Inquiries rise over mephedrone effects
ALMOST 5,000 inquiries were made by health workers last year about the damaging effects of the drug mephedrone on patients, new figures show.
Some 4,500 online and 292 telephone inquiries were received by the Health Protection Agency's National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) in 2009/2010, up from none in 2008/9.
Mephedrone, which was banned in April and classified as a class B drug, has rarely featured in NPIS inquiries in previous years.
But the latest data shows it was the most common recreational drug asked about on the phone in 2009/10 and the third most common in online inquiries, after MDMA and cocaine.