VISION EXCLUSIVE
Students are at serious risk after reported uses of a new drug MKET around and off-campus.
The dangerous drug, also known as ‘roflcoptr’ or ‘sexy-mexy’, is freely available online as it falls into the drugs “grey-market”.
However, MKET explicitly states it is not for human consumption on its packaging.
Priced at around £17 per gram, less than half the average street price of cocaine, the drug is “much cheaper than a normal night out and affordable for students like us,” one University of York self-confessed addict told Vision.
The increased use means MKET has become easily obtainable, making it a popular choice among students.
The drug is largely being used as an alternative to ketamine, with users reporting similar unsettling and hallucinogenic effects.
Given MKET’s superior potency in comparison to ketamine, this represents a particular danger as unsuspecting users are left vulnerable to overdose.
STUDENTS RECOUNT DRUG HELL
A new drug, ‘MKET’, is spreading around campus, despite concerns over its serious side effects.
Vision has uncovered numerous cases of abuse and misuse of the dangerous drug from University of York students.
A second-year student, who wished to remain anonymous, relayed her horrific ‘MKET’ experience in York to Vision reporters.
“One moment I started uncontrollably vomiting, the world started throbbing and my eyes rolled back into my head.”
“I started panicking […] I have about three hours where I blacked out. When I came back I had bitten through my lip.”
A warning has already been issued by psychopharmacologist, Dr. Valerie Curran, from University College London, on the use of such new drugs.
“People are playing Russian-roulette when they take something like this because there has been no research on its effects,” she said.
A first-year Derwent resident who has tried the drug and preferred to remain anonymous, told Vision: “My friends and I bought what I thought was ketamine in Leeds, however it quickly became apparent that it was something else.”
“About ten minutes after taking it, mild hallucinations began unlike anything ketamine had ever produced. The surprise was such that my friends and I had to immediately leave the club.”
Another second-year student reported similar experiences.
“I was surprised to find that after taking what I thought was ketamine, I did not lose my ability to talk or move properly.”
“Instead, I found myself honestly questioning whether the little monkey on the front of the Coco Pops cereal box wanted to fight me. I can’t quite decide whether it was on the right or wrong side of weird.”
National drugs awareness organisation FRANK has reiterated this danger. The lack of research means that no suitable advice can actually be given.
When asked by Vice magazine to provide advice for users of methoxetamine, more commonly known as ‘roflcoptr’ or ‘MKET’, the underground ‘pharmacist’ – stylised as “M” – behind the drug said “if people had responsibility then that would be enough, but unfortunately some people just don’t know the meaning of the word”.
Whilst ‘MCAT’ was banned in the UK in 2010, it is legal to possess ‘MKET’ in the UK due to drug legislation loopholes that are yet to be plugged.
The ability to sell ‘MKET’ online has resulted in some unusual drug marketing techniques.Prominent distributors of the drug have their own Facebook page, Twitter feed and even merchandise (including baseball caps and t-shirts).
This rare approach has clearly yielded effective results with the website announcing on its Facebook page on the 26th of January 2012 that it had temporarily sold out of the drug.
With information and public awareness still low, it is unclear how long the drug will remain legal. In 2010 mephedrone was made illegal having been linked with over 50 deaths. The impact of the media frenzy was such that the illegalisation of the drug was inevitable.
With a Guardian Drugs Survey inquiring into ‘MKET’ already underway, media interest is sure to rapidly increase, thus leaving the future of the drug in doubt.
The rise in ‘MKET’s popularity was well illustrated in a 2011 report by The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction on ‘Legal Highs’. The report stated that the number of ‘MKET’ distributors online had risen from just 14 in January to 58 in July. This was by far the largest increase compared to any other synthetic substance monitored.
YUSU Welfare Officer Bob Hughes told Vision, “Students should be very aware of what they are offered and are taking. Although these highs may currently be legal, they’re not always safe, and you can’t always guarantee that they won’t have negative consequences.”
“If you are concerned about your own, or a friend’s, use of drugs, including these legal highs, you can talk confidentially to YUSU and University support services like the Advice and Support Centre, Nightline or Open Door.”
Doctor Angela Cottrell, who is researching the link between ketamine and bladder damage at the Bristol Urological Institute warned, “People need to be more aware of this. The short term effects can be severe enough but we just don’t know what the long term effects are.”
Police are warning the public not to take any form of the drug, after a 59-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, were found dead over the weekend after ketamine overdoses.
