So the story nobody can escape today is that of two teenagers from Scunthorpe who have died allegedly as a result of taking Mephedrone.
I say allegedly because as yet, we have no facts whatsoever about this case. The police believe the deaths to be attributed to Mephedrone and that alone is deemed suitable clinical evidence to prompt the Tabloid press into a salacious frenzy of reporting about how this new killer drug needs to be banned.
In keeping with the other draconian and ineffective drug laws we have in this country, Mephedrone was always going to be banned eventually anyway. Nothing this good was ever going to remain legal forever. This case will simply expedite the process.
But what about the facts? As David Nutt, former Chief Drug Advisor to the Government found out recently to his peril, the facts are at best ignored and at worst can cost you your job.
There are far too many unanswered questions with this case to make any rational conclusion.
How much Mephedrone did they take? (Any chemical is dangerous if the correct dosage is ignored)
What if any other drugs were taken? (Alcohol certainly and reports are coming through that they were also taking Methadone, the Heroin substitute)
What was the actual cause of death?
Has the batch they took been lab tested?
This all smacks of the hysteria that was whipped up when E first hit the headlines in the early 90's. Everybody remembers the story of Leah Betts, who died taking an E at her own birthday party. (Strangely, nobody can recount the ONE high profile case of someone drinking themselves to death) It turned out that is was water, not the toxicity of the E that killed her. I don't think the Tabloid press ever ran this story though.
Yet the aforementioned Mr Nutt's advice when asked about Mephedrone recently, was that people would be better off taking MDMA (E) because it's been more thoroughly tested and is known to be relatively safe.
The one small problem here is that if you followed Mr Nutt's advice, you could end up in jail. Mephedrone is legal, available over the Internet and is about a fifth of the price. It's not quite as good as E, but hey, for a tenner a gram, it'll do.
This all points to the wider problem with our drug laws. Certainly the way Mephedrone is freely sold now is not the answer. Anybody of any age with access to a credit card can order a bag of white powder over the Internet which will arrive within a couple of days. It's labelled 'not for human consumption' so why would there be any dosage advice on the packet? And even if there was, how many people have electronic scales in their house to make sure they get their dosage right?
Yet prohibition doesn't work either. Now you still have all of the above problems, but you have to interact with criminals to get your supply and more than likely what you get is going to be cut with heaven knows what. You just hope it's something benign like talc (And it almost always is, by the way. It's not good for business to knowingly harm your customers).
People are going to take drugs. The Governments of the world have been fighting a losing battle for decades, yet drug use, particularly among young people continues to rise.
So the answer has to be decriminalisation, regulation and education. The supply can be tightly controlled to stop drugs easily getting into the hands of children in the same way alcohol and tabacco is now. Dosage information should be readily available and 'hits' sold in the correct doses to stop people making lethal mistakes. Honest and factual information should be presented to consumers to help them make informed choices about what they put in their bodies. And best of all for the Treasury, huge sums of tax revenue can be raised. Boy, do we need that right now.
Of course, it's never going to happen. We'll be fighting The War On Drugs probably as long as we're fighting the equally absurd War On Terror. No Government will risk upsetting Middle England with their Daily Mail drip fed blinkered view of the world - it would be political suicide.
So you have a choice. Take the police's advice and throw all your Mephedrone away and get yourself down to the local A&E, or quickly order as much as you can afford now, because once it's gone, it's gone.
