However, I was troubled by the comment in your recent article (January 29) on the topic from a local mother saying, "According to my son, about three-quarters of his friends have taken it and it is becoming more and more common."

Would this lady rather her son faced criminal penalties for his drug use and sought to hide it from her so she was unaware of what was happening in his life? Will this solve the problem of drug abuse in our communities?

There is very little, if any, scientific research done on mephedrone and no-one has any idea of its long-term effects on the human body, although early signs suggest it is worse than ketamine or MDMA. But the reason people are taking mephedrone over ketamine and MDMA is because our government has made those two drugs illegal.

So instead of encouraging people to take care of their health and to ensure that whatever they do to their own bodies they do so in as safe a manner as possible, our drugs laws are actively encouraging people to take untested, unknown substances over well-researched chemicals that are objectively less lethal than horse-riding. This is a ludicrous situation to be in. We must cease our moralising as a nation and treat drug use as the health issue that it is instead of an excuse to lock up hedonists and the emotionally vulnerable.

Yours etc
Sarah McCulloch
external relations director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK