I think I mentioned this before, but when Keven was in the hospital the nurse told me about some of the patients that never "came out of" their experience with bath salts and Ecstacy and will require 24/1 care for the rest of their lives. I can't help but wonder if there was any permanent damage to Keven's brain after he went on his binge with this crap. It needs to be banned EVERYWHERE. I think I will make this my new cause since in some ways, its more dangerous than heroin because it can damage you forever. :( (some more positive news: Keven called Anthony and told him he got a sponsor. A good step in the right direction.) Thanks to Homedrugtestkit's Blog and Jeff S. for constantly sharing good articles on their site and FB food page (you should friend them on FB). Hey - how many of you are on FB that I am not friends with? Let me know if you want to connect there, its kind of fun to see what people share. Isle of Man teenager's death prompts 'legal highs' drug ban Continue reading the main story Related Stories Rise in number of 'legal highs' High, above the law The death of a teenager from the Isle of Man has prompted the banning of so-called legal high drugs by the Manx parliament. It makes a group of substances, often referred to as MDAI, a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1976. The Manx legislation, which is expected to be followed by a similar ban in the UK, takes effect on 1 January 2012. Health Minister, David Anderson said the government action sends out a serious message on the Isle of Man. "Clearly, this is a dangerous substance, which has tragically cost the life of a young girl [in April, this year]," said Mr Anderson. "The priority is the safety of our people, and I hope that in bringing this ban, we're able to send a serious message and help prevent this substance causing any ill-effect to anyone in our community. "That said, there should not be an interpretation by anyone that other 'legal highs' which are available to the public, but have not been banned, are in anyway safe to take." Education 'a must' A record number of new "legal highs" were reported across Europe in 2010, with four times as many found in the UK than any other country, figures show. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said there were 41 new substances , of which 16 were first reported in the UK. The sale of legal highs, which include substances like bath salts, fertiliser and cleaning fluid, over the internet makes their control difficult. Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of Health, Lesley Keenan said: "Banning a substance doesn't mean it just disappears, so education and awareness-raising are a must. "To that end we've asked that the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Education and Children work together via the Drug and Alcohol Steering Group on a campaign outlining the need for people to take responsibility for their own decisions in respect of drugs, regardless of whether they are legal or illegal." The UK government is expected to bring in similar legislation.

Article:

Designer Drugs Fry Brain Like Ecstasy

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer

Date: 14 December 2011 Time: 10:35 AM ET

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Some "designer drugs" may be in a legal gray area, but their actions on the brain are similar to those of illegal drugs and could be just as dangerous, new research suggests.

"It's important to know what the drugs are doing in the brain so we can learn about long-term adverse effects, but it can also help to develop strategies for remediation of symptoms of overdose," study researcher Michael Baumann, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told LiveScience. "It's important that each of these designer drugs is examined carefully, because each one of them has unique pharmacology," and therefore unique effects.

The researchers studied two popular designer drugs, mephedrone and methylone, analogs of cathinone, a drug found in the plant Catha edulis. The drugs entered the drug scene in the 2000s with innocuous names like "bath salts" or "plant food." These drugs originally fell into a legal gray area because they weren't specifically regulated on a federal level, but in October 2011 they were temporarily classified as illegal, schedule one drugs.

Brain on drugs

Previous studies on these drugs indicate they may work like MDMA (aka "ecstasy") — they increase levels of "feel-good" brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which are released from the brain's reward center when we do something that would help our survival and reproduction, like having sex or eating.

Illegal drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy release large amounts of these chemicals, several times larger than those naturally released, which create the "high" users feel.

Each drug has specific effects on brain chemistry, though. Drugs like MDMA cause bigger serotonin spikes, while methamphetamine results in a larger dopamine spike. The serotonin spike from MDMA can result in what doctors call "serotonin syndrome," which can be lethal. The dopamine spike, however, is more habit-forming and results in more addictive drugs.

Raving rats

The researchers studied four groups of rats, each given one of four drugs: one of the two designer drugs, MDMA or methamphetamine. The rats were given doses equal to what an average user would take for their weight and body size. The team also analyzed how higher doses (as would happen in an overdose) and repeated doses impacted the rats' behaviors and brain activity. The researchers saw that the rats' brains reacted to the two designer drugs as they did MDMA, with greater increases in serotonin than dopamine.

There were important differences between the drugs. Even weeks after exposure, serotonin levels in the brains of rats given MDMA had made only about a 50-percent recovery back to normal, while the brain chemistry of rats given mephedrone and methylone had returned to normal.

The rats also didn't show the brain chemistry or physical behaviors associated with serotonin syndrome, including the overheating that causes serotonin depletion, but the researchers aren't ruling out other long-term and acute effects though modification to other brain chemicals.

"The two drugs have a similar profile of activity, but the difference is that the methylone is weaker," Baumann said. "You would need more of the drug to have a particular effect."

Human implications

Rats aren't humans, noted Fabrizio Schifano, a researcher who wasn't involved in the study from the University of Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom, but he thinks the paper is very interesting. "The paper adds relevant info to the existing literature, in the sense that it is able to better describe the mechanism of action of mephedrone and methylone in comparison with MDMA," Schifano told LiveScience in an email.

He also cautions that though these designer drugs seem to have fewer long-term effects than MDMA, researchers still have a lot of concerns about mephedrone toxicity, and the drugs' potential for addiction.

Baumann also cautions that street drugs aren't regulated, which causes other problems. "When you get them off the Internet, you don't know the purity or the content of these drugs," he said. "In addition to playing Russian roulette with your brain chemistry you don't really know what you are getting."

The study was published today (Dec. 14) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @microbelover . Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience  and onFacebook .Peace, Hope and Love, Barbara