Police warn of rise of mephedrone following GTA bust

The drug is called meow-meow and British club-goers have taken to it like a kitty to cat-nip, hospitalizing dozens and leaving lawmakers scrambling to legislate it out of existence.
Now it’s Canada’s turn.
On Tuesday, a drug bust conducted throughout the Greater Toronto Area netted four kilos of mephedrone, the main culprit in England’s recent legislative drug war. Authorities here were so unfamiliar with the narcotic, an off-white powder often marketed as plant food or bath salts to circumvent European trafficking laws, that no one knew exactly what it was when drug officers stumbled upon the stash during an early morning raid.

More related to this story‘Bath salt’ drugs could enter Canada, experts worry Mephedrone: From plant food to Britain’s party drug“This was the first time we’d seen it,” Durham Regional Police Inspector Dave Wilson said. “I can only compare it to 1991, when we made our first seizure of crack cocaine.”
The drug – known by the street names meow-meow, MCAT, bubbles and drone – has appeared in small quantities in Newfoundland and Quebec. In all, Health Canada has identified just five samples from drug busts across the country.
But the recent seizure could signal an escalation in efforts to push the club drug on Canadian streets.
“Is it readily available out there or is this the first shipment and we just got lucky? I’m not sure,” said Inspector Tim Farquharson, of Peterborough Lakefield police, another agency involved in the bust. “We already have enough problems with crack and OxyContin here.”
In the U.K., mephedrone filled a void created by the rapidly declining quality of cocaine and ecstasy. Where street-level cocaine 10 years ago often sold at 66-per-cent purity, authorities in England say they are now seizing samples as low as 3-per-cent purity. Users were drawn to the drug on the promise of a brief but intense euphoria combining the best elements of cocaine and ecstasy.
What’s more, it was cheap, costing half the price of the $60 an ounce that Britons were dropping on adulterated cocaine. “It proved very attractive for disillusioned cocaine users,” said Allen Morgan, a prominent expert witness in U.K. drug trafficking cases.
But its most appealing quality had to be its ambiguous legal status. “There were no controls and the police were unable to take any action,” Mr. Morgan said. “Essentially the drug was legal, clean and unadulterated and it took off. There hasn’t been a drug for a long time that has become so publicly prominent.”
Head shops began selling mephedrone over the counter and online. Scooter delivery services started up so users could order it to their doors like fresh pizza.
But serious health effects began emerging in late 2009 and 2010, with dozens of mephedrone users admitted to emergency rooms complaining of heart palpitations, anxiety, nausea, hypertension and vomiting. The British Parliament finally banned it in April of last year after media reports linking mephedrone to several deaths. Producers soon tweaked the drug’s chemistry enough to once again obscure its legality, prompting a cat-and-mouse game between drug-makers and legislators.
The law isn’t so vague in Canada. As an analogue of amphetamine, mephedrone is a Schedule 3 controlled substance. The Toronto-area bust – which included seizures of cocaine, marijuana and hashish – led to 19 arrests on 115 charges. The street value of the mephedrone was pegged at around $350,000.
“We’re trying to scramble and educate ourselves as to what this is,” Inspector Farquharson said. “And, at the same time, we’re hoping it’s a one-off.”

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4 deaths reported dead as riot police storm camp in Bahrain

Armed patrols prowled neighbourhoods and tanks appeared in the streets for the first time Thursday after riot police with tear gas and clubs drove protesters from a main square where they had demanded sweeping political change in this tiny kingdom. Medical officials said four people were killed.

More related to this storyBahrain protest calls grow from occupied square in Gulf nation's capitalBahrain demonstrators occupy square in Egyptian-style protestEnough! Why thousands of young Arabs have taken to the streets in protest

InfographicUnrest spreads in the Arab worldVideoBahrain protesters take over main squarePolice cars with flashing blue lights encircled Pearl Square, the site of anti-government rallies since Monday. Barbed wire was set up on streets leading to the square, where police cleaned up flattened protest tents and trampled banners. The Interior Ministry declared the protest camp “illegal” and warned Bahrainis to stay off the streets.
The island nation was effectively shut down since workers in the capital could not pass checkpoints or were too scared to venture out. Banks and other key institutions did not open.
The protesters' demands have two main objectives: force the ruling Sunni monarchy to give up its control over top government posts and all critical decisions, and address deep grievances held by the country's majority Shiites who claim they face systematic discrimination and are effectively blocked from key roles in public service and the military.
Tiny Bahrain also is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran's efforts to expand its clout in the region.
Any prolonged crisis opens the door for a potential flashpoint between Iran and its Arab rivals in the Gulf. Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty is closely allied to Saudi Arabia and the other Arab regimes in the Gulf. But Shiite hardliners in Iran have often expressed kinship and support for Bahrain's Shiite majority, which accounts for 70 per cent of the island's 500,000 citizens.
Sporadic clashes between police and protesters continued in the morning, with demonstrators hurling rocks, then retreating. A group of young men broke up the pavement for more stones to throw.
A body covered in a white sheet lay in a pool of blood on the side of a road about 20 metres from the landmark square. Police cleared away the wrecked tents and the street was littered with broken glass, tear gas canisters and other debris.
Demonstrators began camping out Tuesday on the square beneath the 90-metre monument featuring a giant pearl, making it the nerve centre of the first anti-government protests to reach the Arab Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
The police assault came early Thursday with little warning. Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester, said police surrounded the camp and then quickly moved in.
“We yelled, ‘We are peaceful! Peaceful!' The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us,” he said. “They moved in as soon as the media left us. They knew what they're doing.”
Dr. Sadek Akikri, 44, said he was tending to sick protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in. He said he was tied up and severely beaten, then thrown on a bus with others.
“They were beating me so hard I could no longer see. There was so much blood running from my head,” he said. “I was yelling, ‘I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.’ But they didn't stop.”
He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan. A pillar of the protest demands is to end the Sunni regime's practice of giving citizenship to other Sunnis from around the region to try to offset the demographic strength of Shiites. Many of the new Bahrainis are given security posts.
Dr. Akikri said he and others on the bus were left on a highway overpass, but the beatings didn't stop. Eventually, the doctor said he fainted but could hear another police official say in Arabic: “Stop beating him. He's dead. We should just leave him here.”
As the crackdown began, demonstrators in the square described police swarming in through a cloud of eye-stinging tear gas.

Read more >>

4 deaths reported dead as riot police storm camp in Bahrain

Armed patrols prowled neighbourhoods and tanks appeared in the streets for the first time Thursday after riot police with tear gas and clubs drove protesters from a main square where they had demanded sweeping political change in this tiny kingdom. Medical officials said four people were killed.

More related to this storyBahrain protest calls grow from occupied square in Gulf nation's capitalBahrain demonstrators occupy square in Egyptian-style protestEnough! Why thousands of young Arabs have taken to the streets in protest

InfographicUnrest spreads in the Arab worldVideoBahrain protesters take over main squarePolice cars with flashing blue lights encircled Pearl Square, the site of anti-government rallies since Monday. Barbed wire was set up on streets leading to the square, where police cleaned up flattened protest tents and trampled banners. The Interior Ministry declared the protest camp “illegal” and warned Bahrainis to stay off the streets.
The island nation was effectively shut down since workers in the capital could not pass checkpoints or were too scared to venture out. Banks and other key institutions did not open.
The protesters' demands have two main objectives: force the ruling Sunni monarchy to give up its control over top government posts and all critical decisions, and address deep grievances held by the country's majority Shiites who claim they face systematic discrimination and are effectively blocked from key roles in public service and the military.
Tiny Bahrain also is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran's efforts to expand its clout in the region.
Any prolonged crisis opens the door for a potential flashpoint between Iran and its Arab rivals in the Gulf. Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty is closely allied to Saudi Arabia and the other Arab regimes in the Gulf. But Shiite hardliners in Iran have often expressed kinship and support for Bahrain's Shiite majority, which accounts for 70 per cent of the island's 500,000 citizens.
Sporadic clashes between police and protesters continued in the morning, with demonstrators hurling rocks, then retreating. A group of young men broke up the pavement for more stones to throw.
A body covered in a white sheet lay in a pool of blood on the side of a road about 20 metres from the landmark square. Police cleared away the wrecked tents and the street was littered with broken glass, tear gas canisters and other debris.
Demonstrators began camping out Tuesday on the square beneath the 90-metre monument featuring a giant pearl, making it the nerve centre of the first anti-government protests to reach the Arab Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
The police assault came early Thursday with little warning. Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester, said police surrounded the camp and then quickly moved in.
“We yelled, ‘We are peaceful! Peaceful!' The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us,” he said. “They moved in as soon as the media left us. They knew what they're doing.”
Dr. Sadek Akikri, 44, said he was tending to sick protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in. He said he was tied up and severely beaten, then thrown on a bus with others.
“They were beating me so hard I could no longer see. There was so much blood running from my head,” he said. “I was yelling, ‘I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.’ But they didn't stop.”
He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan. A pillar of the protest demands is to end the Sunni regime's practice of giving citizenship to other Sunnis from around the region to try to offset the demographic strength of Shiites. Many of the new Bahrainis are given security posts.
Dr. Akikri said he and others on the bus were left on a highway overpass, but the beatings didn't stop. Eventually, the doctor said he fainted but could hear another police official say in Arabic: “Stop beating him. He's dead. We should just leave him here.”
As the crackdown began, demonstrators in the square described police swarming in through a cloud of eye-stinging tear gas.

Read more >>