{"id":5797,"date":"2010-01-24T22:17:56","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T21:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=5797"},"modified":"2016-09-15T14:12:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T14:12:44","slug":"legally-high-internet-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2010\/01\/legally-high-internet-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Legally High – Internet Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe last few months have seen a dramatic increase in use of \u2013
\nand media interest in \u2013 \u2018legal highs\u2019, especially mephedrone or \u2018miaow\/meow\u2019.
\nDavid Gilliver takes a look at a legislative minefield<\/span><\/p>\n

When the government announced its intention last year to ban a range
\nof \u2018legal highs\u2019 and make them class C drugs, Release accused it of
\n\u2018chasing its tail\u2019 in an attempt to \u2018stay ahead of the demand for drugs
\nand those who supply them\u2019 (DDN, 7 September 2009, page 4).
\nThe chemicals were BZP and related piperazines, GBL and a related chemical
\nand the synthetic cannabinoids used to make smoking products like Spice.
\nRelease\u2019s accusation seemed to be vindicated very quickly, however. Anecdotal
\nevidence soon started to filter through about a sharp increase in use of the
\nstimulant mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone), known as \u2018miaow\u2019. After the drug was implicated in the death of a young woman in Brighton late last year, there was a rash of mephedrone stories in the press, followed \u2013 a couple of weeks later \u2013 by stories about how that coverage had led to a huge boost in sales, with many online suppliers selling out altogether. Luci Hammond is a young person\u2019s alcohol worker at Brighton-based service ruok? She started to notice a very sharp increase in miaow use in the second half of last year. \u2018It just hit very quickly,\u2019 she says. \u2018We started getting reports of it being used by young people and we had parents and professionals asking questions about it, but since then we\u2019ve had a lot of young people coming to us themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n

There has been much talk about the drug\u2019s growing use in clubs, with people
\nturning to it because of the poor quality of available ecstasy and cocaine \u2013 as little as 2 per cent purity in the latter case (DDN, 21 September 2009, page 5).
\nHowever, what Hammond has found \u2013 and what the press has been quick to pick
\nup on \u2013 is the worrying popularity of the drug among children. So far, her youngest client to have used miaow is 12. The majority are 14 and up, but \u201814 is common\u2019 she says. Where are they taking it \u2013 presumably they can\u2019t get into nightclubs? \u2018The majority of them can\u2019t, but there are under-18 nights where they use it, as well as at parties and out on the streets. They\u2019ll sit in parks and cemeteries, so they\u2019re putting themselves at risk just through the location.\u2019
\nAnd what about other legal highs? \u2018This is the big one. We\u2019re hearing bits about
\nBZP and Spice but nothing compared to this.\u2019 John Ramsey runs the TICTAC drug-testing database at St. George’s, University of London, and has seen a dramatic increase in the use of legal highs. \u2018We analyse the contents of club amnesty bins and we test purchase stuff from websites \u2013 that\u2019s how we come to be pretty up-to-date on new and emerging compounds,\u2019 he says. \u2018We\u2019ve been doing this for ten or 15 years and at one time it was really unusual to find anything new. Now we find something new virtually weekly. We go to Glastonbury each year and there were huge amounts of mephedrone there last
\ntime \u2013 there was one seizure of 120g. Two or three years ago there wasn\u2019t any.\u2019
\nLegal highs are available in \u2018head\u2019 shops but anecdotal evidence \u2013 and the
\nscale of use being reported \u2013 would suggest that most people are buying them
\nquickly and easily online. Indeed, many of the press mephedrone stories have
\npractically been guides to getting hold of the drug, couched in obligatory
\ndisapproving language. \u2018If you go online and put in \u2018legal highs\u2019 you get hundreds of results,\u2019 says Renato Masetti, training coordinator at Suffolk DAAT, who puts on conference workshops to essentially it\u2019s an online phenomenon \u2013 you\u2019ve got comments, forums, you can write in and say which one was good and which wasn\u2019t, just like on Amazon. There\u2019s a whole community out there \u2013 the online forums have gone mad.\u2019<\/p>\n

But presumably most 13 and 14-year-olds aren\u2019t buying the drugs online,
\nunless they\u2019re using their parents\u2019 credit cards? \u2018A lot of our young people are
\ngetting it from friends, but we\u2019re hearing of dealers specialising in miaow and
\nselling it to school-age children,\u2019 says Hammond. \u2018They\u2019re buying it in bulk online,
\npossibly cutting it, and selling it on. We\u2019ve also heard reports of young people
\ndealing because they think it\u2019s risk-free, a legal substance. At the start the reports were \u201cyou get no comedown, it\u2019s all legal\u201d. It was seen as pure \u2013 everything sounded lovely. Now it\u2019s being used more frequently we\u2019ve discovered it\u2019s not so lovely.\u2019 She\u2019s started to see behaviour change in her clients, like paranoia, aggression and anxiety, and even signs of dependency. \u2018We\u2019ve heard about shakes and poor co-ordination with withdrawal,\u2019 she says. How widespread is the problem in Brighton? \u2018I would say in terms of speaking to young people, it\u2019s probably about five a day,\u2019 she says. \u2018One young person will tell us that their friends are doing it, or a teacher will ring up and say that the whole class is talking about it. I\u2019m a young person\u2019s alcohol worker but almost all my clients have tried miaow, even the ones who\u2019ve always said \u201cI\u2019d never do drugs\u201d,
\nbecause it isn\u2019t considered a dangerous drug. This is the message we\u2019re trying to
\nget across \u2013 that it does seem to be a dangerous drug.\u2019 How are they taking it? \u2018Most are snorting, which is what we\u2019re trying to advise against \u2013 if you are going to use it we\u2019d rather it was bombed [swallowed]. We\u2019ve had people smoking it as well, in a bong or cone. But it\u2019s really painful to snort, and we\u2019re hearing of nosebleeds that recur for days afterwards, as well as spinal and joint ache. And miaow isn\u2019t enough now \u2013 they want to do it with ketamine or acid or nitrous oxide. There seems to be a cocktail culture out there.\u2019<\/p>\n

Clubbers of the \u201980s and \u201990s were sometimes described as the \u2018guinea pig
\ngeneration\u2019, as no one really knew what effects long-term ecstasy use might have. But with mephedrone and other legal highs \u2013 anecdotal chat room accounts aside \u2013 there really is no information, because there\u2019s been no research. \u2018How can there be \u2013 who\u2019s going to pay for it?\u2019 says John Ramsey. \u2018For example the cannabinoids in things like Spice are completely untested and yet they clearly work \u2013 the legislation has got to control about 240 of the things. Who can research 240 new chemical compounds?\u2019 Indeed even the names seem something of a moveable feast, with a variety of drugs passed off as miaow depending on who\u2019s selling it and in what part of the country. \u2018There are fewer dealers in the chain and there does seem to be some evidence of people selling allegedly illegal drugs which when they\u2019re tested are found to be legal, so you have this fascinating phenomenon of the illegal market pinching from the legal market and pretending it\u2019s illegal \u2013 because people think illegal stuff is better,\u2019 says Masetti. \u2018We\u2019ve been told that miaow can be made up of different compounds, and it\u2019s also being mixed with stuff now,\u2019 says Hammond. \u2018It started off a few months ago at \u00a315 per gram and now it\u2019s \u00a33.50. You can get pure mephedrone but you don\u2019t really know from mix to mix what you\u2019re getting.\u2019 However the miaow John Ramsey has tested has been consistent. \u2018Every time we\u2019ve analysed it it\u2019s been 4-methylmethcathinone, and there appear to be vast amounts of it about. I get a lot of calls from police officers who are being asked what they\u2019re going to do about it. Of course the answer is \u201cnothing\u201d, because it\u2019s not illegal.\u2019<\/p>\n

The legal status does really appear to mean that many people think the drugs
\nare safe and harmless. \u2018We\u2019ve had parents saying \u201cwe\u2019re telling our kids not to do
\nillegal things\u201d and they\u2019re saying \u201cbut it\u2019s not illegal\u201d says Hammond. \u2018I don\u2019t think many teenagers would think that they could buy something from a high street head shop that\u2019s going to cause them to end up in an A&E department,\u2019 says Ramsey. \u2018They wouldn\u2019t think people would be allowed to sell things that would do that.\u2019 And A&E, it seems, is not an exaggeration. Luci Hammond visits regularly and whereas before her clients were there through drink or illegal drugs, now it\u2019s often miaow. \u2018We\u2019re starting to see people coming in with miaow overdoses \u2013 anxiety, excessive aggression, disturbed sleep, being sick. One parent brought her child in because he was screaming and shaking in his sleep and they put that down to a miaow overdose. One client did it at a party and kept collapsing \u2013 his knees would just buckle underneath him.\u2019 \u2018I\u2019ve seen a couple of forums where there was talk about it causing blue knees and blue elbows,\u2019 adds John Ramsey. \u2018That means it could be an inhibitor of muscle metabolism \u2013 that\u2019s not beyond the realms of possibility.\u2019 Does he think the government is really chasing its tail when it comes to legislating on legal highs? Won\u2019t the chemists just come up with a slightly different compound? \u2018To some extent, but the new legislation includes piperazines \u2013 BZP and that whole family \u2013 and it is proper generic classification, not a list of compounds, so it should cut off the piperazines as a family. While there\u2019s always scope for somebody to innovate something that hasn\u2019t been foreseen, it makes it much more difficult to do that. But obviously the legislation completely ignores the cathinones, like mephedrone, which haven\u2019t even been risk-assessed yet. The alternative is to do nothing, but you\u2019ve got teenagers buying chemicals which are completely untested for safety and using them as drugs \u2013 you\u2019ve got to try and prevent that.\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s an interesting challenge,\u2019 says Renato Masetti. \u2018I think we need to be creative about other responses, rather than just straight legislation. You\u2019ve got the example of GHB and GBL \u2013 GHB was made class C a while back and yet you found the same amount of seizures of GHB as GBL. The fact that you\u2019ve classified doesn\u2019t seem to have made much difference. Legislation is a very heavy hammer, and it\u2019s too clumsy with chemicals that can be altered quickly. Legislation becomes really difficult because if it\u2019s too broad it captures useful products in industry.\u2019 He\u2019s also unconvinced that people are switching to these drugs on a large scale because of the declining quality of cocaine and ecstasy. \u2018That upshares\/downshares has been going on for ages \u2013 purity rates go up and down. I think to some extent this
\nis probably a separate thing \u2013 experimental people who don\u2019t wish to break the law and are looking for legal alternatives. This happened years ago when there was a big \u2018herbal highs\u2019 thing, but they were awful, caffeine-based things. I think people have been quite surprised this time \u2013 they\u2019ve found that actually they\u2019re effective.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the myriad of online forums, the effects of mephedrone are often described
\nas a kind of mix of amphetamine and MDMA, but with a shorter-lasting effect than the latter. \u2018The chemical structures are based on the khat plant, but the
\ncompounds have nothing to do with the plant \u2013 they\u2019re modifications of a molecule derived from the plant \u2013 so from a chemical point of view you\u2019d predict that it\u2019s going to be a stimulant,\u2019 says Ramsey. \u2018I can\u2019t see how it\u2019s likely to be
\nempathogenic like MDMA, it\u2019s more likely to be like amphetamine or even
\nmethylamphetamine. But it\u2019s never been used as a drug before so there\u2019s no data
\non its half-life, its potency or anything.\u2019 The similarity with methylamphetamine\/ methamphetamine is borne out by the behaviour of Hammond\u2019s clients. \u2018We\u2019re hearing of people aged 14 or 15 who are doing three-day binges, seven-day binges. They\u2019re not able to go to school and we\u2019ve had people saying \u201cI feel like I\u2019m dying, I can\u2019t stop.\u201d We\u2019ve had people who\u2019ve used illegal drugs saying this is the most addictive thing they\u2019ve ever had.\u2019<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the answer \u2013 is it better education? \u2018Absolutely, but it\u2019s a fine line
\nbetween educating and promoting,\u2019 says Ramsey. \u2018We\u2019re used to that in the drug
\nfield, but we do need some sort of generic education.\u2019 What about the FRANK \u2018crazy chemist\u2019 campaign launched last year? (DDN, 5 October 2009, page 4). \u2018That\u2019s not based on any sound knowledge,\u2019 he says. \u2018Just anecdotal observations.\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m a trainer so I\u2019m biased but I think training is really important,\u2019 says Masetti. \u2018It\u2019s important for drug teams to know the specifics about these drugs, but not because treatment is going to be any different from what they\u2019re doing already \u2013 it\u2019s more around confidence-building. I\u2019d like to see awareness-raising in services so they can engage with these clients who don\u2019t see themselves as traditional illegal drug users. We know very little about these drugs but because they\u2019re synthetic mimickers that work similarly to the illegal drugs they\u2019re mimicking, the treatments will be very similar \u2013 you don\u2019t need to learn any special techniques. But we do need to get some research going on these drugs asap, along with general harm reduction advice.\u2019 Late last year two members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) told The Times that the council had serious concerns about drugs like mephedrone and was proposing a more rapid system of appraisal, and the ACMD had in fact constituted a working group on cathinone compounds of which John Ramsey was a member. \u2018But all of that\u2019s collapsed now because everybody\u2019s resigned,\u2019 he says. Sacked ACMD chair Prof David Nutt has said his new organisation, the Independent Council on Drug Harms, plans to produce guidance on legal highs, but they will be operating outside of government (see page 4). \u2018It\u2019s definitely getting to the \u201csomething must be done\u201d stage,\u2019 says Ramsey. \u2018It\u2019s not going to go away, and it\u2019s not likely to be controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act in the foreseeable future as they can\u2019t legislate under that without ACMD.<\/p>\n

ACMD would normally conduct a risk assessment and then recommend control or
\nnon-control but, given the disarray ACMD seems to be in, the alternative is the
\nsame process through the EMCDDA in Lisbon. They\u2019ve collected information about
\nthese compounds, and it may well be that they\u2019ll do a risk assessment and
\nrecommend control throughout Europe, with all member states expected to follow.\u2019 In fact the EMCDDA has called Britain the online capital of Europe for legal highs, with 37 per cent of all retailers operating from the UK compared to just 14 per cent in the Netherlands. \u2018True, but we bought some from a website that had a UK address \u2013 the credit card was debited in France and the material was shipped from New Zealand,\u2019 says Ramsey. \u2018But one thing is certain \u2013 there\u2019s very big money in it.
\nSource: drinkanddrugsnews 18 January 2010<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last few months have seen a dramatic increase in use of \u2013 and media interest in \u2013 \u2018legal highs\u2019, especially mephedrone or \u2018miaow\/meow\u2019. David Gilliver takes a look at a legislative minefield When the government announced its intention last year to ban a range of \u2018legal highs\u2019 and make them class C drugs, Release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intervention-testing","category-legal-highs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}