"Legal Highs" Not Common in Clubs But "Bath Salts" Are
Club goers are happy to stick with mephedrone as their drug of choice. In London clubs, many clubbers are not using legal highs and instead opt for mephedrone which was banned in 2010.
The club scene can be filled with many different types of drugs but like anything, there is a specific culture surrounding drug use and choice. In the study of London clubs, mephedrone was the drug of choice for getting high with cocaine use also being extremely prevalent. Just because there were "legal highs" available did not mean more people were using them.
The research on what drugs were being used in the club was led by researchers from Lancaster University, Kings College London and Guys and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and Kings Health Partners. Researchers questioned 313 individuals over the course of four nights in different clubs in South East London during the summer of 2011.
Many of the club goers, around 66 percent, had used "legal highs" such as synthetic cannabis like Spice or the ketamine derivative methoxetamine. In the last month however, mephedrone was the most popular drug among club goers. Around 53 percent of the 313 individuals used mephedrone in the last month with 41 percent using the drug on the night of the survey.
Cocaine use was also high with 45 percent of club goers using it within the last month and 17 percent using it on the night of the survey. Ecstacy/MDMA was prevalent but less common than cocaine or mephedrone with 27 percent of club goers using it within the last month and just six percent using it during the night of the study.
"Legal highs" were barely used with methoxetamine being the most used drug at two percent. Mephedrone was once considered a "legal high" until banned in 2010. While it has been banned it seems like the drug is the only one of the "legal highs" that has gained popularity and become part of the recreational drug scene.
Mephedrone may not seem to have the hit the mainstream radar but it has been making the news in quite severe ways during the last few months. While banned, mephedrone is sold as "bath salts" and "plant food" in the United States and in the United Kingdom to skirt the law. You can insert your own raver zombie joke here.
The study was published in the QJ Medical Journal.