High-strength Ecstasy pills may cause death

Users are warned to beware of new, high-strength Ecstasy tablets that are making the rounds this festive season.

SYDNEY - Authorities have warned taking the party drug ecstasy this festive season could be more dangerous than usual, with high-strength pills causing overdoses and two deaths across Australia.

Paul Dillon, from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said most ecstasy pills sold in Australia contained low quantities of the active ingredient, MDMA.

Toxicology data, however, have revealed the ecstasy pills containing MDMA currently on the streets were significantly stronger than Australian users were accustomed to.

Two men had fatally overdosed on the drug in Adelaide recently, Mr Dillon said.

While a single pill could lead to overdose, some users were taking two or three pills at a time.

"That's a very foolish thing to do ... and a very dangerous practice," Mr Dillon said.

"People are used to pills that sometimes don't have any MDMA in them at all, or very low amounts, and as a result they take more to try to get the same effect that they once did.

"With these high-strength pills it would appear that some people are getting into real difficulty with the drug."

The warning comes in the wake of a huge seizure of 161kg of ecstasy tablets worth $A40 million, discovered in a shipping container in Sydney last month.

And in Australia's largest seizure of the drug, authorities in October found 820kg of ecstasy tablets and powder, worth about $A200 million, concealed in the shell of an oven at Sydney Airport.

Mr Dillon said during Christmas and New Year "there's lots of pressure for people to go out and have a good time".

"So you're going to find people who do usually take ecstasy may take more than they normally do, or people who have never tried it before may be tempted to experiment," he said.

"But with these high-strength pills around, the message is that that's not a good idea."

It was a myth that ecstasy pills containing high levels of MDMA were safe, Mr Dillon said.

"People never know what the pill they're actually taking does contain and there's a lot of mythology around that as long as you have MDMA you're all right," he said.

"That's completely untrue - MDMA can kill."

Mr Dillon also warned ecstasy users to be alert to signs of an overdose, with many putting overheating and dehydration down to being in hot nightclubs or dance parties.

"Many ecstasy users experience an overdose when they use ecstasy, but I just don't think they're aware that that's what it is," Mr Dillon said.

"If you can't actually cool yourself down, that is a major warning sign."

- AAP