Meet Mephedrone, the Latest "Drug Menace" [FEATURE]
Poison control centers, hospital emergency rooms, and law enforcement are all raising the alarm about a new, uncontrolled stimulant drug, and the first moves to ban the drug at the state level have already taken place. But the DEA has yet to act, and drug policy analysts say that a reflexive move to ban the drug may not be the answer.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]The drug is 4-methylmethcathinone, also known as mephedrone, a synthetic derivative of cathinone, the psychoactive stimulant found in the khat plant. (To be completely accurate, there are actually a number of methcathinone analogues involved, but for brevity's sake we will refer simply to mephedrone.) It produces a stimulant effect that users have likened to that of cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamines, or Ritalin.
The drug is being sold as bath salts, plant food, or plant fertilizer and typically marketed with the words "not for human consumption" under product names including Ivory Wave, Vanilla Sky, Pure Ivory, and Sextacy. Marketers also use names with a local charge, such as Hurricane Charlie in Louisiana and White Lightning in Kentucky.
After hysterical press coverage of unproven mephedrone overdose deaths in England early last year, the drug was banned in the United Kingdom, and in November, the European Union banned mephedrone in member countries, citing a risk assessment from the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Abuse (EMCDDA).
But while that risk assessment found that mephedrone can cause acute health problems and lead to dependence, it found only tenuous links between mephedrone and any alleged fatalities. The risk assessment also cautioned that banning the drug could create its own problems. "Control measures could create an illegal market in mephedrone with the associated risk of criminal activity," EMCDDA warned.
But the European Union didn't listen, and now, politicians in the US states where mephedrone is most prevalent, are jumping on the ban bandwagon. Last week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) issued an emergency rule making the possession, distribution, or manufacture of mephedrone illegal and placing it in Schedule 1 of the state's controlled substances act. That means violators could face up to 30 years in prison.
"These drugs have crept into our communities and they are hurting our kids," said Jindal as he announced the rule. "We have to do everything in our power to protect our children and to make sure our streets are safe for our families. The reality is that the chemicals used to make these dangerous substances have no legitimate use other than to provide a high for the user. Today’s announcement gives our law enforcement officials the tools they need to crack down on the people pushing these dangerous drugs. Indeed, our law enforcement officials can immediately take these drugs off the shelf -- and at the same time, it's now illegal to possess and use these dangerous chemicals."
This week, neighboring Mississippi is moving against the substance. At least two bills to ban mephedrone have been introduced and are moving through committees. The bills are likely to be combined. As in Louisiana, the bills envision harsh penalties, with offenders facing up to 20 years in prison.
News media reports warning of the new "menace" and urging authorities to act have also appeared in Georgia and Texas. Such news reports are often a precursor to legislative or administrative action.
That these first moves to ban mephedrone are taking place on the Gulf Coast makes sense because that is where the drug has made the deepest inroads. Louisiana Poison Control Center director Dr. Mark Ryan went public with news of mounting calls about mephedrone just before Christmas, and on Monday, the American Association of Poison Control Centers issued a nationwide alert about mephedrone.
The alert shows that, at this point, mephedrone is very much a regional phenomenon. Poison control centers around the country have taken more than 300 calls about mephedrone, 69 of them in just the first days of 2011. While poison centers representing 25 states have received calls, 165 of them were in Louisiana. Kentucky was second with 23 calls. In the Upper Midwest, however, there have been no calls about mephedrone.
"We got notice a few weeks ago about reports from other poison centers, but we're not aware of any coming to our regional center," said Rachel Brandt of the Sanford Poison Control Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which covers Minnesota and the Dakotas.
It's a much different story in Louisiana. "We got our first case on September 29 and shortly thereafter we began getting calls just about every day," said the Louisiana Poison Control Center's Dr. Ryan. "We reported to the state health department that this was coming up on our radar, that we were getting people with bizarre, off-the-wall symptoms, with some of them staying in the hospital for five to seven days and the symptoms not resolving very well. The state became very concerned, and so did we as the number of calls continued to increase."
According to Dr. Ryan, adverse responses to mephedrone can be extreme. "We are seeing people describing intense cravings even though they don't like the high," he said. "We're seeing guys discharged from the hospital showing up again a few days later. We're seeing people who are very anxious or suffering from extreme paranoia, we're seeing people with suicidal thoughts, we're seeing people with delusions and hallucinations. A common thread is that they describe monsters, aliens, or demons."
But while the adverse reactions can be disturbing, and while three deaths have been "linked" to mephedrone, there have been no verified mephedrone overdose fatalities. In one case, a 21-year-old man named Dickie Sanders committed suicide three days after ingesting mephedrone. Louisiana media also referred to two other deaths "linked" to the substance, but the connection to mephedrone use remains unproven.
"They're saying the other two are related, but there is no toxicology to back that up," said Dr. Ryan.
Dealing with new designer drugs is difficult and frustrating, Dr. Ryan said. "We banned six different substances after looking at the ones abused in European countries," he said. "But you can't ban everything, and you could make a different designer cathinone every day. It's like a cat chasing its tail."
The DEA is also taking a look at mephedrone. But unlike state legislators, which can act without the least bit of evidence, the DEA is charged with actually finding good reasons to add a new drug to the list of proscribed or controlled substances. While more than a dozen states have criminalized the psychedelic salvia divinorum based on little more than the fear someone somewhere might get high on something legally, the DEA has had salvia on its radar as a drug of concern for nearly a decade, but has yet to find the evidence it needs to schedule it. On the other hand, the DEA is susceptible to political pressure, as indicated by its quick action last November to ban synthetic cannabinoids after being asked to do so by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
Mephedrone has been on the DEA's radar since at least September 2009, when an analysis of drug samples containing mephedrone was published in the agency's Microgram Bulletin. But a DEA spokesman told the Chronicle this week the agency has yet to act.
"This is a drug of concern," said DEA public information officer Michael Sanders. "We're looking into it right now. We see those drugs out there, but there is a lot of research that goes into actually scheduling something."
The DEA may be well served by not rushing to judgment, said drug policy analyst Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance. Prohibiting drugs has not worked in the past and there is no reason to assume it will now, he argued.
"Regulation is pretty much always better than prohibition because it means you can actually control the drug," he said. "You can regulate potency, quality, and all that stuff, but prohibiting it just drives it further into an unregulated market. Prohibition certainly has not controlled cocaine, ecstasy, or meth," Piper pointed out.
"It seems really strange that the political position around drugs in this country is that the only drugs people can legally use from now until the end of time are apparently alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine," Piper said. "And at least two of those substances are more dangerous than most of the other drugs. Every new substance is either banned immediately or eventually. This should be something for policymakers and voters to discuss and debate instead of just having knee-jerk responses."
That unfortunately has yet to happen, for mephedrone or for most drugs, and the drive to prohibit mephedrone is gaining steam.
Comments
Yeah you're about three years
Yeah you're about three years too late. This stuff's been around for a long time and it's pretty nasty. Way worse than Cocaine or MDMA, but if we'd been sensible and not prohibited drugs in the first place none of this would have happened.
In reply to Yeah you're about three years by Captain Hindsight (not verified)
I agree.
All the woes around drugs would most likely have been avoided if they were legal and above board, instead of suppressed and therefor out of control.
In reply to Yeah you're about three years by Captain Hindsight (not verified)
mephedrone
Yes i have seen people abuse this way to often. But it would not be sought after had other drugs not been made illegal. Even this drug should be legal to adults in my opinion. Any time you make a drug illegal. You criminalize the user. You also make a massive under ground pipeline of money to be made. This is dangerous for everyone involved. And even those not involved. Also, the purity is never known when drugs like MDMA, 4-MMC (mephedrone), Cocaine, Heroin, etc are illegal and sold in powder form. This causes many overdoses and death. Also the constitution of the United states allows for people to make controversial decesions. So long as they do not infringe on others rights. I assume all crime would decrease if drugs were made legal and prices were dropped. Cartels would cease to exsist.
banning this chemical would only cause more problems.
If you ban this chemical, which we are currently learning more and more about each day, and has no deaths solely of this chemical why ban it, it may be a problem but the problem can be controlled with out a ban of it.People will just switch to a different chemical which could potentially be much worse. The answer isn't always making everything illegal.
hypocrites
They love to ban anything that proves to be pleasurable, purely on the grounds that it IS pleasurable (observable by their rat tests where if a rat wants another dose, its bad), but half these politicians are in bed with alcohol either politically or financially.
Zero regard for their unenforceable laws or their words. I will use what I please, and theres 100 million that do the same. When do they just wake up and realize these laws doing nothing but making a mockery of their self-proclaimed authority?
hypocrites
They love to ban anything that proves to be pleasurable, purely on the grounds that it IS pleasurable (observable by their rat tests where if a rat wants another dose, its bad), but half these politicians are in bed with alcohol either politically or financially.
Zero regard for their unenforceable laws or their words. I will use what I please, and theres 100 million that do the same. When do they just wake up and realize these laws doing nothing but making a mockery of their self-proclaimed authority?
acceptance of risk
Real evil results from the vain hope that risks can be eliminated. This evil is being felt everywhere, and not just in the profoundly evil "drug war".
AMERICANS SHOULD OPPOSE THE RENEWAL OF THE SO-CALLED "PATRIOT ACT", which currently suspends many American freedoms and rights, allows all manner of unjustified government intrusions, and provides no demonstrable improvement in national or personal security.
Watch Obama ask to renew the Patriot Act very soon, and re-think your opinion of him. At best, he is a tool of the military-industrial complex -- that neo-fascist alliance of unprincipled financial interests and the U.S. government that supports all manner of policies, including the drug war and the suspension of individual rights, that create demand for its product, which is the untimely deaths of tens of thousands of people every year.
The connection between the military-industrial complex and the taxpayer-funded "Drug War" is very real. The only winners are the drug dealers, the vendors of military products and services, and politicians who get themselves re-elected by promoting fear instead of urging the acceptance of reasonable risks, in order to preserve freedom and the American way of life. Everyone else loses. Dr. King identified it as the most profound and potent evil of his time, and it's worse now than ever, now that its evil is no longer being highlighted by our "all-volunteer" (and now mainly mercenary) military sector.
OPPOSE THE PATRIOT ACT. If it is renewed, the drug war can only continue. If it is not renewed due to popular opposition on the basis that freedom necessarily entails risk, the Drug War, too, will become quite vulnerable.
In reply to acceptance of risk by Steve Newcomb (not verified)
Right on the money
Yes, and more. The thing about Obama, is that he is an exact clone of Nixon. I watched a split video of Nixon talking about the Vietnam War and Obama talking about the War in Afghanistan. Virtually the same language and explanations of their evil ways. We(according to WikiLeaks info) are now secretly bombing Yemen. Same thing went on under Nixon and Kissinger in Cambodia and Laos. Now it's Obama and Hilary Clinton. Yes, stand against the Patriot Act. For that matter take a stand against the US gov't and it's lies on about everything.
EU ban on mephedrone
The UK was ahead of the game on its EU neighbours, banning the supply and possession of mephedrone (and other cathininones) in April 2010 - in a similar panicky way to the EU decision last month (i.e. with little evidence yet available to make such a rapid decision). What has been the outcome of this move? Well hard data for 2010 is still limited, but the available evidence in the UK shows that (1) illicit mephedrone dealing began immediately after the ban, and (2) other drugs with amphetamine-like effects have replaced the gap in the 'legal highs' market left by mephedrone - including MDAI and prolintane. The worst of the latest batch of mephedrone replacements currently seems to be A3methano (methanobenzazepinetetrahydro-hydrochloride), for which there are already many reports of negative effects outweighing positive effects - from physical agitation to psychotic reactions. In short, prohibition works like the Hydra in mythology - you cut off one head and several more (often with nastier bites) emerge to replace it. Demand generates supply, and just as the huge surge in mephedrone use in the UK was strongly generated by the reduced availability and purity of cocaine and ecstasy, so has the recent surge in use of new uncontrolled stimulants been generated by the banning of mephedrone and cathinones. Out of the frying pan into the fire, out of the fire into the freakin furnace...
Effects of EU ban on mephedrone
The UK was ahead of the game on its EU neighbours, banning the supply and possession of mephedrone (and other cathininones) in April 2010 - in a similar panicky way to the EU decision last month (i.e. with little evidence yet available to make such a rapid decision). What has been the outcome of this move? Well hard data for 2010 is still limited, but the available evidence in the UK shows that (1) illicit mephedrone dealing began immediately after the ban, and (2) other drugs with amphetamine-like effects have replaced the gap in the 'legal highs' market left by mephedrone - including MDAI and prolintane. The worst of the latest batch of mephedrone replacements currently seems to be A3methano (methanobenzazepinetetrahydro-hydrochloride), for which there are already many reports of negative effects outweighing positive effects - from physical agitation to psychotic reactions. In short, prohibition works like the Hydra in mythology - you cut off one head and several more (often with nastier bites) emerge to replace it. Demand generates supply, and just as the huge surge in mephedrone use in the UK was strongly generated by the reduced availability and purity of cocaine and ecstasy, so has the recent surge in use of new uncontrolled stimulants been generated by the banning of mephedrone and cathinones. Out of the frying pan into the fire, out of the fire into the freakin furnace...
my 2 pence worth
Strangely enough, my daughter is 19 yrs old, and when mephedrone was legal, her friends and herself had never heard of or tried the drug, now it has been made illegal, it brought attention to it and now her friends/associates are doing it, but luckily, my daughter doesn't do it no more, as it makes her ill. I myself think that if it were legal, our children of today, wouldn't want to do it so badly, as it seems that when attention is brought to something lile this drug, teenagers are curious, and want to try it.. this is just my personal opinion, would love to know what others think?
In reply to my 2 pence worth by zara (not verified)
On the money
You just explained why prohibition will never go away. People are making massive amounts of money knowing that's exactly what will happen. And it's not the guy on the corner or even the thug of the neighborhood that profits.
Scorecard
Three (3) alleged mephedrone deaths.
One (1) suicide linked to use of Salvia divinorum.
5.4 million deaths yearly from Nicotiana tabacum.
Ban it and they will come
If we have learned anything from Prohibition it's that the more publicity you give it the larger it gets.Ask any narc from the 60's how effective his efforts were.We lose more than 5000 young people each year to drug war violence.Because it occurs mostly in the poor areas it is under reported or not reported at all.Who cares if they kill each other?Their families and anyone with a conscience cares.There are too many people who just don't care until it hits their family.There was no drug war until white kids began being arrested.Before that it was just a ghetto thing and the police could handle it.No one cared about drugs until Art Linkletter 's daughter jumped off a roof while high on acid.
Its the Media to blame
This drug has been available in the USA since 2005 (at least) Its the greed of the media looking to sell ad space that makes these drugs more popular.
Guess how many more kids know what this drug is because of this article?
Its the media that brings things out of the underground and into the main stream. How many more people will they expose to this horrible drug to sell another progressive life insurance ad?
In reply to Its the Media to blame by MediaIsBad (not verified)
Our local news is how i
Our local news is how i learned about it. I never knew. I'm 37 and done meth. alot in my twenties, but if i can get something similar and legal. It is worth a try. Thanks Ch. 10 news.
the UK r morans!!!!
They can ban as much drugs as they want, ppl will still make new drugs. better ones!!
The real problem is actually the UK.
It seems 2 me, that the English ppl r totally fucked up!! they have no responsibility over nothing!!!! of course many youngsters will die there, after using Mephedrone, 4 the same reasons that England is at the first place in the world with teenage pregnancies!!! they just dont f***ing care about themselves nor about any other things!
I believe that the problem starts with the parents. if the parents doesnt pay any attention 2 the child, of course he will go and do drugs and probably die of over dosing, coz no 1 was there 2 teach him otherwise or cared enough for them!
My point is, that bcoz of English teenage stupidity, this super gr8 substance, is gonna get banned! fuck it! finally some good stuff and they have 2 take it away bcoz of irresponsibility of some stupid kids who dont care about nothing in life!
I am a parent and im using meph. seldom.
Like any other normal person, im enjoying drugs but i am also afraid of it. thats why i allow myself 2 use only carefully, and i know 4 sure, i wont let my child/ren touch it b 4 they r at least 18!
PPL WATCH UR KIDS, SO WE COULD ENJOY GOOD LIFE! (IN THIS LIFE TIME!!)....
K.
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