Less than 40 percent of pills bought in the UK actually contain MDMA

Tests carried out between 2006 and 2014 have showed that only 34 per cent of pills in the UK contain MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, according to figures published by ProjectKnow.com.

The UK also topped the list of five countries – which is also made up of the US, Netherlands, Canada and Australia – for the number found to contain Piperazine. 8.6 per cent of UK pills contained the "amphetamine-like stimulant" that has different effects to MDMA.

The Netherlands topped the poll, with 70.5 per cent of the country's pills containing MDMA, and even the US is now ahead of the UK, at 34.7 per cent.

Australia tops the list for pills containing substances that even the chemists can't distinguish, at 24.2 per cent. The UK isn't far behind with 21.1per cent.

Other pull-out points from the study include the fact that MDMA or a substance practically indistinguishable in effect from it was found in 53 per cent of pills across the five countries.

However as we have previously reported, purity is on the up, with 67.1 per cent of the pills tested in 2014 found to contain MDMA, across the five countries.

The ProjectKnow study is based on information from Pillreport.com, a website where users upload information about the pills they've taken. While a lot is based on personal experience, many users do use pill testing kits and try to report accurately what is in their pills.

Read about ecstasy in 2015 here.