Under Article 9.1 of Council Decision 2005/387/JHA, the option for control that is available at European Union level is for the Member States to submit the new psychoactive substance mephedrone to control measures and criminal penalties, as provided for under their legislation, by virtue of their obligations under the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

There are no specific European studies on possible consequences of such control measures, though the Committee has noted reports from individual countries that have already put mephedrone under national control. If this option of control is pursued, the Committee considers that the following consequences are possible. It should be noted that all of these possible consequences apply to any new psychoactive substance and they are not specific only to mephedrone.

• This control could facilitate the detection and monitoring of trafficking and illegal manufacture of mephedrone. In so doing, it could facilitate subsequent international law enforcement and judicial cooperation. On the other hand, control measures could create an illegal market in mephedrone with the increased risk of associated criminal activity, including organised crime.

• This control could be expected to limit the availability of mephedrone and further expansion of a legal market in this drug by restricting its commercial availability from both Internet and specialised shops.

• The risk exists that post-control there may be covert sales of mephedrone on the Internet, or continuing sales through newly branded products.

• This control could impact on both the quality/purity and price of any mephedrone supply still available on the illicit market. The extent to which this will impact on public health, criminality or levels of use is difficult to predict.

• A health consequence that can be foreseen as a result of control measures are benefits brought about by the presumed reduction in use.

• However, if a significant number of young users continue to use the drug, costs may be incurred by bringing them into contact with the criminal justice system.

• New control measures would imply additional costs related to law enforcement, criminal justice, forensic analysis, testing, etc.

• This control could lead to replacement with other (established or new) psychoactive substances which may in themselves have public health consequences.

• It is not possible to predict whether there will be health or social consequences from any substance that might come to be used as an alternative.

• At present, there is no reason to expect that this control would impact on current or future research by the pharmaceutical or chemical industries. However, the possibility that this drug may become of interest in the future, although unlikely, cannot be ruled out.

Similar to the impact of control of other psychoactive substances such as BZP (1- benzylpiperazine), the Committee further notes from the countries that have already introduced a ban on mephedrone that:

• Other non-controlled drugs have been reported to be marketed as replacement substances for mephedrone. However, it is not clear if these substances would have appeared independently of any action taken on mephedrone.

• There is some evidence to suggest that a ban in some Member States has not resulted in the disappearance of mephedrone from the illicit market. It will be important to monitor whether the mephedrone availability at street level is from stockpiles or has been imported or produced post-ban.

Aside from the option for control under legal parameters of Article 9.1 of the Council Decision, there are various other options for control open to Member States individually. They may choose to control distribution of it under consumer protection or food safety legislation; to control it under medicinal products legislation; and/or to control the importation of the substance.

The EU Regulation 178/2002, and Directives 2001/95/EC and 2001/83/EC, standardise the national definitions of food, safe products intended for consumers, and medicinal products for human use, respectively. Therefore, it may well be that control options under such laws could be applied by all European Union Member States. However, few Member States have reported utilising such control measures, and the details of national enforcement mechanisms and possible penalties for breach are not known (9).

It is possible to consider restrictions that would limit mephedrone use by introducing specific measures related to age limits, or interventions in the production chain. However this option has not been pursued by any Member State.

It should be noted that the three positional isomers of methylmethcathinone are not easily distinguishable by commonly available analytical techniques. Consequently control of only 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) could be difficult to enforce.