POLICE fear an ecstasy-style drug which left nine people in hospital at the weekend will lead to deaths in Scotland.
Strathclyde Police have issued a stark warning of the dangers of taking the pink-coloured pill, and have urged party-goers to report any sightings of it.
The drug is known to have been sold in the Glasgow area and it is thought that dealers are passing it off as ecstasy.
One man who had taken the pill on Saturday suffered serious injuries after he fell while undergoing an "extreme" reaction to the drug, which included hallucinations and delirium.
Others suffered soaring body temperatures – which doctors struggled to bring under control – as well as increased heart rates, seizures and mental confusion.
The pill, which contains the substances AMT or 5-IT, has been described as having a cherry logo on one side and a half score on the other.
Dr Richard Stevenson, of Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said two of the weekend cases would have "almost certainly proved fatal" if they had not been taken to hospital.
He said eight people had since been released but one young man remains in hospital.
Dr Stevenson described how, in the early hours of Saturday morning, ambulance crews began to report people in the city centre with similar symptoms.
He said: "Around about 1am we had a flood of patients arriving, pretty much one after the other, with increasing levels of seriousness in the symptoms they were presenting.
"Many had high temperatures which we struggled to control, and even when we did they subsequently deteriorated and required further intervention.
"This drug is lethal. It has been associated with deaths throughout Europe and it will kill. There is no way to tell who it will kill and no way to predict what will happen if you take it."
AMT or 5-IT are not currently classed as controlled substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act. However, Detective Sergeant Michael Miller, Strathclyde Police's drug specialist, said this was only because legislation had not yet caught up with the chemical composition of the latest designer drugs.
Superintendent Kirk Kinnell, of Strathclyde Police, said he believes the weekend's outbreak of cases was part of the "first wave" of the drug reaching Scotland. It has already led to fatalities in England, Sweden and other parts of Europe and has been linked to the deaths of Dominic Paterson and Colin Campbell in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, last month, although this has not been confirmed by police.
Supt Kinnell said taking the pills was like "playing Russian Roulette", because there is no way of telling what is in them.
He added: "There have been deaths associated with AMT or 5-IT throughout Europe and England, so we're releasing this message in the hope it doesn't lead to deaths in Scotland."
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