John Moores University located in Liverpool, England will be using fifty college students as human guinea pigs to test the adverse effects of the popular drug Mephedrone. Mephedrone can be snorted or dabbed on the tongue and its users experience a high much like the one experienced with cocaine, or ecstasy. The public health department at JMU won “ethical approval” to begin researching the drug with the help of students determined to get their legal weekend high. While the students are getting high they will communicate with the university academics, and describe their various mood swings with an adjective bar ranging from “sad” or “depressed” at the bottom to “euphoric” or “very happy” at the top. Further tests include matching objects to numbers and also a post-interview some days later to document their “come down”. The academics were keen to stress that they were not supplying the drug, but only documenting the effects of the students who were going to consume the drug anyway. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is to issue a report into a group of legal highs, including mepehdrone, at the end of the month.
Sources: “Students to report on effects of Mephedrone in university study”, Telegraph .co.uk, March 2010.
Student Researcher: Mubiyna Casarez
Faculty Instructor: Elliot Cohen, Ph.D.
Evaluator: Elliot Cohen, Ph.D.
Indian River State College