A drug treatment and mental health center in the Netherlands has issued a warning against consuming ecstasy pills designed to resemble President Donald Trump, citing concerns that they contain a high concentration of para-methoxymethamfetamine (PMMA), a substance that can be fatal.
The Trimbos Institute issued a "red alert" for the pills, which are shaped like Trump's head. According to the institute, PMMA is similar to MDMA, the primary ingredient in ecstasy, but it acts more slowly. This delayed effect could lead users to take multiple pills, increasing the risk of a fatal overdose.
The institute shared images of the pills, which were described as green on the front and yellow on the back, with red and blue on the reverse. The pills feature a likeness of Trump's face, with "Trump" and the letters "NL" stamped on the back.
"Absolutely do not use these pills," the institute urged in its alert. These pills were recently handed in to drug testing centers in the Netherlands, where PMMA was detected.
This is not the first time Trump-shaped ecstasy pills have surfaced. In 2018, Indiana State Police seized similar orange pills during an operation targeting drug traffickers. Those pills featured Trump's face on the front and the phrase "great again" on the back, a reference to his political slogan.
In 2017, German police confiscated thousands of similarly shaped orange ecstasy pills, with an estimated street value of nearly $46,000.
As of the warning, a spokesperson for the Trimbos Institute, Anniek Groothuis, told The Associated Press that there have been no reported overdoses or deaths linked to PMMA found in victims' blood in the Netherlands. While ecstasy is illegal in the Netherlands, hundreds of thousands of people reportedly use the drug annually.