Potentially dangerous doses of bath salts have been found in tablets being sold as MDMA or ecstasy in Wellington ahead of the Homegrown festival, police are warning.
Police confirmed they've been alerted to the dangerous levels of eutylone, commonly known as “bath salts”, being found in yellow 'Red Bull' tablets in Wellington.
The tablets are pale yellow, come in a rounded rectangle shape, and have an embossed image of the Red Bull logo.
Drug monitoring group KnowYourStuff said the pills may contain up to 200mg of eutylone, and contain no MDMA.
“Eutylone is a stimulant drug in the synthetic cathinone family and is known to be sold and taken as MDMA as it mimics the effects,” Wellington police said.
“In addition to this, the effects of the drug take longer to kick in (over two hours), meaning a user can take more before they’re aware of the effects, and end up overdosing.”
Police said while their advice was always that no drug use is the safest drug use, their website High Alert could provide helpful information. This echoes KnowYourStuff's warning.
"This amount is dangerous and very likely to cause harm," police said.
"People who have taken similar doses have reported not being able to sleep for several days, anxiety, paranoia and feeling unwell for up to 10 days after. It is possible this could be a fatal dose."
Police said it wasn’t sure how widespread the tablets were.
“Police [are] working with event organisers to ensure the well being and safety of event goers.”
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