Guernsey may ban mephedrone (From York Press)

Guernsey may ban mephedrone

8:33am Friday 5th March 2010 in

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DANGER drug mephedrone – which The Press is trying to get banned – could be criminalised by the Channel Island of Guernsey.

Authorities on Guernsey are considering labelling the stimulant a Class A drug, after research into mephedrone showed it had similar effects to Class A drugs cocaine and ecstasy.

The Press started the Menace Of Mephedrone campaign to ban the drug, which is currently legal in the UK, after a rise in mephedrone-related hospital admissions earlier this year.

Police told The Press in January there was more mephedrone being seized by them in York than cocaine, and there was no history of how the potentially lethal stimulant could affect different people.

The drug, which is commonly found in plant food, caused a 17-year-old boy at Woldgate College in Pocklington to collapse and be rushed to hospital in January.

Police have also reported some users have stopped breathing, following a collapse caused by the drug, and user accounts tell of a sharp, depressing comedown and overwhelming feelings of anxiety.

Guernsey officials said they were conducting their own research into the effects of the synthetic stimulant, but the island banned the importation of mephedrone, also known as bubbles, meow meow or M-CAT, last year.

Andrea Nightingale, Guernsey’s drug and alcohol co-ordinator, said: “We need to be proactive as far as the island is concerned.

“If the support isn’t there from the UK at this time and it’s going to be lengthy process then possibly we have to feel we can’t wait and that we go it alone.”

Support for The Press campaign to criminalise the “legal high” has grown in the past two months, with teachers, students, local drug workers and relatives of mephedrone users backing our call for the drug to be made illegal.

In February, the Home Secretary Alan Johnson revealed the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is expected to announce a decision on outlawing mephedrone later this month.

If classified as Class A, possession of mephedrone would carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both, while dealing could mean life imprisonment.