BACKGROUND: International media have been reporting about fatalities allegedly related to mephedrone, a popular recreational stimulant, but now a proportion of them have been confirmed. We aimed here at analyzing information relating to the circumstances of mephedrone-related deaths in the United Kingdom. METHODS: Descriptive analysis of information was mainly extracted from the UK National...
On the basis of the material available both in the scientific literature and on the web, this paper aims to provide a pharmacological, chemical and behavioural overview of the novel compound methoxetamine. This is a dissociative drug related to ketamine, with a much longer duration of action and intensity of effects. A critical discussion of the availability of information on the web of...
The fully synthetic 'legal high' 5,6-methylenedioxy-2-aminoindane (MDAI) is an analogue of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Although developed in the 1990s, it was not widely abused until 2010. However, mephedrone was banned in the UK in April 2010, and almost immediately, MDAI was widely advertised as a legal alternative. This paper provides both an overview of the current state of knowledge...
Based on the material available in both the scientific literature and on the web, the present paper provides an updated pharmacological, chemical, toxicological and behavioural overview of Bromo-Dragonfly (1-(8-bromobenzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']difuran-4-yl)-2-aminopropane; 'B-fly'). B-Fly is a powerful, long lasting, LSD-like, hallucinogenic drug, which has been associated with a number of acute...
Recently, those substances deriving from the active ingredient of the Khat plant, cathinone, have been rising in popularity. Indeed, 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone; 'meow meow' and others) has been seen by some as a cheaper alternative to other classified recreational drugs. We aimed here at providing a state-of-the-art review on mephedrone history and prevalence of misuse, chemistry,...
A vast array of substances are marketed as "legal highs" in the UK. These products are mainly marketed online and are packaged and produced to mimic illicit drugs. Little is known about the full range of products available at present and no studies have evaluated the product information provided to consumers. AIMS & HYPOTHESIS: To describe the available legal high products marketed by UK-based...
The market in licit recreational drugs is continuing to grow, both in the UK and elsewhere, and the internet has been acknowledged as a key factor in enabling this rapid expansion over the last few years. This is particularly true of the recent rise in popularity of the substance mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) and related cathinones. Keeping up to date with these new drugs and emerging...
Increase in recreational ketamine use may be a cause for concern. We aimed here at assessing, in a sample of ketamine misusers, concordance between the typical near-death experience (NDE) features and the on-drug psychoactive effects the subjects experienced. In 2003-2005, a sample of previous ketamine misusers recollecting a ketamine-related NDE were recruited through snowballing and screened...
The aim of the study was to foster the collection and analysis of data from web pages related to information on the consumption, manufacture and sale of Spice products, a brand name for an herbal smoking blend, sold as legal substitute for cannabis. The Google search engine was used to carry out an 8-language qualitative assessment of information available on Spice products in a sample of about...
Although the Internet is a growing source of information on MDMA/ecstasy, no studies so far have investigated the level and quality of ecstasy information available to the typical Web user. In the present study, 280 Web sites were identified and analyzed; 50.4% had an anti-drug approach, 16.2% a harm reduction approach, and 24.8% a pro-drug approach. MDMA pro-drug Web sites appeared...
The German pages of the Internet were searched for the presence of the hallucinogenic herbal drug Salvia divinorum, which is not dealt with in current addiction medicine or psychiatric text books. The investigation is part of the EU sponsored project "Psychonaut" as preparatory work for the development of an Internet-based early warning system. The first 100 websites of the search using "Salvia...
In the last decade, a global trend of escalating ecstasy (MDMA, MDA, MDEA, MBDB) use was observed. Mentions on medical death certificates, last year's ecstasy use, number of drug offenders, seizures, prices and dosage levels figures were used for this descriptive and correlational study. Figures (1994ñ2003) were taken from the UK General Mortality Registers, from the Home Office Statistical...
It is likely therefore that cognitive impair-It is likely therefore that cognitive impairment was present in many.Hence the ment was present in many.Hence the 'personality subtypes' identified may vanish 'personality subtypes' identified may vanish on refeeding, or may be more pronounced, on refeeding, or may be more pronounced, having been masked by cognitive blunting.having been masked by...
2C-T-7 ('Blue Mystic'), an illicit compound which shows similarities with MDMA and other designer drugs, has been only occasionally identified in the EU, but discussion on the Internet between experimenters has recently grown significantly. We aimed at collecting together in a review the available information on 2C-T-7, both at the cyber and at the street market level. 2C-T-7 was first...
The issue of ecstasy-related fatalities has extensively attracted the attention of both the media and the general public, but less so of the scientific literature. The aim of the present review is to focus on the epidemiological, clinical and pharmacological issues related to ecstasy fatalities. Possibly due to a number of different reasons, the rates of ecstasy-related deaths seem to have...
Abstract The present study reports on all deaths related to taking ecstasy (alone, or in a polydrug combination) occurring in England and Wales in the time frame August 1996–April 2002. Data presented here are based on all information recorded in the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (np‐SAD) database. The np‐SAD regularly receives all information on drug related deaths in addicts...
The present paper attempts to give an updated overview of the magnitude of the phenomenon of ecstasy abuse in Italy and other European countries. It gives an account of some clinical case studies and of a larger-scale report on polydrug (including MDMA) consumers attending our Public Health Addiction Treatment Unit in recent years, with a view to clarifying the characteristics and...