Hi, Frozen - Welcome to both BL
And welcome to the ongoing meph debate :D
You are quite right that I am a long way from being a clean living boy, my opinion of meph is not too high, that I give my opinions on it quite regularly and am often quite vociferous in the way I put them across. I would slightly dispute that I swear others off using it but that generally depends on the content and context of the post I'm responding to. I don't believe I have a "Just say no" approach but in response to the large numbers of members (frequently new to the site, the drug and often drugs in general) I try to point out that it's not quite the harmless wonderdrug that so many seem to think it is.
I make no bones about disliking it or that I find it a dull, vastly overrated and mostly unpleasant substance with far more negatives than positives. Many other members clearly do like it judging by the large number of gushing love letters to it all over the site. And also many for whom the honeymoon period is over and the messy separation and divorce is now setting in. We are all entitled to state out opinion and experience and no one is more important than the rest.
I do try to see the broader perspective and what I see are a lot of people taking vast quantities of a chemical they frequently know nothing about - even the name of it in many cases let alone anything else - with no idea of the possible risks. I point out there are some serious downsides (short term physical and mental issues, addiction etc), the growing weight of evidence (both subjective and objective) for it being toxic enough to be a real concern and point them in the direction of the relevant threads to make their own minds up.
Few specific responses:
"hundreds of thousands of punters are using the stuff the world over" - they are and the vast majority seem to be completely unaware of the potential dangers
"reports in the press linking mephedrone to overdoses and death have been shown to be knee-jerk reactions from the tabloids (Gabi Price, torn scrotum etc)" - I agree, have never claimed it has caused any confirmed deaths and frequently express my disgust at the shocking amount of misinformation the media puts forth.
"thus far, despite their best efforts, no-one has managed to top themselves yet on the stuff" - my understanding is that the concerns are mainly about cumulative, long term damage rather than acute toxicity.
"thus far, reports of overdoses and hospitalisation appear to be linked to lower-grade/incompletely-synthesised batches" - how could you possibly know that? I would be interested to hear more on this if you can provide some links to evidence that this is the case.
"But in SWIM's experience, when compared to stimulants such as methamphetamine or crack, mephedrone ranks fairly low in terms of toxicity." - again, how could your personal experience of a drug that has only existed for a couple of years know how toxic it is compared to any other drug? I say it's toxic and the evidence suggests that's most likely the case, quite how toxic is the unknown part.
"Bear in mind that in terms of dosage, it is half the strength per weight of MDMA, and roughly the same as that of amphetamine sulphate." - I don't know anybody who consumes multiple grams of MDMA or amphetamine on a daily or weekly basis but there are plenty of meph users who do. Besides, it's a rather arbitrary comparison, in my opinion. They are different drugs with different effects and levels of risk attached. The risks associated with the latter two are better understood and widely pointed out so at least people who use them are aware of the risk they are taking.
"...you believe that regardless of quality or purity, mephedrone should be relegated to the bin." - not quite. As far as I know the toxicity concerns are nothing to do with impurities (although they are obviously not a good thing either) but that mephedrone metabolises to form 4-methyl-ephedrine which is known to be a potent cardiotoxin - that is a fact not an opinion. Taking huge quantites on a regular basis (as so many do - especially those addicted) of a drug that the body converts to a chemical which causes serious heart damage is probably not a wise move and is something worth pointing out to those that don't know.
"many other drugs discussed here have a proven track record in terms of being highly toxic at low doses (eg: DOB) and yet suffer nowhere near the amount of bad press accorded mephedrone by yourself." - if DOB was being mass-marketed as a harmless fun drug and sold for next to nothing to anyone and everyone I would be pointing out its dangers at least as much. But its an obscure chemical used by few, widely disliked and its dangers are pointed out whenever its discussed.
"Regardless, there is not enough evidence yet to consign this new RC to the scrapheap as a sure-fire way to toxic doom quite yet." - I agree that it needs more research but would suggest it could also do with a lot less glorification too. Pointing out the risks it has to those who use it with no idea that there are any concerns at all isn't a bad thing either.
I hope that clarifies the reasons for pointing out the already known problems and the strongly suspected (with growing evidence to support) possible dangers of this drug. Anybody is free to put forward their opinions and evidence to the contrary too, of course. The one thing that everybody can agree on is that any drug with such a short history of use should be approached with caution and that more research is needed.