Teenager speaks on dangers of mephedrone (From York Press)

This is such an embarrasing campaign isn't it? 150 people have signed the petition? Says it all really - the majority of the press readership just don't care!

Has anybody actually died as a direct result of taking mephedrone? I don't think so! And why are the evening press taking such an interest all of a sudden. Mephrodrone was available for £3 a tablet from the Cactus Trading Post over two years ago - it's hardly a new thing!

It's all well and good the press printing 4 or 5 stories from upset parents but why don't they campaign against harser sentances for people who deala nd use hard drugs like Heroin?? That's the real problem

I think its great this young lad is speaking out about his experiences on this stuff in a language that hopefully others his age will relate to, Ive never understood why kids have a need to take drugs but am behind the press all the way and if creating an awareness in this way especially in schools, well done to all.

150 signatures is a complete farce!
There are much bigger issues to worry about than this and The Press should deal with them not this.
Its clear less people care about this than YC FC.

Even if I supported this campaign it can easily be beaten, the moment this drug is made illegal it can be recreated. It's a chemical substance created in a lab, all the lab needs to do is add a single hydrogen atom to the chemical structure, which won't change the effect but will change it's name and it's legal again....this is why legal highs are legal because it's very easy to keep them legal. If you want it banned change the law on the creation of them by changing the wording.

The government just can't go and ban everything thing because young people decide to snort them. Where does it end? There are no doubt dozens of items found around the home that will give you a high and also make you ill. Ban methrodrone and it will go underground and if the kids cant get hold of it they will try something else.

It's all well and good having some 19 year old kid go on about the side effects but Im sure if he had gone out and had 12 pints he would have felt ****

“I’m usually quite capable of handling myself and I know when to say ‘no’.

obviously not

Hmmm originally the press said that one of the signs that someone was doing mephrodone was that they had purple limbs. If this was true wouldn't it be easy to tell? Guessing the press decided to add in something bizarre to make it more fearful and just made it up

I don't think the Press made up the purple limb thing. I think they either read it on the web like me, or they got the idea from someone else who read it on the internet, say, the police or someone.
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Bearing in mind that it was just a posting on a forum by one person, describing the actions of one person who self admitted to abusive over-use. All uncorroborated of course.

Too much of anything is bad for you. Even bananas! Peter Andre had to be rushed to hospital with potassium poisoning after eating too many!

My advise. Treat all poisons alike.

Good on this young person for speaking honestly and frankly. Surely nobody here wants to see that happen to a lot of young people?
There have been a lot of users reporting loss of feeling/numbness and tingling in limbs. Hence the purple colour.
I have spoken to a young person only just now who has not had this stuff for four weeks now, due to having more knowledge about it. Well done to the Press i say.

How can people say that Mephedrone is habit-forming? I've been taking it every day for months and I'm not addicted.

Very sad that the York Press couldn't even find local people to talk to about the "Mephedrone-Menace". Colchester is hardly local. Does seem to suggest that most locals just don't give a hoot about the stuff (pun intended).

how do you know your not addicted if you never have a day without taking ??

The dear old Press trying to jump on a bandwagon, missing, but running along behind anyway as said wagon disappears over the horizon...
It is a silly campaign. This is just one particular substance that teenagers misuse - and most of the other substances, even legal ones, have far worse effects, far more victims and The Press wouldn't have to get people from Colchester to "speak out". To be honest, I imagine mephedrone does a lot less damage to society than shoddy, sensationalist journalism. I wouldn't recommend either.

Ok, so for clarity, the "purple limb" concept as can be researched by anyone with a net connection.
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There's two different stories online, they are much repeated on many websites, but they are all verbatim copies of two uncorroborated forum posts by random people using internet forums. We all know how honest people tend to be in that context, eh Mr HotSixPack69?. And yes, I know the internet isn't the only source of knowledge, so anyone who has themselves or anyone they know experienced this for themselves or any medical professionals who have treated this who would like to chip in, feel free. Anyone? Thought not.
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Yes this is a long post. If you can't be bothered to read it, fair enough. However, if you are a media organisation intending to influence how people think and how law is practiced and in the interests of editorial balance I feel it's essential reading. Here's one of the two stories:

Swim was visiting his mephedrone source the other day and saw the effects of far too much mephedrone first hand. Not a nice sight. Swims never touching the stuff again after this. I dont think that any responsible users have anything to worry, this guy was using it chronically and far too frequently.
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Swim and his friends entered his dealers flat to pick up the intended substances and stayed for a while to have a brief smoke. Swims dealer said he had been "bang on" the mephedrone since yesterday and hadn't slept all night, and proceeded to honk down another line. Swim doesn't know exactly how much he had done, but it was probably over a gram of the stuff. And swim suspected that he'd probably done even more previously this week as he had got the mephedrone about five days ago. After a while swim noticed he became quite quiet and looked very pale, so swim and co asked if was feeling OK. He said he felt a bit lightheaded, and then swim noticed that his hands were an odd color, a light pinky redish color as if covered in a rash. He then checked his feet to see if they were the same, they were very pale white, but then everyone noticed that his knees has turned dark purple, as if they were covered in a massive bruise. At the edge of the purple swim could see that they were following his veigns, ie, there were purple lines coming off the main area where swim presumed his veigns were, which slowly faded out to normal color. At this sight swims dealer started to look very queesy and so he lay down on the sofa and was sweating loads and looked like was gonna black out. One of swims friends phoned an ambulance. Swim was scared shitless.
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After a few minutes of lying down he seemed to get marginally better and he started walking around again, as he said this made him feel better than lying still. Next thing swim and co noticed was that his elbows had turned red like his hands had and were both slightly purple at the very tip, and they had a strange pimply red rash around them all the way up his shoulder. Swim was thinking WTF is going on here?!? These were symptoms swim had NEVER heard of before. He was also complaining about cramp in his hands too, which were slightly blue/purple aswell, but no where near a purple as his knees were. The ambulance arrived and asked a few questions and they walked out with him to their car and whisked him off to the hospital with one of his closer friends. At which point swim and his friends went home and got eventually some sleep.
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Swim phoned the friend that went with him to the hospital the next day and he said that the doctors didn't know what was wrong with him, apart from the obvious signs like dilated pupils, purple knees, red elbows and odd rash, his blood pressure was apparently OK as was his heart and oxygen levels. All of which were measured two hours after he was admitted due to delays and queues. He seemed fine the next day and was discharged. Luckily the police did not get involved throughout the whole escapade, probably because the word mephedrone did not appear as a controlled substance on any list.
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PURPLE KNEES?!? PURPLE ELBOWS? What on earth could cause that? swim wishes he had taken a picture, but that was the last thing from his mind that night.
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Any ideas on what would cause these very odd symptoms?

If you read the the whole list of postings on the original forum this came from you'll find instead of getting hysterical, they try and get the bottom of it. In fact, one of them comes up some sort of explanation (with pics) of Dermatomyositis:

Keep in mind that mephedrone does not induce this disease. Rather, it induces a similar pattern of symptoms which implies a similar underlying mechanism. From the descriptions of this disease SWIM read, it is likely that high serum levels of this drug induce a vasculitis which is likely reversible due to the fact that SWIY's acquaintance got better. This is bad, but then again it is bad to use excessive quantities of any substance. SWIM has only heard of this one case so hopefully it is not a common reaction. Lots of existing drugs can trigger rashes, hives and other dermatological symptoms but they are still prescribed every day. SWIM does feel mephedrone is a poor choice as a recreational chem. SWIM would stick with the more well characterized beta-ketones like methylone..

So there we go. How to perpetuate myth in one easy lesson. One (or two) people post unqualified stuff on an unofficial informal chat site. It spreads around the web. Fiendish, foolish use becomes normal use, purple knees become purple limbs, the mind's eye can conjure up some awesome confections given a good start. The media and the police pick up on it, they not only take it as gospel, but they decide that this rare occurrence (if it occurred at all) is not in fact rare, but highly probable and worth basing a legislative campaign upon.
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Bingo! Out of how ever many users and for how ever long it's been on sale, two reports of purplish knees and elbows suddenly mean you are pretty much guaranteed freaky purple arms and legs from any dose at all. That's worth a ban and the title of menace in anyone's book. The ratios aren't the same as that when Pfizer or Merck do their clinical trials for some reason...
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As a caveat, I'm not posting this to advocate the use of any substance legal or otherwise, but I am advocating the use of truth, education and common sense in these matters. No-one likes lies and propaganda, except the easily led.

Well said TooRad. A long post indeed, but a very well informed one.

Pedro wrote:
Too much of anything is bad for you. Even bananas! Peter Andre had to be rushed to hospital with potassium poisoning after eating too many! My advise. Treat all poisons alike.

You've just given the Press their next campaign..Cue mass demonstrations, Banana burning in Parliament Street and p****d off Greengrocers!!

That one's for you Nick....

Well since the york press are heading up this mephedrone campaign its interesting to see the general lack of support.

This campaign is irrelevant, the home office have to wait for the ACMD report on mephedrone before making a decision, this is likely to be announced in march.

Of course they are going to ban it, mephedrone has gotten too big now. Everyone seems to be doing it, this campaign makes no difference whatsoever, the ban is imminent.

The sad thing about all this however is that mephedrone only became the "social problem" that it now is because of all the press from papers like this one and more importantly the Daily Mail.

Prior to that first article in the papers it was a relatively underground thing, a few trustworthy websites selling it and a handful of wholesalers importing it. Quality of product was always the aim of any good seller. Since it became famous the market has been flooded with scammers and opportunists selling heavily cut meph with no regard or concern for the moral responsibilities involved with supplying a relatively new research chemical. These people would not be involved in this market if it wasn't all over the papers.

Genuine honest suppliers who take their responsibilities seriously have been pushed out of the market by dishonest suppliers selling low quality cheap cut rubbish (often the smelly type of meph which is known to have more nasty side-effects) lured by the apparent easy-money opportunities of selling drugs without breaking the law.

It is sad that it has got like this but the newspapers with their scaremongering have done more to raise the profile of this previously obscure chemical than any dealer or word-of-mouth ever could.

Whats next, they ban mephedrone and everyone who has stocked up on it starts doubling their prices until eventuaslly it starts to dry up, end of problem? Not really, theres plenty more chemicals currently being researched as the next big legal high.

The drug laws in this country are completely wrong, out of date and ineffective. Banning one does not change anything, what we need is to completely reconsider the current system of legislation for all drugs.

Lets not forget also that the biggest killers are both "legal highs": tobacco and alcohol. Should we ban them too?