Eutylone (also known as bk-EBDB or n-ethylbutylone) is a stimulant in the synthetic cathinones family, since 2019 often missold as MDMA. What makes it unique is that unlike most cathinones eutylone’s reagent testing results can be almost indistinguishable from the results of MDMA – to an unexperienced eye.

KnowYourStuffNZ found eutylone at every event they attended during the 2019/20 festival season and again at 2020/21 New Year’s festivals, where more than half of the samples turned out not to be MDMA. Drug checking NGOs in other countries also detected eutylone, to various degrees.

Eutylone belongs to the category of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), which means it’s relatively new and the associated health risks are not fully known. Users have reported stimulation and euphoria at doses as low as 35mg, with an avarage dose reported as 60-100mg.

Eutylone can not be identified by smell or looks. It is most commonly available as an off-white powder, but can also come in crystal, rock, capsule and pill forms. This is what makes it tricky – it looks almost the same as street-quality MDMA, but doesn’t produce the expected effect, possibly leading to using more and intense, unpleasant and dangerous hyperstimulation and psychosis.

Eutylone (bk-EBDB) reagent testing results:

Note that only Liebermann and Marquis reagents don’t turn dark, making them the best reagents to distinguish eutylone from MDMA. On the other hand Froehde and Simon’s alone could be misinterpreted as MDMA.