19-year-old Greystones man gouged his eye out in September with a pair of pliers. His state of distress was such that it took five Gardai to restrain him before he could be sedated by doctors. Initially it was thought that he’d taken a mixture of ecstasy and LSD, but it now turns out that the substance in question was 2,4-Dimethoxy-4-Bromoamphetamine (DOB).

UK agencies have been warning of the dangers of using DOB as a recreational drug since 1999. A Garda spokesman says they’ve been aware of its availability here since “late summer”, but the Department of Health didn’t issue a public warning until October 24. We’d like to be able to tell you why there was such a long delay, but neither the Drug Squad nor the Department of Health are prepared to comment. The Gardai are also less than forthcoming about the dosages involved – “we don’t discuss that sort of thing” – and how much DOB they’ve recovered – “there have been a number of seizures, but they’re listed in with the figures for ecstasy.”
With shock-horror! stories about people injecting cannabis into their big-toes the tabloid norm, it’s not surprising that reports of a dangerous new drug being in our midst were initially greeted with scepticism. As one regular ecstasy user tells hotpress: “Why believe the papers this time when everything else they write about drugs is sensationalist rubbish? One E tablet can kill you? Well, I’ve been necking two a week for the past six years and I’m fine, thanks very much.”
While such sentiment is understandable, the fact of the matter is that this time the newspapers have it right. Mistaken for ecstasy, DOB can be extremely dangerous.
The main reason is that it takes an average three to four hours to kick in, tempting people who are used to the faster-acting effects of E to ingest more tablets.
According to the UK’s Action For Drug Awareness charity: “The threshold dose of E is 100 to 150 milligrams. With the threshold dose of DOB 1 to 5 milligrams, the possibility of overdose is obvious.
“The press have termed this drug ‘Super Ecstasy’ but the effects of DOB are more like LSD than E,” they continue. “ Like LSD, it will send you on a trip but instead of lasting eight to 12 hours, it goes on for 12 to 24 hours and is much more intense.”
With overdose comes the possibility of memory loss, irrational outbursts of violence, the likelihood of self-harm and vascular spasms in the leg leading to gangrene.
“It’s not very nice stuff, which is why its use in the UK is restricted to a knowning few,” says Mike Linnell, a worker with Manchester’s Lifeline Project. “It’s not something you get from your average dealer, which makes its availability in Ireland in seemingly quite large quantities surprising.
“The problem is people not knowing what they’re taking. The Dutch police have an on-going screening process whereby pills are bought and analyzed on a regular basis. If there’s anything unusual in them, they can get a warning out straight away. With the public knowing that the information is accurate and impartial, they tend to act on it.”
Unfortunately there’s no such system in Ireland with the Gardai only examining substances that they’ve seized. The technology for quick random testing definitely exists, with Queen’s University Belfast last week unveiling a laser beam system which takes only 40 seconds to analyze the chemical content of pills.
Once again the question has to be asked – why did it take the Department of Health over a month to issue their DOB warning? We know of a 19-year-old in Greystones who’d be very interested in the answer.
In the meantime, people should be on their guard for white pills going by the street name of snowballs, flatliners or golden eagles. Slightly smaller in diameter than ecstasy tablets, they’re rounded at the edges and have no logo.