Mephedrone and other synthetic cathinones: A drug group on the rise
Tuesday, 17 December, 2024.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash.
A few weeks ago, NSW Health and NUAA issued a drug alert around a high-dose MDMA pill containing a synthetic cathinone. But cathinones are not just appearing as adulterants. People are beginning to see them as desirable drugs in their own right. Synthetic cathinones, such as 3-MMC and 4-MMC, are exploding in popularity in Europe, particularly in club, rave, festival and chem-sex settings. It is probably only a matter of time before the trend hits Australia.
Users News is here to give you some tips on how to use this emerging group of drugs safely.
A quick history of synthetic cathinones
Cathinone is a substance that occurs naturally in khat, a plant that people chew in eastern Africa and southern Arabia as a mild stimulant. “Synthetic cathinones” are a family of niche lab-made stimulant drugs that mimic the effects of MDMA and meth. They’re much stronger than khat. People often describe the effects as sitting somewhere between coke and molly (MDMA). They can be dangerous, particularly when taken in combination with other drugs.
Synthetic cathinones are usually snorted, but some people inject them and others cap them up to swallow. They also come as pressed pills. The most well-known synthetic cathinone is mephedrone. It is also called m-cat or meph. But there are dozens and dozens of different synthetic cathinones out there.
Synthetic cathinones appeared on the radar of authorities in the late ’00s. At the time, they were completely legal, advertised as plant food and extremely cheap. So many people were ordering the drugs online that, according to one 2010 study, it was the fourth most popular drug in the UK. One keen party drug user, Jim*, recounted to Users News an eye-opening ritual. His mate would buy huge bags of mephedrone, tip them onto a table and draw pictures and letters with the powder before railing lines. That’s how cheap and accessible it was.
A wave of sensationalist news stories quickly condemned the drug craze, dubbing the drugs “bath salts”, and most national governments made them illegal. It was a rare example where prohibition largely worked (in the narrow sense that mephedrone use did drop considerably).
In the last few years, however, there has been a global resurgence in synthetic cathinones. Synthetic cathinones, such as 3-MMC and 4-MMC, aka mephedrone, M-cat or bath salts, are now all over Europe. Ali*, who recently travelled all across Europe and Africa for 6 months, following the doof circuit over there and DJing at raves, tells Users News that you’re just as likely to find someone snorting a line of mephedrone, or what they think is mephedrone, as a line of ket in party spaces. While this is just an anecdotal observation, media reports suggest these drugs are flooding Berlin nightlife scenes and popular at chem-sex parties. A recent Vice documentary, meanwhile, has suggested that people are increasingly starting to inject mephedrone in Eastern Europe.
Although it’s still very rare, we’ve noticed mephedrone starting to pop up in Australia in the last couple of years. These drugs don’t seem to be as prevalent here as they are in Europe but they are certainly here. Enough people seem to be using them that wastewater testing in Australia, conducted around the New Year festive period between 2019 and 2022, detected a range of synthetic cathinones for the first time.
Recent drug alerts across Australia suggest they’re also appearing as unexpected substances, especially in drugs sold as MDMA, speed and ice.
A couple of weeks ago, we also published an anonymous field report from a community member, who roamed through the crowd at Dragon Dreaming Festival, an iconic Australian bush doof, testing people’s drugs under the radar with home reagent testing kits. While the data is based on a small sample size, only 31 samples, one sample expected to be ketamine likely contained a synthetic cathinone. This harm reduction crusader was unfortunately unable to determine which specific synthetic cathinone as DIY test kits can’t reveal this level of detail. But it’s a reflection of Australia’s evolving drug landscape.
A particularly interesting case of synthetic cathinones being mis-sold as another drug is goey, which is extremely rare in Australia these days. It’s an illicit amphetamine in powder form, although sometimes more of an off-white paste. Produced by local bikie gang cooks, amphetamine sulphate, aka goey, aka whizz, once fuelled ’90s gabber raves, late night hospo venues and long-haul truck journeys. But the rise of methamphetamine, a far more potent and profitable amphetamine, since the ’00s has largely taken over the amphetamine market. There’s not much financial incentive for organised crime groups to manufacture or sell goey anymore, at least not in Australia. These days trying to source goey is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you do find it, it’s likely diluted crushed up ice — or synthetic cathinones.
Jim, a mephedrone enthusiast, reports buying goey in Australia and testing the drug with a home testing kit that apparently distinguishes between bath salts. It turns out it was likely actually a combo of 4-MMC and methylone. Both are synthetic cathinones. He also says, when he’s bought speed (goey) online a couple of times, these batches, he suspects, also contained synthetic cathinones.
Our harm reductive advice
The usual harm reduction advice for party drugs applies here. Start low and go slow. Don’t redose until well after you’ve felt the effects of the first bump, line or hit.
As with other stimulants, if you’re drinking alcohol and doing bath salts, you may feel less drunk, meaning you can drink far more.
Mixing synthetic cathinones with uppers, such as MDMA, coke or ice, can trigger anxiety and heart strain, leading to a seizure in high doses. Note: people who have use synthetic cathinones report that they’re less euphoric and psychedelic than MDMA and that the effects wear off more quickly. Since synthetic cathinones are often mistakenly sold as MDMA. This can lead to people re-dosing more frequently than is advisable, increasing the risk of harm.
In high doses, synthetic cathinones will cause extreme energy, insomnia, anxiety, an irregular heartbeat and possibly psychosis. An overdose can involve chest pain, seizures, hallucinations and cardiac arrest (a heart attack). It is vital you or someone around you immediately calls an ambulance if you feel unwell after taking these drugs. Ambulance services will never punish you for having illegal drugs in your system.
Some common mental health medications, especially antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and trycyclic antidepressants (TCAs), may increase the negative side effects of synthetic cathinones. These medications impact your serotonin levels, the chemical in your body that influences your mood and happiness. Since synthetic cathinones cause your body to flood with serotonin, making you feel euphoric, the come down or crash in the days after using these drugs can be even worse. Your depleted serotonin level can leave you feeling really mentally unstable, so we advise you avoid synthetic cathinones if you’re on antidepressants. It’s just not worth it.
Lastly, there are literally hundreds of known synthetic cathinones out there, so it’s really hard to know which one you’re taking and the strength of different cathinones varies significantly. If you think you have a synthetic cathinone, it’s worth taking your gear to a legal drug checking service. You can then do a deep dive online to find out more about your specific cathinone. Online drug forums, such as Erowid, bluelight.org and Reddit are really helpful, as is Psychonaut Wiki. Unfortunately, Australia only currently has 3 legal drug testing facilities – one in Canberra, one in the Gold Coast and one in Brisbane. So this is easier said than done.
Beware the strong binge potential
Synthetic cathinones can be highly pleasurable drugs. Many people love the euphoria and the way these drugs help them socialise. It’s important to push back against past media scare campaigns. They can certainly be used responsibly.
One word of caution, however. In terms of scientific research, almost nothing is known about the addictiveness of different synthetic cathinones or the long-term effects of abusing this family of drugs.
Both Jim and Ali comment on the fiendiness of synthetic cathinones. They’ve witnessed this firsthand. From peer reports we’ve heard, these synthetic cathinones often tend to be used in combination with ket and GHB in night clubs and illegal raves. The synthetic cathinone and GHB combo especially creates a very intense short-term high with long-lasting underlying energy from the synthetic cathinone, meaning it’s easy to end up going really hard. This drug combo has started to cause tension in European nightlife communities where many feel the hedonism has now gone too far.
Jim, who travels semi-regularly to Berlin to lap up the city’s notorious nightlife, says he first noticed that mephedrone had entered the Berlin party scene on a big scale in 2019. It was mephedrone (4-MMC) that arrived first, then 3-MMC, then 3-CMC. Drug checking services in Berlin now suggest that there’s an increasingly more diverse mix of different synthetic cathinones in European drug markets.
Visiting Berlin again this year, Jim noticed one thing especially about the synthetic cathinones available: “the cycle of consumption is getting shorter and shorter. This year at some points we’d do big lines and then literally within 7 to 8 minutes on the dancefloor we would want to go back to the toilet. I started timing this with my phone because it was crazy.”
“It can’t just have been tolerance because I hadn’t done any since the year before,” Jim continues.
“It would make sense that suppliers are testing new variants of the drugs and that bingier drugs drive the market. They sell better. And yes that is demonstrated by the fact that my friend sells 4 or 5 times more mephedrone than anything else.”
Peer reports suggest it’s really easy to smash through a bag of synthetic cathinones. If you’re craving it all the time and paying $200 for a bag, it’s important to note it’s going to hit your wallet hard.
What if I’m injecting a synthetic cathinone?
We don’t think people injecting synthetic cathinones in Australia is a that common, but it is certainly happening across Europe.
The effects are even stronger when you inject. Some documented side effects of injecting synthetic cathinones include body spasms or wobbles, paranoid delusions, psychosis, aggression and intense cravings for the drug.
The usual harm reduction advice applies if you’re injecting a synthetic cathinone. Blood-borne viruses, such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, are passed on through blood-to-blood contact, so reusing and sharing fits can spread these illnesses. It’s vital you use a fresh needle whenever possible. At the very, very least, you need to disinfect and clean injecting equipment thoroughly, before and after using it. But you can pick up clean equipment from needle exchanges and syringe dispensing machines. There are 4,159 needle and syringe program (NSP) services across Australia!
We have previously published guides and resources providing harm reduction advice around blood-borne viruses, vein care and hep C testing. Here is a list of some of them for further reading.
https://www.usersnews.com.au/home/tourniquet-refresher-course-the-why-the-how-and-the-pitfalls
https://www.usersnews.com.au/home/2020/12/1/protect-your-veins
If you’re worried you might have had shared a sharp with someone with hepatitis C, go get tested for hep C. NUAA’s Surry Hills NSP (345 Crown Street) offers free hep C testing between midday and 3pm, Tuesdays to Fridays. The service is provided by staff whose lived and living experience of injecting drugs which means they’re non-judgemental and understanding. In NSW, you can even go online and get a home testing kit sent to you. To get more information (confidentially) about hep C testing and treatment, call NUAA’s PeerLine on 1800 644 413.
* Names changed to protect these individuals’ identities.