In the latest episode of The War On Drugs—our show tracking the ebbs and flows of the global narcotics scene (and the lawmakers desperate to kill it)—VICE visits Georgia to meet a variety of people all using the same wildly popular drug in different ways.
Mephedrone first appeared in the nostrils of partygoers in the US and UK around 2009, when you could buy huge quantities of it online for basically nothing, or at least far less than equivalent amounts of cocaine and MDMA cost at the time. Mephedrone is often described as a combination of those two clubland perennials: euphoric like ecstasy, underpinned by the boundless energy and alertness of coke. For a while, it was huge—and then it faded away.
Videos by VICE
Today, in North America and Western Europe, mephedrone is mainly the drug of choice in niche circles—yet in Georgia and Eastern Europe, it’s booming, to the point where users we spoke to in our film described it as a “pandemic” tearing across that part of the continent.
Here’s VICE’s Alexi Phillips, who directed the film, to explain why that is the case.
Watch the film in the player below or at the VICE YouTube channel now.
Mephedrone in the UK kind of boomed around 15 years ago and then gradually fell away. Why is it still so prominent in Eastern Europe?
Alexi Phillips: I think because it’s cheap, easy to produce, and more pure than other drugs available on the market there as it’s made locally and doesn’t require a sophisticated lab. Drugs like MDMA or coke are way more expensive and more diluted in Eastern Europe.
Is there anything about current Georgian society or its culture that you think makes it ripe for a mephedrone epidemic?
It’s a great rave drug, as it’s meant to be a little bit like a mix of coke and MDMA. The Georgians love a rave and many claim it has the best rave scene in Europe.
What do the users in the film do when they’re not buzzed on M-CAT? Do they hold down jobs? To what extent do their entire lives revolve around mephedrone use?
All the people we filmed with held down jobs and lived quite normal lives. Basically, it’s taken over the regular, recreational drug-user marketplace and is now moving into the problematic drug-user space more and more, because you get more bang for your buck.
How are the Georgian authorities trying to tackle mephedrone use?
They’re giving out harsh sentences to users but they aren’t doing much about tackling the organized crime groups that produce and distribute it, many of which are Russian.
Mephedrone has always been a kind of a snort-y drug. Surely people shouldn’t be injecting it?
Yeah, I mean it’s not good for you to inject it but they dissolve it first so it’s just like injecting any drug. The big health harm there is the frequency of injection, which has an alarming health impact. Some people are injecting every few minutes as they chase a high.
Famously, mephedrone makes you quite amorous, right? Was there any discussion with the people in the film about those effects?
Yeah, it’s used a lot in chemsex scenes. Our users did mention that it’s really good for that.
Watch ‘How Mephedrone Conquered the Eastern Europe’ at VICE’s YouTube channel now.
