Mephedrone, the former "legal high" sometimes referred to as "meow meow", has become the clubbing scene's favourite drug in Britain, a recent research project shows.
A new paper published in the online version of the Journal of Substance Use found the drug was more popular than cocaine and Ecstasy among
clubbers - despite being made illegal in April last year.
The research, done by a team at Lancaster University, raises important questions about drugs policy and the impact of classification on substance use.
It has been suggested that legal highs have become popular because their use carries no criminal sanctions.
But Fiona Measham, a senior lecturer in criminology who led the research, said there was little evidence that making mephedrone illegal had affected its popularity.
Of the 308 people questioned in a survey at two clubs in south London one night last summer, 154 intended to use drugs that night - mephedrone was the most common drug, with 27 per cent planning to take it.
Mephedrone was found to be the second most commonly used drug in the past month and past year (41 per cent and 52 per cent respectively), with only cocaine being used more frequently (44 per cent and 59 per cent).
Its price appears to have remained stable since possession of it was criminalised, with a gram costing between £20 ($38) and £25.
Significantly, the findings did not suggest that users switched to other legal highs when the drug was made illegal. "Part of the legal highs debate is this idea that if you ban one, people move on to another," said Measham.
"But this didn't happen ... People don't take anything because it's legal, they take it because they like it."
The researchers suggested the rise in popularity of mephedrone might be partly down to deeper trends affecting the illegal drugs market.
They write: "The popularity of mephedrone suggested by this study should be placed in the national context of a recent reduction in the availability, purity, prevalence and associated deaths for established illegal drugs in Britain, such as Ecstasy and cocaine."
- Observer
