Clubbers are regularly taking the former legal high mephedrone alongside ecstasy and cocaine, a trend that experts warn could have grave health implications.
Mephedrone prices have more than doubled from around £10 a gram to between £20 and £25 since the drug was banned in April 2010. However, a new survey of more than 300 clubbers, conducted in south-east London shortly after the ban was introduced and published in the academic journal European Addiction Research, shows they are regularly adding mephedrone to their drug mix, in spite of the higher prices.
The research found that polydrug use was now the norm among clubbers, who are happy to mix legal, newly banned and established illegal club drugs. It indicates that criminalising drugs has little effect on consumption other than to provide new revenue streams for dealers selling established illicit substances. Experts say the findings are important because what happens on the club scene is often copied by wider society later on.
