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NHS takes 70 referrals to treatment centre for new generation of designer drugs before its official launch The first NHS clinic to treat people addicted to so-called clubbing drugs has opened, with 70 referrals already after people found it online ahead of the official launch. Nobody knows the scale of the problem that drugs such as ketamine, mephedrone and GHB or GBL may be causing the predominantly young people who take them when they go clubbing. Existing drug treatment centres were set up primarily to tackle more established abused drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, while GPs and other doctors are not well versed in the effects and dangers of the new drugs. Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, an addiction psychiatrist who has set up the Club Drug Clinic with funding from Central and North-west London NHS Foundation Trust, said those who take club drugs tend to be younger, employed and sometimes affluent. They are often in relationships and don’t necessarily identify themselves as addicts. But the need for a treatment centre became apparent during a pilot phase of the clinic before the official launch, when 70 people found it through the internet and called up or asked for a referral from a doctor. One was a 19-year-old student studying economics. He had first snorted methadone three years before and enjoyed it, said Bowden-Jones, but had developed a “binging pattern”. He took 7 grams most days at a cost of about £140 a week, which caused him fatigue and damaged his academic performance. A second applicant was a 27-year-old man who lived with his partner and worked as an administrator. “He first used GBL five years ago. Now he uses 2ml every hour and sets the alarm clock so he can dose himself through the night,” said Bowden-Jones. He was desperate to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which the consultant psychiatrist described as “horrendous”, and included tremors, sweating, agitation, hallucination and insomnia. Another was a 31-year-old woman who worked for a recruitment agency and had used a variety of drugs with friends in her twenties. When her friends started cutting down, she found she could not. She was spending £600 a month on ketamine which had led to ulcers forming on the inside of her bladder, which caused her to pass blood. She may need her bladder removed. All three were being successfully treated for their addiction, said Bowden-Jones, who recognised there would be plenty of clubbers using drugs without consequences. “If someone is using a substance and not having any problems with it, our clinic is not the place for them. We are not making any judgment about people’s drug use. The resource is for people who run into trouble.” About a quarter of 16 to 19-year-olds have used an illegal drug in the past year, compared with 9% of the adult population, he said. Among clubbers, crack cocaine and heroin, which most clinics treat, are least used – at 13.6% and 6.7% respectively. Clubbers are more likely to try new designer drugs that are being constantly produced in a bid to outstrip the authorities. Last year, 41 new substances were produced and a further 20 appeared in the first four months of this year. An outcry over mephedrone, known as “meow meow”, which had been a “legal high” for some time and sold as plant food, led to it being banned last year. However, the British Crime Survey showed the move made little difference to the drug’s popularity. New or slightly altered chemical substances are turning up on the club scene much faster than they can be identified and banned. Drugs Health NHS Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk