot and need to be forwarded to the lab for analysis (with
the user’s consent). Many users are unwilling to allow that, and this may distort the
insight into the ecstasy market.
As part of our study, we compared the data from the pills submitted during the study
period, including the unrecognised ones, with the entire database on pills analysed
by DIMS since the beginning of 2000. We discovered that a large proportion of the
initially unidentified pills had actually been recorded previously by DIMS and were
therefore not really new pills.
The ecstasy users
Ecstasy users who have their pills tested during the existing office hours are a diversified
group, but the majority are youths or men with an ethnic Dutch background.
The vast majority are engaged in paid employment and/or study. As well as taking
ecstasy, they report considerable experience with alcohol, tobacco and cannabis,
and to a lesser extent also with powder cocaine and other drugs (but very little with
heroin or crack cocaine). They include both experienced users who take ecstasy every
week and less experienced ones who just take it occasionally. The most common
pattern of ecstasy use over time involves increasing amounts taken up to a peak,
followed by a decline to some lower level. The average dose is two pills per occasion.
If ecstasy is taken in combination with another substance, that is usually alco-
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