Has anyone heard of this taking off in their area? Apparently its some kind of legal high suddenly become very popular here in sunny Calderdale! FRANK website has this:
Mephedrone/MCAT. A stimulant drug with effects similar to MDMA producing euphoria, alertness, talkativeness and feelings of empathy. It can also cause anxiety and paranoid states and risk overstimulating the heart and nervous system to cause fits. Severe nosebleeds have been reported after snorting. Mephedrone has been linked to the death of a young woman in Sweden in 2008. A white or off-white powder usually sold on the internet as a legal high and described as a plant food or a research chemical not for human consumption. Sometimes mixed with other cathinones and caffeine. It is usually snorted or swallowed. Reports say that it can be compulsive to use and creates a state of psychological dependence Methylone Very similar to mephedrone. Methedrone Similar effects to mephedrone

I am rather troubled by the similar sound of those last two drugs to our dear friend methadone

It is worryingly similar in name. Perhaps we should revert to Adolphine?

had a gap in my surgery, so looked up "Adolphine".. and after a detour via "A Dolphin" sites (picturesque) found this.(below) I don't get so many people these days who refer to methadone as a Nazi plot, but "back in the day" it was a frequent reason people gave for avoiding the stuff..

""For the reasons given above, it is dishonest to state that “methadone” had widely been used during the war as a painkiller and a substitute for morphine under the trade name Dolophin (Dolophine), allegedly derived from Hitler’s first name Adolf. Also, stating that Amidon had been called Adolfin (Adolphine) among soldiers and civilian people is entirely unfounded. In fact, the name Adolphine was created in the US in the early 1970s:
“The invention of the term ‘Adolphine’ by New York City street linguists in the 1970s was an apparent attempt to discredit methadone treatment by those unsympathetic to it, using the Hitler association” (BYRNE 1995, 20; see also KLEBER 2002).
http://www.indro-online.de/historymethadone.htm

I've not come across mention of M-cat around here yet.. luckily we tend to be Late Adopters in Birmingham.

actually dolophine came from the latin (or greek) dolor (pain) fin (end) according to the methadone briefing.

OK Simon hands up its French!

quote:

hands up

I'm still going to shoot you.

Hi Jim.
How you doing?
I was out with the ex-Trafford crew the other night.
Give me a call sometime.

Cheers
Simon

Probably a misuse of expensive bullets - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone

quote:

Originally posted by Simon Morton:
[QUOTE]hands up

I'm still going to shoot you.
"The drug was given the trade name Dolophine from the LATIN dolor meaning pain (Cf. Dipidolor for piritramide, Dolantin for pethidine, and the "-dol" or "-phine" ending in so many trade and chemical names for analgesics of all types in German, English, French, and other languages)"

Just thought I would ask the omniscient Wikipdia about M-Cat, and here it is (otherwise known as "meow" among other things apparantly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephedrone

I have asked a clubbing patient who assures me that it is in fact available in birmingham (I think its me that's a "late adopter" not my patients, who are very trendy)

He is going to ask for the names of the several other designer medications available.. he says there seem to be 2 or 3 with similar names around, and also ketamine has crept out of the gay nights, and the club have to put people neatly into corners and let them sleep it off. Sounds very hair raising for club managers. He did not know of any talk of problematic users, just social users, but promises to report back.
They only had folk clubs when i was young.