Festival-goers have been warned not to take ecstasy at T in the Park after the deaths of two men in Ayrshire were linked to a super-strength batch of the Class A drug.
“With a capacity of 85,000 people, T in the Park becomes Scotland’s fifth-largest town, therefore we work closely with the police, emergency services and medical teams on site to encourage fan safety.”
There have been around 200 deaths linked to ecstasy use in the UK since 1988.
Most of these are linked to heatstroke, but some have also been attributed to the user drinking excess water in the belief it will offset the effects of the drug.
Last month Addaction warned a purer form of ecstasy was being sold in Dundee.
It is thought dealers were pushing a stronger version of ecstasy to recapture the market lost to so-called legal highs.
Although emergency legislation was introduced to ban drugs like mephedrone, 41 new psychoactive substances were reported to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction last year.
The UK Government is considering introducing temporary banning orders for legal highs.
Detectives said ecstasy tablets six times stronger than normal may have caused the deaths of soldier Steven Kelly (19) and Lee Dunnachie (22) last weekend.
The men died several miles apart in Ayrshire and, although they had no connection to each other, police believe the same batch of ecstasy is responsible.
Tayside Police drugs co-ordinator Inspector Wendy Symington said revellers at this weekend’s T in the Park at Balado, near Kinross, should stay away from any illegal substances.
She said, “If people are caught selling or in possession of an illicit drug within T in the Park they will have to face the full consequences of the law as normal.
“There are always people there that take the chance of picking on vulnerable people and sell stuff at T in the Park. There is always that potential but we have a policing plan to counteract that.
“If ecstasy is getting brought to T in the Park then we will have a problem because what is happening (on the west coast) is they are mixing it with other substances and, of course, alcohol is involved.”
Inspector Symington said a combination of substances coupled with hot weather could put people experimenting with drugs at even greater risk.
“People don’t know what it is they are taking,” she said. “If people are mixing ecstasy with other things they have to watch for their own health issues.
“Taking it is not worth the risk at all. The message has to be quite strong don’t take anything that has been brought into T in the Park. For their own health and the risk of prosecution.”‘Just a name’Andrew Horne, spokesman for Addaction Scotland, also warned people at T in the Park not to risk their lives.
He said, “The truth of the matter is that ‘ecstasy’ is just a name. Just because a tablet looks like you think it should, there’s no sure way of telling what’s in it.
“Next weekend festival-goers across the country will be out enjoying themselves. Like the police, we’re concerned that some will take ‘ecstasy’ and get something they weren’t expecting, and which could cause them real problems.
“Our advice would be to steer well clear.”
A spokesman for T in the Park added, “Illicit drugs are no more legal at T in the Park than they would be anywhere else in Scotland, therefore the same risks and penalties apply.
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