Nazi-themed ecstasy pills are now circulating in Europe

The far-right is increasingly attracting young supporters in Europe, and now a disturbing new trend in the drug scene on the continent appears to reflect this growing penchant for right-wing politics among Gen Z: Nazi-branded ecstasy pills.

The Sunday World reported on the appearance of these pills when in late 2023, police in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, stopped a driver who was found to be carrying a large bag of ecstasy pills imprinted with the Nazi Eagle symbol.

Nazi-themed drugs have been around for many years, with MDMA pills stamped with the SS logo found circulating in 2019. But speaking to VICE, Dr Zoë Dubus, a post-doctoral researcher specialising in psychotropic drugs, noted that there has been an uptick in the number of Nazi drugs this year.

“In early 2024, several tablets with the Nazi eagle and swastika were analysed, indicating an increase in production,” she said. “The pills vary in quality and composition: 2C-B, MDMA and a strange mixture, suggesting one batch was made by an amateur chemist.”

Nazi-themed pills have also been found circulating elsewhere in Europe: recently, a member of the French Psychedelic Society reported finding grey pills stamped with the Nazi Eagle in western France. These pills have also been found in Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands. Tests in Zurich have revealed that this design has been used for both 2C-B and MDMA pills.

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Yesterday, a member of the French Psychedelic Society, who works in a harm reduction association in western France, sent us this, which is starting to circulate in France, and has also been spotted since pic.twitter.com/8IPlB14l4S

— Dr Zoë Dubus (@zoe_dubus) June 25, 2024

It’s possible that this new trend is linked to the growing levels of support for the far-right in Europe. Germans under 25 lent the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party 16 per cent of their vote in the European elections; Geert Wilders coasted to power in the Netherlands last year with the help of the youth vote; and most recently, young people were more likely to vote for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party than the centrist coalition in the first round of the French election (thankfully Le Pen was ultimately defeated in the second round of voting – you can watch a video of some right-wing freaks crying over their defeat here).

“Contrary to popular belief in certain psychedelic circles, the consumption of these substances in no way makes you a pacifist, an ecologist or ‘we’re all brothers and sisters’,” Dr Dubus wrote in a thread posted on X. “In fact, it would appear that psychedelics reinforce pre-established ideologies.”

“The existence of these pills horrifies me. I can’t imagine what it must be like, the events during which people take them. In the current French political context, this is obviously all the more worrying,” she continued. “People who use these products to consolidate their fascist ideology, to feel more united, more legitimate. It’s terrifying.”