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MEPHEDRONE: THE FUTURE OF DEALING?

Legality has seldom bothered most drug Chemists are staying one step ahead of users and dealers. But a new wave of sold over the internet could drug laws by toying with the chemical see dealers losing business as users discover cheaper, legal alternatives to make-up of illegal stimulants such as , ecstasy and – that actually work. ecstasy, speed and crystal meth to make Bulletin boards and chat rooms worldwide have been buzzing with an increasingly popular range of legal reports of two chemicals in particular, and , which highs. Mike Power reports on the users say offer many of the effects of some illegal counterparts. substances that look set to change the Mephedrone, or dimethylmethcathinone to give its way are bought and sold. chemical identity, sells for around £14 a gram – enough for five oral doses – and has many of the effects of MDMA, and cocaine. Chemically, the compound is two molecular ‘tweaks’ away from MDMA and methylamphetamine (crystal meth) and even more closely related to (the active ingredient in ) – but it’s easily available to anyone with

6 | DRUGLINK MARCH/APRIL 2009 an email address and a Paypal account. the 1971 Act as a Class C drug and Ullerslev in Denmark, died in May last Users, who have nicknamed it scheduled under the UN Drug year and was found to be in possession ‘meph’, say the drug is like a cross Conventions. Cathinone derivatives are of mephedrone, although toxicology between high-quality cocaine and not presently controlled. They are in reports have proven inconclusive. In MDMA, with an almost instant, relaxing, turn close relatives of the December, an 18-year-old university yet stimulated high. They experience a phenethylamine family, which includes student from Stockholm, Sweden was lowering of social inhibitions, drugs such amphetamine and MDMA, reported to have died after taking talkativeness, and an intense physical but most are not controlled by the Act. mephedrone. Sweden has now outlawed and mental with increased The drug is often sold as ‘ food’ the chemical. tactile sensitivity. on websites, with warnings not to Another popular and easily available “I prefer mephedrone to MDMA,” consume in a bid by vendors to avoid legal high on the same websites is says Dave, a 27-year-old Londoner prosecution under food and medicine methylone, or 3, 4-methylenedioxy- working in the fashion industry. “It’s law. But many sites that sell them , which costs slightly more reliable, cheaper and actually reference culture in both their more at £16 a gram, enough for four more convenient than going to a dealer. graphic design and imagery, and their doses. Described as “ecstasy for grown- I pretty much stopped buying coke and use is clearly intended as a . ups” or “MDMA-lite” it offers elements pills and crystal [MDMA] once I found Dave has many years of illegal drug of the ecstasy experience – physical and meph. I’d just make a bulk order and experiences to draw on when mental euphoria, increased energy send off the payment and the package comparing the legal high to its illegal levels, emotional insight and a lowering would arrive a few days later. I’ve been derivatives. “After a while MDMA makes of social inhibitions – but at a lesser doing it for 14 months, and have not me tired and ache, and want to sleep. degree. experienced any negative effects, except On meph I can stay up all night, have Psychedelic chemist Alexander perhaps on my motivation levels.” interesting conversations and still get to Shulgin, who was responsible for “It makes me laugh when I see work the next day. I don’t bother scoring resynthesising MDMA, has said it has a people try it for the first time. Many are any coke or pills or MDMA. Meph is just similar profile to MDMA: “It has an sceptical that something that’s legal can better.” almost antidepressant action, pleasant actually work. But it does,” he says. Users on a popular online drugs and positive, but not the unique magic Mephedrone is being sold online in forum which specialises in legal highs of MDMA.” significant quantities. It is completely agree. One electronic bulletin board Drugs similar to mephedrone and legal in the UK because, due to attached to an online shop has a methylone, containing cathinone, first deliberate molecular engineering, it is mephedrone ‘thread’, or discussion appeared in Israel in around 2004, under not covered by either of the topic, that has been in progress for over the local name ‘hagigat’. They were government’s blanket bans on a year and is currently running at over outlawed following several derivatives of MDMA or cathinone. The 620 pages, with thousands of responses. hospitalisations in Tel Aviv. But then compound is custom-synthesised in “This drug is buff, it’s shiny and lush. chemists tweaked hagigat’s chemical Chinese laboratories and imported It feels like the rush of coke, the structure and started selling the new legally to the UK, where it is sold online, relaxation of MDMA and the calm drugs containing other cathinone- mainly from Austrian and British happiness of . When a gram related compounds, under the company websites, or in headshops. binge finishes I feel tripped out and see name Neorganics. Brands included Neo It is one of a large group of things,” said one poster on the bulletin Doves (named after a popular early compounds which are all derivatives of board. variety of Ecstasy pill), Sub Coca and cathinone, which is the active But mephedrone is not without its Spirits. ingredient of khat – controlled under dangers. Kenneth Nielson, 18, from continued on p9

DRUGLINK MARCH/APRIL 2009 | 7 These too were subsequently banned in the lips and nose area after a heavy in Israel in 2008. But by then a large snorting session. Sweat can also retain WHAT’S IT LIKE? base of users had developed and the distinctive fish-like scent of gathered in online forums, and demand mephedrone for several days, users say. drove supply. One site in the UK reports “I once caned mephedrone all Melanie, a 30-year-old ecstasy that they have just imported 2kg of weekend from Friday night straight and cocaine user, tried mephedrone. through til Monday morning, with no mephedrone for the first time. sleep,” says fashion worker Dave. “But I Here is her report. was still able to go to work on the IT’S MORE RELIABLE, Monday, and made a major presentation 0 seconds: Snorting the line, it CHEAPER AND ACTUALLY to international clients. If that had been stings like ground glass on the MDMA, I’d have been like a zombie.” membranes. MORE CONVENIENT THAN The benefits to vendors are obvious: 30 seconds: with a sudden and a drug that can be synthesised for a GOING TO A DEALER. slightly scary rush, the drug is couple of hundred pounds a kilo and upon me, flooding reward centres I PRETTY MUCH STOPPED imported legally that can cause with a euphoria that’s somewhere compulsive re-dosing is a retailer’s BUYING COKE AND PILLS between a line of A-grade coke dream. and pure MDMA, but with a subtle AND CRYSTAL ONCE “People are making absolutely huge twist. I FOUND MEPH amounts of money out of these drugs. They are selling at higher prices than 5 minutes: the music I’m listening tablets of ecstasy at the moment, and to has a new urgency and I’m sat Dr John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St their manufacture is straightforward,” grinning at my friend who’s in a George’s University London, is also says Ramsey. similar state. Body heat and director of Tic Tac Communications, a Ramsey believes the drugs have temperature and heartbeat are all drug analysis body that studies become popularised as a consequence up – this stuff can’t be good for recreational drugs. It makes test of the government’s moves to make the you. There’s a saturation of the purchases of new chemicals from (BZP) class of brain with serotonin, like ecstasy. websites and then analyses them using chemicals illegal. 30 minutes: no sign of the buzz ‘nuclear magnetic resonance “There will always be something on abating. I’m steady on my feet, spectroscopy’. Tic Tac sells the the horizon that is falling outside the articulate, not slurring, information it discovers as a database to legislation,” says Ramsey. “I can name supercharged and full of energy. the police and drug workers. Ramsey you another five chemicals that are says the use of new drugs such as legal, but have similar effects to these 45 minutes: suddenly, mephedrone is a public health concern. analogues of MDMA. The law cannot dramatically, it stops. Just like “They cause effects pretty much like keep up with what is happening on the that. Instantly back to baseline, the drugs they are derived from. People street. What we need to do is to explain with just a slight spaciness in the end up in A&E because they take to users the potential risks they are head and a tightness in the jaw. stimulants, and they end up in A&E running.” First instinct: have another line. because they take these chemicals. The Home Office admits that The second isn’t as good – less Their acute effects are pretty much mephedrone is currently legal. “It has high, more confused, shorter indistinguishable from MDMA and not been reported as a problem in the lasting. It would be so easy to keep amphetamines. UK to the best of our knowledge. going, but my heart and breathing “But we have no information on their Derivates of cathinone are not presently concern me, and so I stop. toxicity because they have never been controlled under the Misuse of Drugs used as drugs until recently, so there Act and this is also the case with many have not been any formal studies. The close relatives of the phenethylamine only real reports we get are from people family such as amphetamine and who either write them up in chatrooms MDMA. The Advisory Council on the There’s even a Facebook group now, or discussion groups, or end up in A&E.” Misuse of Drugs keep these matters ‘The Mephedrone Experience’, with 32 Users have also reported that under constant review and advises the members at the time of writing. mephedrone can cause compulsive re- Government accordingly.” In an age of instant dissemination of dosing, known as ‘fiending’, where users Users collaborate extensively online information to millions of interested intend to take only a small amount, but on the drugs’ effects, reliable sources, parties, it seems unfeasible that end up consuming their entire supply. “I prices, doses and known dangers. And government will not act soon to outlaw did eight grams of meph over the this latest manifestation of the web’s the compounds, and dealers will weekend,” reported one user on a chat spirit of user-generated content is breathe a sigh of relief as sales of illegal, site. “My heart is still beating strangely undoubtedly helping people to source arguably more dangerous chemicals and my mouth has all the skin peeled drugs that can be abused. But fact- recover. off on the inside.” sharing could well prove the final coffin Other users have reported blueness in the drug’s legality. ■ Mike Power is a freelance journalist

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