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A currently legal stimulant known as mephedrone has gained recent popularity among club-goers according to Britain’s National Addiction Center. On January 14, The BBC reported that mephedrone was the fourth most popular drug cited by readers of a popular dance magazine. Surprisingly, one in three readers polled had used the new club drug in the last month.

Mephedrone — a stimulant that is currently legal in both the U.K. and the U.S. — has gained recent and surprising popularity among club-goers in the U.K., according to Britain’s National Addiction Center.

“It’s come from nowhere to become very popular,” said one of the researchers. “For a drug that’s been around for a relatively short amount of time, mephedrone has certainly made a big impact on the dance drug scene. [And] at the moment we just don’t have enough research to know what it does to people in the short term and long term. ”

The drug is often sold online through dozens of websites as “plant food” and “not for human consumption,” although its use as a fertilizer is unknown. Though little is known about its effects, experts believe mephedrone to be a different version of classical amphetamines and carry similar problems associated with such use.

The drug is also known as meph, 4-MMC, MCAT, Drone, Meow or Bubbles. It is a powder that can be taken in pill form, snorted, mixed with liquid or even injected.

A recent report, “Illicit Drug Use Among Older Adults,” from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) warned that the need for treatment services among older Americans may double in the next decade. Meaning there are new prevention tactics needed to address the rise in drug abuse among baby boomers.

The report found that an estimated 4.3 million Americans age 50 and older used illicit drugs during the past year, a figure that experts say “is on the rise and reflective of lifelong drug use by aging Baby Boomers.” Marijuana use was more prevalent than nonmedical use of prescription drugs for adults aged 50-59, but among those aged 65 or older, abuse of prescription drugs was more common.

Researchers hoped that the report will raise concern for the changes in addiction prevention and treatment that may be necessary to address the growing problem of older generations of substance abusers. “This new data has profound implications for the health and well-being of older adults who continue to abuse substances,” said a SAMHSA Administrator. “These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages as well as to establish improved screening and appropriate referral to treatment as part of routine health care services.”

Common signs and symptoms of drug abuse (HelpGuide.org)

• You’re neglecting your responsibilities at school, work, or home (e.g. flunking classes, skipping work, neglecting your children) because of your drug use.
• You’re using drugs under dangerous conditions or taking risks while high, such as driving while on drugs, using dirty needles, or having unprotected sex.
• Your drug use is getting you into legal trouble, such as arrests for disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, or stealing to support a drug habit.
• Your drug use is causing problems in your relationships, such as fights with your partner or family members, an unhappy boss, or the loss of old friends.

• You’ve built up a drug tolerance. You need to use more of the drug to experience the same effects you used to attain with smaller amounts.
• You take drugs to avoid or relieve withdrawal symptoms. If you go too long without drugs, you experience symptoms such as nausea, restlessness, insomnia, depression, sweating, shaking, and anxiety.
• You’ve lost control over your drug use. You often do drugs or use more than you planned, even though you told yourself you wouldn’t. You may want to stop using, but you feel powerless.
• Your life revolves around drug use. You spend a lot of time using and thinking about drugs, figuring out how to get them, and recovering from the drug’s effects.
• You’ve abandoned activities you used to enjoy, such as hobbies, sports, and socializing, because of your drug use.
• You continue to use drugs, despite knowing it’s hurting you. It’s causing major problems in your life—blackouts, infections, mood swings, depression, paranoia—but you use anyway.

A study recently reported by the Washington Post found the new cocaine vaccine, TA-CD, does nothing to address the brain’s cravings for the drug. As a result, users were more likely to dangerously ingest larger quantities of cocaine in attempt to satisfy the cravings and overcome the vaccine’s effect.

The vaccine TA-CD is a series of shots that ultimately change the body’s chemistry. Working like most vaccines, TA-CD causes the body’s immune system to produce antibodies that stay active for eight to ten weeks. These antibodies bind to cocaine molecules in the blood, making them too large to pass into the brain, thus preventing any possible artificial high.

The study found that immunization did not achieve complete abstinence from cocaine use; however, previous research has shown a reduction in use and improvement in abuser’s social function thus rendering the vaccine to be therapeutically meaningful by some. In the recent study, according to the Washington Post, researchers found that subjects who were administered the drug stayed off cocaine more than half the time once they had built up a high level of antibodies and immunity to the drug, compared to 23 percent of those who built up fewer antibodies and less immunity. About one in four vaccine recipients failed to develop sufficient antibodies to block the drug’s effects, and scientists were unsure why this was the case.

After being administered the vaccine, abusers reported that doing cocaine became a very disappointing experience; however, their cravings to use the drugs were not reduced. Though this vaccine is being highlighted as “promising” by some scientists, and though none of the study’s participants overdosed, the situation posed by the vaccine makes overdosing a possible, serious problem if used as a treatment option. The idea of developing medication that “blocks addiction” has long been appealing, but the inability to get high combined with the presence of intense cravings could lead to lethal situations if relapse were to occur.