Ecstasy pills shaped to look like the head of Donald Trump are potentially deadly, a drug institute in the Netherlands has warned. The Trimbos Institute warned against the use of the pills that depict the U.S. president’s head on one side and "NL" and "Trump" stamped on the other, after they had been handed into several of its centers that test drugs for users. The pills, which come in red and green, were found to contain a very high amount of the substance PMMA (para-methoxymethamphetamine) a substance that is similar to MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), the active ingredient in ecstasy.
In the U.S., PMMA is a schedule I controlled substance, as classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as is MDMA. But PMMA is slower acting than MDMA and this could encourage users to consume more thinking the initial pill failed, risking an overdose. Hours after being taken, users can feel nausea, increased heart rate, convulsions and an extremely elevated body temperature.
Producing, selling, and using ecstasy is illegal in the Netherlands but a 2024 government report indicated over half a million people had consumed it that year. Newsweek has contacted Trimbos for further comment. There have been other instances in which ecstasy pills involving Trump branding have been at the center of controversy.
About 5,000 ecstasy tablets in the shape of Trump's head were seized by German police in the north-western city of Osnabruck in 2017. One side of the tablets shows Trump's face and his surname on the reverse. A 51-year-old father and his 17-year-old son were arrested over the stash which was worth around $47,000.
Trump shaped pills that circulated a U.K. music festival in August 2018 were found by drug safety non-profit the Loop as containing three times the average adult dose of MDMA. Meanwhile in August 2019, Trump-shaped pills were found in Clearwater, Florida, after police responded to an overdose. In 2024, police investigated whether ecstasy tablets in the shape of Trump's face may have been involved in the 2023 deaths of three teenagers at the SWG3 club in Glasgow, Scotland.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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