Pow ! to Meow Meow ?

Mephedrone or ‘Meow Meow’ as the media labelled it, was banned in Britain in April 2010- lets look at the effects this had on use, quality and price.

According to last year’s Mixmag survey, 75% of people said they had taken mephedrone since the ban (April 15th 2010) with a third of them saying the ban had no effect. A mere 10% had said use had increased while others were using Cocaine and Ecstasy instead.

Sourcing mephedrone after the ban became a problem. Prior to the ban, friends, websites and headshops were easy places to buy. However, users struggled to pick up the product with dealers controlling the supply. 40% of people reported that they stopped or drastically reduced their use after it was outlawed. Sold on the street, prices doubled from around £10 up to £20. At the same time, users thought purity dropped. Before the ban participants thought purity was excellent with 60% claiming it pretty much rocked. After the ban just 7%!

So, outlawing mephedrone restricted access, caused prices to surge and quality to drop drastically. So was banning mephedrone the right thing to do? Or have we just criminalised mephedrone users pushing them to use other substances from ‘shadier’ people?