Meow meow found to not be linked to teen deaths

[Truronian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/may/28/mephedrone-cleared-teenage-uk-deaths

Toxicology tests have reportedly found that two teenagers who were thought to have died as a result of taking mephedrone – leading to a successful campaign to ban it – had not taken the drug.

The deaths in March of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, contributed to a furore over mephedrone, which was at the time legal and being sold over the internet.

...

I feel sorry for the gardeners who can no longer use it as plant food...

 

[BCLG100]

Premature ban perhaps?!

 

[useless]

lolzers!

 

[Shekwan]

Since when has the health effects of drug use had anything to do with whether they are deemed legal or not?

 

[Oishi]

Since now.

 

[Labtec600]

Am I missing something here?

They ate fertilizer, which killed them, and so the fertilizer was banned? Can you not wash your floors with bleach either?

 

[GinandTonic]

1 - they didnt eat it.

2 - Its a variation on MDMA changed just enough to make it a legal substance. Not legal to sell as a drug obviously, hence being sold as something else.

Basically this was a text-book moral panic. They just ticked Cohen's tickboxes one by one.

 

[Labtec600]

So what did they do? It said they died as a result of taking it, "which prior to the ban was marketed as plant food with names such as Bubbles and M-Cat".

Was it not even supposed to be used as plant food?

 

[GinandTonic]

So what did they do? It said they died as a result of taking it, "which prior to the ban was marketed as plant food with names such as Bubbles and M-Cat".

Was it not even supposed to be used as plant food?

1 - Tox screen has demonstrated they did not take it.

2 - No it was never supposed to be used as plant/ fish food.

MDMA is illegial. Even a slight change in the structure of a designer drug means it is no longer the same chemical that has been proscribed. Therefore some bright spark made a new variation to MDMA that was not illegial.

Since the new chemical had not been approved for sale as a drug it could not legally be marketed as such. Fish/ plant food does not need approval. Thus the MDMA-like chemical could legally be sold as plant food. That does not make it plant food.

 

[Shaihulud]

Thats the drug thta supposedly caused that castration incident, isn't it?

 

[BCLG100]

Indeed it was.

 

[Abaddon]

Does anyone know the price chance since the ban?

 

[Truronian]

I didn't actually realise that it wasn't actually plant food... That'll teach me to read the tabloids at work. In that case surely selling it as plant food would have been a violation of the Trade Descriptions Act?

 

[Abaddon]

Well, in theory you could use it as plant food.. doesn't mean it will do anything for the plant!

 

[Truronian]

If it doesn't provide nutrients to the plant then it's not really food. If I swallow a penny that's not food either.

 

[Abaddon]

Well, it does provide nutrients, just not any really needed by the plant.

You could say the same about a lot of dietary supplements. We eat them, but they are not actually any use to our bodies.

 

[Truronian]

Well, it does provide nutrients, just not any really needed by the plant.

You could say the same about a lot of dietary supplements. We eat them, but they are not actually any use to our bodies.

And they're not marketed as food either. I very much doubt meow meow would have been legal to sell as plant food without actually fulfilling the role that plant food is meant to.

EDIT: I've looked it up; it seems that it was hypothesised that it might be illegal to sell as plant food, but the government banned it before any such case actually was formed.

 

[nonconformist]

Please stop calling it "meow meow". It's a name that's never been used except by he Sun and other tabloids.

 

[Truronian]

Please stop calling it "meow meow". It's a name that's never been used except by he Sun and other tabloids.

Good heavens, I had not realised this. Bloody insidious tabloids.

 

[Abaddon]

..it was in Brighton.