Fewer erections? Less euphoria? Lazy eyes? An ulcerated nose? Bad skin? Nosebleeds? More paranoia? Alex Palumbo reports how the gay scene’s honeymoon period with Mephedrone is somewhat over, and ponders the impending ticking time bomb of what the substance is doing to our long term health…

I’d been awake for three days now. My pupils dilated. Heart pumping and head tight. 

*sniff * 

I look down at my hands, my finger tips were dark, so were my knuckles… Fuck, my mouth is so dry. Did someone call my name? My skin is even drier. 

Shh! No seriously, someone outside is talking about me. Listen! 

My nose stings, it’s tender and raw inside. The ulcers covering the edges of my tongue hurt when I press them against my teeth, which is every two seconds.   

*sniff *  

Why are they talking about me? Have I done something wrong? Keys back in pocket, ready to go. 

A typical weekend on meph. 

Mephedrone is to East Africa what cocaine is to South America, and I’m not talking about dirty cash. So, before we start thinking drug cartels and stunning Peruvian bachelor pads housing drug washing sites, let’s start thinking more along the lines of 500 workers over a vat of bubbling fluid. Similar to the primary ingredient found in ‘khat’, a plant chewed in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, Mephedrone (scientifically known as 4-methylmethcathinone) is like MDMA and cocaine in its effects.

It is manufactured in places where large-scale pseudo-legal chemical synthesis is not as tightly controlled, or quality tested. Mephedrone managed to slide its way past the scope of UK drug laws by being cunningly different. It was like an already well-known and controlled drug… but not.

By adding a few extra molecules to cathinone, in this case a methyl ring, clubbers across the country were now able to gorge themselves and relish in the new and ‘safe’ alternative to ‘ecstasy’ and MDMA, which was either harder to find or lacking in quality. Besides, who wants a potential scrap with the law when you’ve got something legal you can snort? You go gurrrl! *whips hair*

In time, the underground rumbling heard from the distance was no doubt mephedrone related excitement, with eyes rolling to the back of our heads and white foam collecting in the corners of our mouths we asked in foul breath, “How is this plant food getting us so high?”

It’s simple, in order to be legal, someone somewhere took something illegal, altered it’s physical state ensuring that its effects were still relatively potent and in the interest of earning a dollar, blasted it out to unwitting clubbers who just held open their noses and mouths without any prior research.

Subsequently, following a string of mephedrone related deaths and some pretty bad press, it was made illegal.

Working in similar ways to cocaine and MDMA in our brains, it activates reward centres causes us to feel alert, good and not so hungry. A single oral dose of mephedrone may be as seemingly innocuous as an ‘e’, but it no doubt carries a boatload more risk when snorted in the multiple gram scale. Who knew you needed so much powder to get high? You don’t! You’re just being plain greedy. Not to mention when mixed with a cocktail of other illegal drugs and no sleep.

“When your tolerance has gone from one bag a weekend to one bag in four lines, it’s a clear sign that the party is over.”

The legality of mephedrone caused a somewhat disconcerting state of ignorance as far as wondering why you or your mates’ fingers were turning purple, or why your heartbeat kinda hurt. (“OMG! It just happens, but it’s fine, because we’re still high!”) Others noticed a distinct pattern in repeated high dosage and negative side effects. Mental side effects reported by some ranged from feelings of persecution, thinking friends were texting about you, people on the dance floor were talking about you, and general looking over the shoulder nonsense.

If we compare mephedrone to its not so distant cousin cathinone, a highly addictive stimulant bearing almost identical properties, is it safe to say that the effects would generally go side-by-side? Mental alertness, tick. Decreased appetite, tick. Euphoria, tick. Jaw clenching, tick. Impotence, tick. Urge to re-dose, tick. Cravings, tick. Paranoia, tick. Psychosis, tick. It’s no wonder we love this chemical so much! As we continue to ‘dance’ around our favourite nightclubs off our tits, we should also be wondering how we’re gonna match our favourite white trainers to our now blueish kneecaps.

Aside from boys with mucousy polo-rings instead of nostrils, and dicks that don’t even deserve a title so grand, resembling a somewhat partially deflated indigo balloon, snorting mephedrone is bad for you. Not just ‘Talk to Frank’ patronising bad for you, its vasoconstrictive properties are not yet established as only a short term side effect. Neither has its neurotoxicity. Colder hands each winter? Fewer erections? Less euphoria? Lazy eyes? An ulcerated nose?  Nosebleeds? Bad skin? More paranoia?

“Who knew you needed so much powder to get high? You don’t! You’re just being plain greedy.”

Let’s face the fact that the honeymoon period with meph is somewhat over.

There is no safe way to take any illegal substance, but taking it orally and a few hours apart might be the difference between looking like a cyst out of a Victorian travelling circus, unable to hold a conversation, eyes streaming over red noses and the dignified clubber enjoying an altered state of consciousness. Let’s not forget to feed and water the garden either, and get plenty of sleep between and during binges. Its use now not only limited to eating and snorting, people have tried smoking, booty-bumping and, shockingly, injecting (or ‘slamming’) it.

So has the bar been lowered? Is it possible for anything to protrude out from the shadows cast by GBL/GHB and Crystal Meth?

Making yourself more aware of its properties, effects and potential long term side effects (as it hasn’t been around long enough for anyone to do any research) will better equip you with the ammunition you need to stand by your decision. For every positive experience, there’s a negative one. For every couple hundred clubbers enjoying it, someone dies or is hospitalised. When your tolerance has gone from one bag a weekend to one bag in four lines, it’s a clear sign that the party is over. Give yourself at least two weeks for your brain to re-calibrate its current location, re-fill its neurotransmitter stockpile and maybe you’ll have the foresight to go light on this one.

If you keep having repeated feelings of paranoia, don’t keep dosing. This could be a sign of you developing amphetamine psychosis. Drug induced psychosis has been shown to permanently alter the frontal lobe of the brain, causing changes in mood and brain chemistry.

Allowing mephedrone to become yet another problem for our already fragile gay community is not something any of us had on our to-do list.

• QX does not condone taking any illegal substance. But if you are going to do so, be informed.
• Websites like www.erowid.com provide propaganda free info on mephedrone including all drugs, illicit and pharmaceutical, with experience reports from users ranging from religious to damaging.
• If you or someone close to you needs help with drug addiction, please contact www.antidote-lgbt.com