Sent to The Courier after the publication of this article about a Fife resident who died in connection with mephedrone:

“Dear Sir/Madam,

the recent spate of hospitalisations of people who have suffered medical emergencies after taking mephedrone, also known as mcat or bubbles, is a matter of great concern. However, I was troubled by the comment from Chief Superintendent Alistair McKeen that people should not try legal highs because they are unresearched. Indeed, there is very little, if any scientific research done on mephedrone and no-one has any idea of its long-term effects on the human body, although early signs suggest it is worse than ketamine or MDMA. But the reason people are taking mephedrone over ketamine and MDMA is because our government has made those two drugs illegal.

So instead of encouraging people to take care of their health and to ensure that whatever they do to their own bodies they do so in as safe a manner as possible, our drugs laws are actively encouraging people to take untested, unknown substances over well-researched chemicals that are objectively less lethal than horse-riding. This is a ludicrous situation to be in. We must cease our moralising as a nation and treat drug use as the health issue that it is instead of an excuse to lock up hedonists and the emotionally vulnerable.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah McCulloch

External Relations Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK
http://www.ssdp.org.uk”

See also this very interesting analysis from Liberalconspiracy.org about the media frenzy on mephedrone and how it’s factually dodgy: “The press and impossibility of legal highs“. Keep watching the press on this issue.

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