19 January 2010

"Meow Meow" - a new recreational drug


The name is certainly memorable.  Chemically, the formulation for mephedrone is 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC), or 4-MMCat, which obviously gave rise to the "meow meow" appelation.  It's also called "bubbles."

The drug is a stimulant of the amphetamine class and has not been banned (yet) because it is still under review and virtually untested.  It is illegal to sell it for human use, so it is sold over the internet as "plant food."

An article this past week in the Times lists some of the side effects and complications, including one apparent death, and a case of young man who in a state of disorientation ripped off his own scrotum.

For those interested, there is additional information in articles at Gawker, Faster Times, and Vice.

2 comments:

  1. When I read:
    "...my two daughters, aged 19 and 20, tell me that the stimulant Meow Meow has arrived in the area, and if it has reached our sleepy market town in the Cotswolds then I suspect it is in your neighbourhood as well."
    I thought.. Meow,Meow.. Cotswold? A joke?
    By the way, commenters on that article take great pains to mention that the apparent death was due to other causes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's a lot of scare stories about this stuff, just as there have been a lot of scare stories about Ecstasy over the years. The simple fact is that when care and caution are taken, and the source and supply is known, you're less likely to come to any harm taking mdma-analogues than you are taking unknown tablets from a shady character in the darkest corner of the bar.

    Seriously? Saying the drug is bad because some guy ripped his nuts off? Couldn't even BEGIN to count the number of stupid injuries and deaths caused by people consuming alcohol.

    ReplyDelete