Among adults entering randomly selected electronic dance music events in New York City, the proportion who had tested their ecstasy with a drug testing kit in the past year rose from 23.1% in 2017 to 43.1% in 2022, an 86.6% increase. Among those who tested, the share who always tested their drug rose from 31.2% to 60.6%. The proportion who found out or suspected their ecstasy was adulterated fell from 59.6% to 18.4%, with suspected methamphetamine adulteration dropping from 21.9% to 3.6%. The findings indicate growing use of drug testing kits and decreasing suspected adulteration, supporting the need for formal drug checking services.
The DEA proposed placing the psychedelic phenethylamines DOC and DOI into Schedule I. Analysis of DEA seizure data, national survey responses, and scientific literature from 2005 to 2024 found that DOC submissions to forensic labs peaked at 152 in 2012 then dropped to only two in 2023-2024, while only forty DOI submissions were ever recorded, with none since 2019. Self-reported lifetime use of either drug on a nationally representative U.S. survey was below 0.01%. Only three poisonings linked to DOC and none to DOI were found. Availability, recreational use, and poisonings from these substances appear rare.