EU to ban meow meow

The EU has moved in to ban the production and marketing of mephedrone, a substance found in fertilisers being used as an ecstasy-like drug across Europe.

The move comes just a few weeks after Malta legislated against the drug, known on the streets as meow meow.

The ban at EU level may help slow the movement of the drug across Europe, especially since it is still widely sold over the internet as plant fertiliser. The substance is not banned in 12 member states including Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Portugal, where most drug use is decriminalised anyway.

The EU has decided to submit a formal proposal to declare the drug illegal across the board.

“Mephedrone is a dangerous drug available online and on the street corner. People have already died because of this drug, so I urge governments to move fast to control and criminalise it,” Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said yesterday. “We have a responsibility to protect young people against dangerous new psychoactive substances like mephedrone.”

It is now up to the 27 member states to decide on whether to accept the Commission’s proposal.

Two confirmed fatalities were directly and conclusively attributed to mephedrone in the EU but at least 37 deaths in the UK and Ireland alone have been linked to the drug, which was detected in post mortem samples.

The Commission said mephe­drone was a stimulant whose physical effects were comparable to those produced by ecstasy (MDMA) or cocaine. It is mostly sold as powder but also as capsules or tablets.

A scientific risk assessment carried out by the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) showed that mephedrone can cause acute health problems and lead to dependency. It has no established medical value or other known legitimate purpose.

Apart from Malta, the use of the drug is already illegal in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK.

In Malta, the use of meow meow was first detected on the party scene at the end of 2009.