A spate of recent student overdoses involving a deadly from of ecstasy have lead some colleges to revise their drug education programs.

Megan Rogers, Inside Higher Ed writer, files this report:

Many colleges are reaching out to students about the dangers of the illicit club drug “Molly” following a series of fatal overdoses, some involving students. While use of Molly, a more pure form of ecstasy, among college students isn’t as common as use of alcohol or marijuana, the deaths have given the issue new urgency.

Following a University of New Hampshire student’s suspected overdose on Molly and the overdose of a Plymouth State University student, the vice president of student and academic services at the University of New Hampshire outlined the university’s resources for drug-abuse prevention in a memo to all students.

“This is serious. Two New Hampshire college students have died in the last week,” Mark Rubinstein wrote in a letter to students. “Please act responsibly and look out for each other.”

Though overdoses from Molly account for less than 1 percent of all overdoses in Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission reached out to area colleges with information on MDMA, the active ingredient in Molly, prompted by a recent surge in suspected overdoses in the region, said Nick Martin, director of communications for the commission.

MDMA is a stimulant that produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria and empathy and creates distortions in sensory and time perception, the commission told college administrators. Symptoms of MDMA use include confusion, a racing pulse, muscle spasms and seizures. Molly is supposedly a purer form of ecstasy, but is often mixed with other drugs, compounding its negative effects, said Pat Ketcham, president of the board of directors at the American College Health Association board of directors.

“This drug has fallen off our radar a little bit and now recently is back on,” said Ketcham, the associate director of health promotion at Oregon State University. “It’s a part of that conversation we need to have with student when we’re talking about alcohol and other illicit drugs.”