Legal highs

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Someone like yourself who likes to take drugs is bound to be annoyed. You are a Pro-Drugs guys so are bound to get upset!

I am pro drugs. Look at the good that penicillin has done for our civilisation!

In all seriousness though, I don't think it's right that the government holds such tight control over an individuals own state of consciousness.

Another important point though - as a legal drug, mephedrone was being sold at close to 99% purity, through legitimate business websites.

There is quite clearly already a large market for the drug. Now that it will be illegal, the criminals will have a field day. They will up the price and start cutting the drug with other substances to increase their profit. That way, the drug really will be dangerous.

[peterb]

I am pro drugs. Look at the good that penicillin has done for our civilisation!

In all seriousness though, I don't think it's right that the government holds such tight control over an individuals own state of consciousness.

Another important point though - as a legal drug, mephedrone was being sold at close to 99% purity, through legitimate business websites.

There is quite clearly already a large market for the drug. Now that it will be illegal, the criminals will have a field day. They will up the price and start cutting the drug with other substances to increase their profit. That way, the drug really will be dangerous.

And penicillin can kill, if you have an allergy to it, which is one reason why it is a prescription only (and therefore controlled) drug, used under medical supervision.

It is also a therapeutic drug, but AFAIK, mephedrone has no therapeutic or clinical use - unless you happen to be a plant.

Other class B drugs and class A drugs also have therapeutic uses, morphine for example, and cocaine, which is why they can be used legally - provided they are prescribed by, and used under the supervision of, a registered medical practitioner.

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And penicillin can kill, if you have an allergy to it, which is one reason why it is a prescription only (and therefore controlled) drug, used under medical supervision.

It is also a therapeutic drug, but AFAIK, mephedrone has no therapeutic use - unless you happen to be a plant.

Other class B drugs and class A drugs also have therapeutic uses, morphine for example, and cocaine, which is why they can be used legally - provided they are prescribed by, and used under the supervision of, a registered medical practitioner.

Am I to take from this that you want any potentially 'non-therpeutic' harmful substance outlawed?

Just a note - mephedrone isn't actually plant food or anything - that was just a marketing ploy.

Do you disagree with my point about the effects of illegalising mephedrone?

[Lee H]

What makes me laugh is the knee jerky reaction by the media saying it's M-CAT's fault even though they mixed alcohol with methadone which is known to cause respiratory depression alone which is clearly highlighted on the packaging and also on various websites. I've got some opiates here in the form of oxycontin painkillers for my shoulder and it even warns about alcohol and the dangers of drinking with these tablets. Chuck into this mix some of this so called magic plant food and your going to have nothing but trouble.

Charlie Booker sums all this frenzy by the papers at the moment in the following article ;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...dangerous-drug

I understand people died, but when taking combinations and cocktails like this you somewhere along the line theres going to be trouble brewing.

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THere's a good article by New Scientist here -

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...html?full=true

This knee-jerk response may be unsurprising, but what is far from clear is whether criminalisation is the right thing to do to reduce drug harms. While mephedrone has been implicated in at least 27 deaths in the UK, it has been confirmed present in just 11 of these cases and at the time of writing found to be a contributing factor in just one. There is virtually no published research on how the substance affects the human body. Iversen himself recently admitted that "there is no data on toxicity that I could find"

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BTW - the deaths of the two boys in the OP is now being linked with Methedrone (heroin substitute)

[peterb]

<---snip Methedrone (heroin substitute)

Methadone - heroin/morphine/diamorphine substitute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone

Methedrone - a stimulant (and therefore completely different) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para-Methoxymethcathinone

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Methadone - heroin/morphine/diamorphine substitute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone

Methedrone - a stimulant (and therefore completely different) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para-Methoxymethcathinone

Sorry, a typo there. It was methadone.

[TAKTAK]

Mephadrone brings you up.
Methadone brings you down.

In other words, "Take this one to bring you up, it's MCAT, it's legal." and "This will bring you back down." Hence the 4 arrests, the arrests were due to supply of a controlled substance

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Mephadrone brings you up.
Methadone brings you down.

In other words, "Take this one to bring you up, it's MCAT, it's legal." and "This will bring you back down." Hence the 4 arrests, the arrests were due to supply of a controlled substance

I know, but I was more pointing out that a heroin substitute was allegedly used but everyone saw more fit to place the blame on mephedrone instead.

[TAKTAK]

I know, but I was more pointing out that a heroin substitute was allegedly used but everyone saw more fit to place the blame on mephedrone instead.

But how else can the media cause a frenzy?

Positive correlation between;
Selectively missing out information.

and a,

Massive sales increase.

It's the main reason that i never buy a paper or magazine, it's just full of biased rubbish.

As you well know .

News agencies really should print the full facts... But that doesn't sell.

It really hammered home just how wrong (and left me wondering just how often it happens) news can be when one of my friends was killed in a car accident, (pronounced dead at the scene) and the next day news outlets reported that 2 people were in a critical condition and one serious, i'd say dead is a little more than critical... Wouldn't you?

[Lucio]

What makes me laugh is the knee jerky reaction by the media saying it's M-CAT's fault even though they mixed alcohol with methadone which is known to cause respiratory depression alone which is clearly highlighted on the packaging and also on various websites. I've got some opiates here in the form of oxycontin painkillers for my shoulder and it even warns about alcohol and the dangers of drinking with these tablets. Chuck into this mix some of this so called magic plant food and your going to have nothing but trouble.

Charlie Booker sums all this frenzy by the papers at the moment in the following article ;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...dangerous-drug

I understand people died, but when taking combinations and cocktails like this you somewhere along the line theres going to be trouble brewing.

Ultimately though, it's because we already allow one toxic harmful drug to be sold in virtually unrestricted quantities that we have to ban the rest of them. Alcohol really doesn't mix well with virtually any other mood enhancing substance, nor in fact with vast arrays of medicine due to the way it breaks down. Whilst my medical knowledge is sketchy, basically most drugs either a) stay in the body longer if taken with alcohol as the liver prioritises it's metabolism or b) it chemically interacts with the drugs to produce new compounds (since alcohol is a powerful solvent)

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Ultimately though, it's because we already allow one toxic harmful drug to be sold in virtually unrestricted quantities that we have to ban the rest of them. Alcohol really doesn't mix well with virtually any other mood enhancing substance, nor in fact with vast arrays of medicine due to the way it breaks down. Whilst my medical knowledge is sketchy, basically most drugs either a) stay in the body longer if taken with alcohol as the liver prioritises it's metabolism or b) it chemically interacts with the drugs to produce new compounds (since alcohol is a powerful solvent)

Sure it does - people have been taking ecstacy and alcohol for years with relatively little harm.

[MadduckUK]

bump

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10184803.stm

hmm

[G4Z]

bump

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10184803.stm

hmm

Well...

I for one, am shocked..

[SeriousSam]

Looks like the cat is out of the bag