IT is a week since the ban of mephedrone came into force. STEPHEN LEWIS and JENNIFER BELL assess the impact.

THE long-awaited official report to Home Secretary Alan Johnson by the Government’s drugs advisory body makes clear just how risky experts believe mephedrone and related drugs could be.

The report, by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), reveals that cathinones, including mephedrone, have been implicated as possibly contributing to at least 18 deaths in England – including that of 24-year-old Malton woman Lois Waters – and a further seven in Scotland.

The report also lists symptoms and side-effects of the drug reported by users, including agitation, palpitations, insomnia and even psychosis.

The rise in use of the drug has been unprecedented, the report reveals. “Within a year it has risen from a very low baseline to become popular amongst adolescents and adults.”

That claim is backed up by evidence from right here in York. In the three months to last December, drugs service First Base saw only three young people using mephedrone. This increased fourfold between January and March this year, to 12.

The ACMD report, dated March 31, says that mephedrone and other cathinones – the group to which mephedrone belongs – are amphetamine-like behavioural stimulants.

Clinical symptoms reported by patients referring themselves to London’s Guys and St Thomas’s Hospitals after taking mephedrone included agitation, palpitations, seizures, vomiting, sweating and headaches, it reveals. Other side effects included insomnia, loss of appetite, hot flushes, increased blood pressure and heart rate and, in high doses, hallucinations and psychosis.

Anecdotal reports suggest that when taken in combination with other drugs such as amphetamines, the effects can include personality changes and paranoia, the report adds.

The report reveals that cathinones, including mephedrone, have been implicated in at least 18 deaths in England, and a further seven in Scotland.

In one of the English cases, a coroner has ruled death was due to natural causes. But in seven of them, mephedrone was found during the post mortem analysis. The remaining ten cases were still awaiting inquest at the time the report was published.

The report also reveals that while there is little evidence yet to demonstrate that mephedrone users become dependent on the drug, they can rapidly increase their levels of use.

“Some users have reported developing cravings for mephedrone... after use,” the report says.

“The chronic use of amphetamines can lead to dependence, and a downward cycle of bingeing and periods of recovery associated with depression, therefore it is likely that mephedrone carries a similar risk of dependency.”

Other findings in the report include:

• Mephedrone and other cathinones are usually sold as white or brown powders, sometimes as capsules, more rarely as pills

• The drug can be snorted, swallowed (often after wrapping in tissue paper, known as bombing or dabbing) or, more rarely, injected

• The price ranges from £10 to £15 a gramme, with a typical dose being between five and 200mgs. Some mephedrone users report re-dosing or bingeing to prolong the euphoric experience, the report says, leading to one to two grammes being consumed in a session

• The drug is predominantly sold over the internet and in “head shops”

• The report, dated March 31, advised a generic ban on all cathinones, including mephedrone, and that they should all be controlled as Class B substances, the same as amphetamines

• The report also recommended that there should be a “credible and comprehensive public health campaign” to inform users and potential users about the risks.