The discovery of the strongest MDMA pill ever found has prompted concerns after it was seized in a UK nightclub.
Security at a venue in Manchester confiscated six of the Blue Punisher pills last week.
Experts say it noticeably thicker and heavier than a regular MDMA pill - and up to five times more powerful.
Drug analysis lab Mandrake, based at the Manchester Metropolitan University, undertook tests following the discovery.
A regular pill contains roughly 125mg of MDMA, the chemical compound that gives users the 'high'. The Blue Punisher pill, shaped like a diamond, was loaded with 477mg of the psychoactive drug, it has been claimed.
A spokesperson for drugsdata.org explained to Vice News that it was "stronger than any pill ever recorded".
The closest, the report, was a purple Philipp Plein skull pill at 366mg found in Vienna last year.
Drug analysis expert Guy Jones said "This is a new world record.
"While it is impossible to rule out that a stronger one has ever been made, the number of pills over 400mg with a public test result could be counted on one hand."
Fiona Measham, chair of criminology at the University of Liverpool, believes the pills may have been produced by mistake.
She said: “It’s likely to be amongst the highest in the world.
“I’d guess it’s more likely to be a cock-up than intentional. Maybe the boss went out to lunch and the junior was left in charge of the [pill] press and got the consistency wrong - the variations in width [of this batch] suggest the inconsistency of amateur pressing.”
“The customer doesn’t usually know the strength of ecstasy pills bought on illicit markets and reagent tests can’t help with that so their life is in danger because of the absence of one simple fact: the MDMA content of the pill they bought."
It weeks comes after fake MDMA was reported to be on the rise at clubs and festivals in the UK.
Covid-related bans on partying across the UK saw a slump in exports of the drug from Europe.
People were instead sold a mixture of 'substitute substances' during the pandemic.
