Mindlessly doom-scrolling on X, my jaw plunged to the floor when I saw Dr. Zoë Dubus, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in psychedelic drugs, post an image of pills stamped with Nazi insignias on them.
“Are psychedelics going to ‘change the world’ as some people believe?” Dr. Dubus tweeted. “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 early 2024 in Switzerland, Iceland, and Holland. We don’t yet know what it is, but the stamps have been sent for analysis…”
Was I surprised to see pills branded with disgusting far-right logos? Nope. Nazis have a long history of taking drugs, including psychedelics. Vice’s Simon Doherty reports that Nazi-stamped ecstasy and 2C-B pills are “sweeping” across Europe, a trend he suggests might correlate with the rise in far-right youth movements.
While correlation doesn’t equal causation, the political context here is impossible to ignore. Far-right political parties have recently made huge strides in Brussels, largely driven by a disturbing rise in youth support. In Germany, 16 percent of people under age 25 backed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the recent EU elections, which marks a significant jump from the last election in 2019. France’s National Rally (RN) became the top choice for voters under 34, climbing 10 points to secure 32 percent of the vote in that age group. Similarly, Poland’s far-right Confederation party saw an 18.5 percent boost in support among voters under 30. This trend isn’t just isolated to these countries—similar patterns are emerging in Portugal, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands, Vice reports.
These aren’t the first Nazi-branded drugs to recently emerge, either. Dr. Dubus tweeted that in 2019 she was made aware of purple ecstasy pills branded with “SS” insignias. SS is a reference to the elite guard of the Nazi regime, which included the most methed-out, fanatical Nazi soldiers. (If you didn’t know, Hitler ensured his soldiers were high on amphetamines.) In 2022, she came across swastika-stamped LSD tablets. Dr. Dubus also says that a guy in the Netherlands was recently arrested for possessing 1,000 pills in the shape of Parteiadlers, also known as the Imperial Eagle or Nazi Eagle. At the end of 2023, police in the Netherlands pulled over a driver for driving through a stop sign. Cops discovered that he didn’t have a valid license, was high at the time of the stop, and had a massive bag of Nazi-branded ecstasy pills in the passenger seat. The police also seized just over two pounds of cannabis and 100 grams of cocaine, according to the Irish tabloid Sunday World. Vice confirmed the details of the arrest with Dutch law enforcement.
“In early 2024, several tablets with the Nazi eagle and swastika were analysed, indicating an increase in production,” Dr. Dubus tells Vice. “What’s more, the pills are all different in quality and composition: 2C-B, MDMA, and a strange mixture which seems to indicate that one of the batches was made by a very amateur chemist.”
Dubus says that the varied chemical compositions found in pills with the same designs suggest they’re produced by multiple manufacturers. While she’s unsure of the specific groups involved, she emphasizes that the Netherlands is the primary hub for European MDMA production.
Nazi symbolism emerging from Europe’s underground drug market is not exclusive to MDMA or 2C-B — or even Europe, really. Last year, authorities at a northern Peru port seized 58 kilos of cocaine bound for Belgium. Each kilo brick was wrapped in packaging emblazoned with swastikas and each brick was stamped with the word “Hitler” on it. It’s unclear whether these drugs are being pushed by neo-Nazi drug gangs or by drug traffickers targeting neo-Nazi buyers.
READ: Psychedelic Activist Faces Allegations of Fraud and Identity Theft
Regardless, there’s a growing body of anecdotal evidence pointing to a surge in Nazi-labeled drugs across Europe. Six months ago, a Redditor from the US visited the Netherlands and picked up some 2C-B in the shape of Nazi Eagles and consumed them. The person posted images of the pills on social media and was immediately lit up by their family and friends. They were roasted on Reddit about it, too, with some of the commenters saying that buying Nazi-shaped drugs is inherently supporting Nazi drug gangs. (Keep in mind, however, we don’t know who is producing these drugs or why).
Vice reported an anecdote about a different Redditor whose friend showed them a bag of MDMA pills shaped like Nazi Eagles and thought it was funny.
“I think the use of SS insignia and the Parteiadler as a pressed pill design speaks for itself,” Dr. Brian Pace, a lecturer who teaches Psychedelic Studies at The Ohio State University, told Vice. “Attempts to dismiss or excuse it as some kind of troll is to concede that one can troll in this way without some level of adherence to far-right ideologies. The only people who would find that funny are fascists, period.” Dr. Pace and Dr. Nese Devenot, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, authored, “Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency,” published in Frontiers in Psychology. Dr. Pace also wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Nazis” published on Psymposia. Both research papers provide a comprehensive exploration of the connections between Nazis, fascists, and right-wing ideologues and their affinity for psychedelics.
Vice asked Dr. Dubus if she believes the individuals manufacturing the pills are trolls or far-right groups. “Some could be trolls. But others might genuinely be associated with Nazi groups that openly discuss their use of psychedelics on forums.” We have seen elaborate (and disturbing) discussions about psychedelics on websites nestled in the internet’s armpit, like the now-defunct 4chan / 8chan, the Daily Stormer, and Stormfront.
“Ecstasy pills have always been used to spread ideas,” she added. “Counterexamples are the Me Too or Antifa pills. But the increase in the presence of this symbol at several French parties [raves] in recent days, just after the elections giving 30 percent to the worst far-right party in history, is particularly worrying.”
