RSSeNEWS to be determined...

On the eve of the Government's introduction of a statutory instrument in Parliament to schedule mephedrone as a class B drug, professor Sheila Bird has highlighted how data from compulsory drugs testing (CDT) on British soldiers effectively dates the rise of the drug's use in place of cocaine and ecstasy.

In an article published on the Straight Statistics website, Bird commented that while the data, obtained by the Independent’s Michael Savage through a Freedom of Information request, did "not ‘prove’ that mephedrone was responsible for the sudden change it did "date the change pretty effectively".

She wrote that "retrospective testing for the presence of mephedrone in stored blood samples from drugs-related deaths in the winter semester of 2007/08; 2008/09; and 2009/10 could be highly informative."

Meanwhile, Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London has warned against 'rushing' the ban on mephedrone. In a piece for the Guardian's comment is free blog, Gardside said that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) had "been put in an impossible position" over its classification.

He described the "painstaking, detailed and time-consuming work" that the ACMD puts in before making its recommendation. But in the case of mephedrone, its "deliberations were mere window dressing" as the Home Office had already decided on a ban, he said.

Garside commented that "these are not normal times. We are in the middle of a mephedrone scare in the runup to a general election. The result of this toxic combination is the current farrago."