LONDON—Mephedrone, a legal drug linked to over 20 recent deaths, could be banned “within a matter weeks” in the U.K., according to the U.K. Home Secretary, Alan Johnson.
The drug is sold ostensibly as a plant food on Web sites specifically for it, and in one year it has become one of the most popular drugs on the club scene.
Johnson wants to use legizlation to ban mephedrone and any similar concoctions that could be cooked up by manufacturers.
In Ayr, Scotland, a campaign to ban the drug began after the death of 19-year-old Jordan Kiltie from Dalmilling following a night out with friends where it’s believed mephedrone was taken.
Ayr has an adult shop, Bodystyle International, that sells mephedrone. Owner Frank Nicholson told the Ayrshire Post, “We’re still selling the product but taking it under advisement as we speak. However, if we were to stop selling mephedrone, people can easily go elsewhere in Ayrshire and get similarly manufactured products.”
Manufactured in China
Toxicologist Dr. John Ramsey, who works to identify drugs in the laboratory, told Holly Williams of Sky News, “The Chinese chemical industry seems to provide anything at a price. So if somebody here orders something they‘ll either synthesize it or have it in stock, and they’ll send it, regardless of what it’s to be used for.”
Posing as a potential customer, Sky contacted Shanghai-based company, Blinkchem. Sky discovered that Blinkchem already has five British customers, “two of them big ones.”
When Blinkchem was asked if the banning of the drugs would cause problems, she was told that they were prepared. “We’re working on five or six new legal products,” she was told. “Most of them come from our British customers. They told us how to make the new ones.”
The U.K. government Web site, ASK FRANK, which pitches information to young people, states that cathinone is a naturally occurring stimulant found in the khat plant and cathinones are a group of drugs related to amphetamine compounds like ecstasy.
“Meow meow can come in the form of capsules, tablets, or white powder that users may swallow, snort or even inject. It acts as a stimulant and a ‘psychedelic,’ with reportedly similar properties to the drug ecstasy (MDMA),” an NHS Web site states.
The name of the khat plant gives the colloquial “meow meow.” It comes from eastern Africa where locals chew it for an amphetamine-like high. The drug is also referred to as “M-Kat.”
The NHS site states that medical and scientific information on mephedrone is “scarce” although “it seems sensible to assume that mephedrone is not safe unless rigorous scientific research proves otherwise.”
“Many of the initial medical case reports on mephedrone suggest that it can cause problems with breathing and the circulatory system, particularly when combined with alcohol,” it states.
Professor Les Iversen, chair of the The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), advised the U.K. Home secretary that the drug should be placed in the Class B category. The classification would make possession of the drug punishable with up to five years in jail, and selling it would be punishable with up to 14 years in prison.
Although autopsies have found mephedrone in the bodies of several young people, no inquests have determined that the drug was directly responsible for any deaths. It would be viewed as politically expedient for Johnson to act on Iversen’s advice as there is public concern in the U.K. about the drug’s easy availability and its perceived treacherous nature.
The drug becoming classified as illegal before the coming election is similar to the inception of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 40 years ago, says Don Barnard of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.
He said that when Jacqui Smith was Home secretary she tried to “close down the head shops,” which sell drug paraphernalia. He said that she intended to have local authorities use the Medical Act to close them if it was not achieved via normal police work.
He sees the current activity of Johnson and the ACMD as part of the same movement.
The day before the ACMD’s advice was to be handed to Johnson, Dr. Polly Taylor, a European veterinarian specialist in anesthesia, sent a letter of resignation from the ACMD to be acted upon immediately.
The independence of scientific advice was central to Taylor’s resignation. In her letter she said she was surprised and dismayed at the U.K. government’s requirement for “’mutual trust’ backed up by sanctions against independent advisers irrespective or whether the code of practice has been complied with.”
”I feel that there is little more we can do to describe the importance of ensuring the advice is not subjected to a desire to please ministers or the mood of the day’s press,” she wrote.
Cross-party support
There are issues around trust between some ACMD members and Home Secretaries.
In November 2009, the then chairman of the ACDM, professor David Nutt, was fired by the previous Home Secretary. He was dismissed for the content of a lecture he gave as an academic, which repeated his advice to the U.K. government on the classification of cannabis and ecstasy, which the government had rejected.
Two other ACMD members resigned in protest.
After a meeting with the Home secretary, three other members also resigned. They felt they were not given the necessary assurances about how their independent scientific advice would be treated in the future.
Taylor said that she and others stayed on to see how the U.K. government would react.
Despite Taylor’s resignation, U.K. Home Office lawyers said they read the Misuse of Drugs Act as meaning the Advisory Council can report and the government can legislate for a ban acted immediately on receipt of the ACMD’s advice.
There are several parliamentary stages for the drug to go through, before being legally classified. “I am seeking cross-party support to swiftly ban these dangerous drugs from our streets,” Johnson said. “Parliament permitting, I hope to do this in a matter of weeks.”
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