21-year-old David (real name known to editors) has often used 3-MMC with friends over the past few months, sometimes for several weekends in a row. “Those were the best evenings I’ve had in ages. When you take it you feel at the height of happiness,” he told EditieNL.
Gloomy thoughts
When the stuff wears off, little of that happiness will be left. “The following days I feel very lonely. I then have very dark thoughts and assume the worst in every situation. The world feels very dark.”
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The only way to get out of that is to use 3-MMC again, David says. “So I did, the following weekend. Only to feel even more miserable during the week. At one point, I started using the drug during the week just to stop feeling so miserable. I was addicted within a short time.”
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Wat is 3-MMC?
People who use 3-MMC get a euphoric feeling. They gain a sense of confidence and energy. But it simultaneously causes overheating, insomnia, high blood pressure and paranoia. The long-term effects have not yet been studied.
Source: Trimbos
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Overdose
Last Tuesday, the after-effects made him feel so miserable that he overdosed. “That was a conscious choice. I felt deeply unhappy and saw no light anymore. It was not intended as a suicide attempt, but as the ultimate test to see if I was still worthy of this world.”
That night he wrote a letter to his parents and took the drugs. “After half an hour I noticed that it started to work. I then walked outside. I noticed that I could no longer speak and almost got knocked out. Then I called 112 out of panic. Just in time.”
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“The bizarre thing is that the drug is still so unknown that even the hospital staff and the police knew nothing about it. It was only after a while that they realized how serious the situation was. The ambulance took me to the hospital.”
Easy to order
David is now doing better. “I still suffer from side effects, but I get support from a psychologist from the hospital. I’m telling this story because this designer drug should be banned. It’s extremely dangerous and addictive.”
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David finds it bizarre that the drug is very easy to order online. “There are sites where you can order twenty types of different designer drugs. You will receive it the next day. The more you order, the cheaper it gets.”
Hype
Wim Wassink, leader of the CDA in Winterswijk, also argues for a ban. He is very concerned. “We receive a lot of signals from the Achterhoek that this is really a hype. It is extremely addictive. It can really disrupt lives for a long time,” he tells EditieNL.
earlier pulled Youth police officer Boomkamp of the Aalten police also rings the bell about the increasing number of young people in Twente and the Achterhoek using 3-MMC.
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Wassink is not so much concerned with this specific drug, but with all means with the same effects. “The moment such a drug is banned and becomes enacted in the Opium Act, drug products will have already made 5-MMC – or something like that – by removing a component of a substance.”
In this way, the Opium Act can be legally circumvented without too much effort. “That is why we believe that the legislation should change by banning all substances with comparable effects, think of the enormously addictive effect and the euphoric feeling.”
Motion
He hopes that the topic will be on the national agenda, so that a ban can be realized. “We are going to submit a motion in the coming council meeting with the aim of increasing the pressure on politicians in The Hague, Mayor Joris Bengevoord van Winterswijk.”
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