Following the ACMD’s report on the cathinone derivatives (Part I & Part II), here is the latest amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act to control them:

Dangerous Drugs, England And Wales
Dangerous Drugs, Scotland
The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) (England, Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2010

Made
31st March 2010

Laid before Parliament
1st April 2010

Coming into force
16th April 2010

The Secretary of State makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 7, 10, 22 and 31 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971(1).

In accordance with section 31(3) of that Act the Secretary of State has consulted with the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Citation, commencement, interpretation and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) (England, Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2010 and shall come into force on 16th April 2010.

(2) In these Regulations “the 2001 Regulations” means the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001(2).

(3) These Regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland.
Amendment to the 2001 Regulations

2. The 2001 Regulations shall be amended as follows.

3. In Schedule 1 (which specifies controlled drugs subject to the requirements of regulations 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 26 and 27)—

(a) in paragraph 1(a), after “methcathinone”, insert—

“4–methylmethcathinone”;

(b) after paragraph 1(l), insert—

“(m) Any compound (not being bupropion, diethylpropion, pyrovalerone or a compound for the time being specified in sub–paragraph (a) above) structurally derived from 2–amino–1–phenyl–1–propanone by modification in any of the following ways, that is to say—

(i) by substitution in the phenyl ring to any extent with alkyl, alkoxy, alkylenedioxy, haloalkyl or halide substituents, whether or not further substituted in the phenyl ring by one or more other univalent substituents;

(ii) by substitution at the 3–position with an alkyl substituent;

(iii) by substitution at the nitrogen atom with alkyl or dialkyl groups, or by inclusion of the nitrogen atom in a cyclic structure.”.

David Hanson
Minister of State
Home Office
31st March 2010

Let’s take a look at this and try and make some sense of it shall we?

(a) in paragraph 1(a), after “methcathinone”, insert—

“4–methylmethcathinone”;

First off, mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) is explicitly mentioned to appear after methcathinone, which is already class B. I suppose we knew that much was going to happen already, so onto the more complicated stuff…

(b) after paragraph 1(l), insert—

“(m) Any compound (not being bupropion, diethylpropion, pyrovalerone or a compound for the time being specified in sub–paragraph (a) above) structurally derived from 2–amino–1–phenyl–1–propanone by modification in any of the following ways, that is to say—

This means that any cathinone derivative described by any of the following paragraphs will also become class B. Like the cannabinoids banned last December, this ban doesn’t list a tonne of individual substances, but instead covers a wide range of actual and theoretical substances by detailing possible alterations to the original cathinone structure. Here they are:

(i) by substitution in the phenyl ring to any extent with alkyl, alkoxy, alkylenedioxy, haloalkyl or halide substituents, whether or not further substituted in the phenyl ring by one or more other univalent substituents;

This first part covers modifications of the phenyl ring, or “round bit” of the cathinone structure (R4). Unfortunately, this covers a massive range of compounds, including Mephedrone (alkyl), Methedrone (alkoxy), Methylone, Ethylone, Butylone & MDPV (all alkylenedioxy) and flephedrone (halide; also includes the 3-F isomer) .

(ii) by substitution at the 3–position with an alkyl substituent;

This covers the addition of a carbon side chain of any length on the carbon atom just before the nitrogen atom (usually referred to as the alpha carbon).  All the compounds listed in Annex A,  Appendix 1 of the ACMD’s report include a chain of at least one carbon long (alpha methylation), but by not specifying the length of this “alkyl substitute”, this also covers  existing compounds with longer alpha side chains such as pentylone and MDPV as well as any potentially interesting theoretical compounds.

(iii) by substitution at the nitrogen atom with alkyl or dialkyl groups, or by inclusion of the nitrogen atom in a cyclic structure.”

The final nitrogen atom present in cathinone has two available places to add stuff. One or both of these could be a carbon chain (alkyl or dialkyl), or a single carbon chain could form a ring by starting and ending at this nitrogen atom (the “cyclic structure”), which is what this part covers. Examples include ethcathinone (alkyl – a single carbon chain), n,n-dimethylcathinone (dialkyl – two carbon chains) and MDPV (includes the cyclic pyrrolidinyl structure).

I know that’s still quite technical, but hopefully what I’ve written is a little clearer than the original text. Feel free to ask questions in the comments though!

The gist is, all the popular cathinone derivatives mentioned by name above will become class B on Friday 16th, as well as a great deal of the more esoteric ones. One compound not included in this ban is naphyrone, currently marketed as Energy-1 or NRG-1. Unfortunately, I hear it’s rather shit and also not particularly safe, but the ACMD are already looking into banning that for next time. That’s pretty much it for cathinones in the UK then. I feel like we should all go out and get commemorative T-shirts or something…

On a more serious note, for those previously law abiding citizens who have developed a psychological addiction to mephedrone, you have two choices: continue buying lower quality stuff at an inflated price from a regular drug dealer or find some help. Luckily, Drug-Forum.com has a great Recovery and Addiction section that you should definitely check out.  You’re also welcome to post your stories and progress in the comments under this post.

Mephedrone isn’t just another obscure research chemical. Everyone’s at it, all the time. Despite the media scare stories, over 20% of mephedrone users polled on Drugs Forum take more than 10g each month, with just under half of those consuming over 20g.  A lot of replies to that thread also reveal how quickly usage can escalate, meaning those results are probably on the conservative side. “More acceptable than weed”, some have been saying. “Even my non-druggie friends are doing it!”

Mephedrone has achieved this unusual status thanks to a number of factors. Firstly, it’s an effective stimulant, which is more than can be said for ecstasy and cocaine these days; the former consisting mainly of disagreeable piperazines (due to their cheapness, and until recently, their legal status) rather than MDMA, and the latter being incredibly inpure. Next up is the lack of a comedown that would normally be experienced with other stimulants, especially for new users. This means people can keep taking it for days on end with little to no perceived negative effects. The other major contributor is the price – at around £10 a gram, it undercuts a great many of its illegal counterparts, while often being more effective, or at least more reliable. Other factors include (potentially inaccurate) purity measures, the ease of buying it from the comfort of your own home  with a credit card, rather than handing over a fistful of crumpled notes to a typical drug dealer, and of course its legal status.  Although the majority of users understand that legal doesn’t mean safe, the fact that you can’t be imprisoned alongside murderers, rapists and other violent criminals for possessing it is certainly a plus. Oh, and it’s psychologically addictive – it won’t kill you if you stop taking it, but you might be able to think of nothing else.

Reports of children doing it, entire friendship groups crumbling as a result of compulsive use and the media frenzy have got people understandably worried and calling for this “evil” drug to be banned.

I Disagree.

Why We Shouldn’t Ban Mephedrone

If you haven’t read Top 10 Reasons Why Legal Highs Should Stay Legal, have a quick look now. Here are a few more mephedrone-specific points:

• Changing the law won’t change demand – we’ve already seen this with the reclassification of cannabis and the massive popularity of the synthetic cannabinoids that just got banned. Also, the decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal has resulted in not only a decline in drug use, but also a decline in drug-related illness and death (HIV from sharing needles, for example), as well as a increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction.
• The current classification system doesn’t work – Our current ABC system is a shambles, as any scientist, or indeed anyone that values evidence, will testify. Currently, one of the safest drugs, MDMA, sits alongside one of the (if not the) most dangerous, heroin. Cannabis, and soon the synthetic cannabinoids, which haven’t killed anyone, are positioned alongside amphetamine, a drug with far more potential dangers and addiction, meanwhile alcohol, which hospitalises over 1200 people a day and costs the NHS several billion pounds a year, remains legal along with tobacco. I would estimate the harms of mephedrone to be similar to amphetamine, if not a little worse, but placing it in class B would give the message that it is as dangerous as cannabis. Placing it in class A wouldn’t be right, as it certainly doesn’t appear to be as dangerous as heroin, but it’s probably worse than MDMA. Placing it in class C would be ridiculous, as it suggests cannabis is more dangerous. It would be impossible to have a sensible think on how to classify it properly without getting a headache.
• If mephedrone’s popularity persists, more people will die – in the event of an overdose or an idiosyncratic response, people taking illegal drugs are far more likely not to either tell the doctors what they’ve taken or even go to hospital in the first place. That’s not to say that mephedrone will kill a tonne of people, but if no one ever died whilst on mephedrone, that would be pretty weird…

What Should We Do Instead?

Just because I don’t think it should be illegal doesn’t mean I think the current situation is perfect. Instead, I think the best thing the government could do to reduce harm is keep it legal, restrict its sale to people over the age of 21 and slap on a tax of something like £15 per gram. This would make it much harder to buy large quantities at a time, especially for kids with little expendable income, and so curb mephedrone’s addictive nature. Obviously, this wouldn’t be the perfect solution, as some teenagers would still be able to get hold of it just like they do with alcohol, but at least less people will be taking it and a lot more money would be available to better fund the NHS, harm reduction methods, education about the drug and scientific research.

Why Mephedrone Won’t Be Classified Immediately

Heh. The government have certainly shot themselves in the foot here. Thanks to the sacking of Dave Nutt and the resignation of three others on the ACMD, the government now lacks the skills to ban it. Dr Les King, one of the resignees, was responsible for a large part of the ban last month, so without people like him, the government can’t do anything for a while. Looks like it’ll be legal for a good year or so yet.

How YOU Can Help

Well, you can’t really do anything about the mephedrone situation, but you can help me out by posting Mephedrone Cat everywhere!

You might save millions of lives by directing them to some of my harm reduction articles.