Adelaide: We Tested Your MDMA

**This article is part of the VICE MDMA Census. See the results for cities all around Australia here.  **For a glossary of the different chemicals we identified, read this.

The first time I went out to test the quality of MDMA in Adelaide, nobody I spoke to seemed to have any drugs at all. I'd gone out on the last Saturday of February, the start of festival season. I made my way from small Fringe Festival venues, through Hindley Street, and down Rundle Street. All I got was called a narc at least twice, and lectured about the benefits of buying drugs off the dark web. I ended up only meeting one guy, Tom, outside a west Adelaide venue, who was holding an eight ball of MDMA, and wanted to know whether it was legit.

What he thought he had: MDMA.
What the test said: Unclear, likely MDMA with some DXM.

VICE: Hey Tom, are you surprised by the result?
Tom: Only because I didn't know what DXM is.

What did your dealer say it was?
MDMA.

Do you trust your dealer?
I never trust any dealer. But I've tried this before and it did what MDMA is meant to do, so I have no reason not to trust the product.

Are you still going to take it?
Yes.

Do you think we need a professional testing service?
Absolutely. I would love that. Like the ideal would be to just go somewhere and say, give me some shit because I want to have a good night, and you buy pharma-grade stuff. I don't want to go to a dude who was cooking it in a shed, I would want to go to a doctor.

But what about a testing service? So you know exactly what's in it.
I would like that, but I would also be worried I'm going to be arrested as soon as I walk in or out of there. Or that I'd get put on a database or something. If there was a certain level of anonymity with something like that—which I don't feel can be provided because I have to physically give them something—but if there was a way, and I'm sure there is a way.

Well, I mean, they have needle exchanges for heroin users.
That's different, no one gives a shit about that. They're getting needles, not taking heroin in there.

Alright but at least with a confidential professional service we'd actually know for sure whether it was MDMA or DXM. It wouldn't be just be me half ass-ing it.
Absolutely.

At a time of year when there's a party on every corner and you can literally smell weed on the wind, it was weird I couldn't find anyone with MD. To find out what was going on, I made a few phone calls to some friends who told me Adelaide was in a bit of a "pills drought." There was a lot of a bad stuff floating around, they said, though, they knew some people who were heading out next Friday and I could join them for pre-drinks if I wanted. That's where I met Jack. Later, I found Sarah and Travis who were holding leftover caps from New Year's and had questions about what was in them. Towards the end of the night, I bumped into Zach who had dropped $110 on four pills and wanted to know whether it was worth the investment.

What he thought he had: MDMA.
What the test said: MDMA.

VICE: Hey Jack, what did you think the result would show?
I was pretty confident it was what I bought.

So you trust your dealer?
I do.

And what did you think of the result.
I was glad it turned up purple and not black. It's good to know I'm not blowing my money on cough syrup or meth or something like that.

What do you think about a professional pill testing service?
I think it's a great idea, it needs to be done. If people are going to use, which they are, it should be made as safe as possible rather than trying to punish the end user, so it isn't as dangerous as it could be.

I've heard some stuff that there's some pretty bad quality floating around. Have you heard something similar?
Yeah, I've had some stuff that didn't turn out to be what I thought it would be. Mostly when buying pills as opposed to caps, turns out it's been pressed with something else and having a pretty bad time. Would have been nice to have tested that beforehand and to not have accidentally roofied myself.

Sarah had what she thought she had.

What she thought she had: Not MDMA.
What the test said: Purple—MDMA.

VICE: Hi Sarah, what do you think about the result?
I'm a bit surprised that it was as pure as it was, because I wasn't convinced it was pure.

Where did you buy it?
A friend in Adelaide.

Do you trust your friend?
Yeah, I trust him, and he told me it was pretty good stuff. But when I took it with a couple of friends a few months ago, I felt weird about it. I've taken [MDMA] before, not on a regular basis but enough to know what feels good and what feels kind of funny. I actually went back and I asked him about it. He said, "It's good stuff, you probably have just taken too much," which I thought was a croc of shit, but apparently he was right.

Are you still going to take it?
Yeah, but I kinda stopped buying from him because it shook me up anyway.

Do you think there should be a professional pill testing service?
One hundred percent. I'm going to tell him and buy him a testing kit for everyone he is selling to. If we're all taking it, we might as well know what we're taking. It's a safety thing.

What he thought he had: MDMA.
What the test said: Black as pitch.

VICE: Hey Travis, what did you think about the result?
Actually, I'm not too surprised. I'm a little disappointed because my hard-earned blue collar working money went into it.

How much did you spend?
These were $18 each—that's why I'm not surprised.

How many did you buy?
I bought five, that was on New Year's Eve. These are leftovers.

So it's DXM. What do you think about that?
I didn't know what that was until now, because they didn't feel like regular MDMA.

Will you still take them?
Yes. I am shameless.

What do you think about a professional pill testing service?
I think it's valuable, a really valuable asset. As like tonight, you have your suspicions, but you don't know until you test it.

What he thought it was: Both MDMA.
What the test said: Both were pretty clear MDMA result.

VICE: Hey Zach, so we just tested your pills. What did you think?
Zach: It was pleasing to know that they were what I had expected.

Do you trust your dealer?
Yeah… yeah. Yeah!

Zach's MDMA came up purple.

How much did you pay for them?
For the four of them, it was exactly $110. There were the two different kinds. Just by how they look, they were Red Adidas and Rolls Royce. It would be good to know how pure they are.

What do you think about a professional pills testing service?
I think it would be a good idea for safety. I would worry about anonymity.

Going on a database somewhere?
Yeah, I mean, it's a very obvious thing to get caught lining up outside of [a pill testing service].

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Disclaimer: We aren't scientists. We ran a handful of tests, in a handful of cities, over the course of a few nights. These kits aren't going to identify the presence of some non-testable poison. Plus, there's no guarantee you have the same MD—drugs differ from place to place, night to night. But you already knew that.

Note: These articles were made possible by EZ Test who donated all testing kits free of charge.