The amphetamine-like designer drug mephedrone, known on the street as meow meow, M-CAT, or kitty cat, is becoming increasingly popular as dealers look for a cheap alternative to the internationally-scarce ingredient, MDMA.
They are importing mephedrone powder as "plant food" from the UK or China through New Zealand ports in small quantities, which is then chopped up to make thousands of party pills.
Revellers buy powder for snorting, or pills to swallow, for as little as $40.
They think they're getting a "lovey-dovey" ecstasy high, but are instead digesting a rampant stimulant which is often linked to horror violence, which has drug experts worried.
"Users are reporting some pretty bad experiences," NZ Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell says.
Hospital emergency departments and frontline police are training up to deal with the drug's rising popularity.
The thrill for partygoers includes increased energy and hyper-alertness that can last for several hours.
It can also result in nose bleeds, vomiting, blurred vision, fits, convulsions, and even heart attacks.
When mixed with alcohol or other drugs it can also spark violent outbursts, exacerbated by hallucinations, and bouts of paranoia and delusions.
Cops have now warned people to stay away from the China-made drug which they admit is being "pretty widely distributed" in the North Island main centres, especially wherever there's a vibrant clubbing scene.
"It's very dangerous stuff, it's on the rise, and not something we recommend," National Drug Intelligence Bureau (NDIB) co-ordinator Detective Inspector Stuart Mills.
He cited the recent case of an Auckland man high on "bath salts" - an illegal derivative of mephedrone or MDPV - who continued "thrashing about" despite being tasered twice by police.
The NDIB say mephedrone, along with other synthetic "white powders", are spreading.
"With the MDMA shortage, various groups who are only concerned about making money are looking to other products to package into either tablets or capsules for distribution," Detective Inspector Mills said.
Organised criminal gangs are mainly behind its importation and supply, he said.
Mephedrone was banned by the UK Government in 2010 after legislation was rushed through when it was blamed for the deaths of several young users.
Around the same time, it arrived on New Zealand shores.
"We alerted the troops (frontline police) that there was new stuff out there and the type of impact it had on people, what it can do to people," Detective Inspector Mills told APNZ yesterday (Friday).
"It's coming into the country in smaller lots - personal baggage, through the mail centre, or concealed in consignments, which is always very difficult to trace."
To try to stem its growing, underground popularity, police have launched prolonged operations to target high-end dealers.
Last November, a massive police sting, Operation Ark, smashed an Auckland criminal syndicate converting the imported drug into party pills.
Two police staff, a prosecutor, and a millionaire businessman were among 19 people arrested in the long-running investigation.
And earlier this month, after the covert five-month Operation Greenstone, another meow meow ring was uncovered.
Police are now hunting for a machine that pressed "hundreds of thousands" of pills.
Bryce Thomas Kamizona, 25, appeared in the High Court at Rotorua this week on dealing charges, which he admitted last month, after being found with 110 pills in his car.
The maximum sentence for dealing mephedrone, a class C drug, is eight years in prison.
But police say their main concern is that clubbers don't know what they are buying.
"A real danger is people take them, nothing happens, so they take another one, and put themselves in danger, or can't control themselves and put others in danger," said Detective Inspector Mills.
"Users need to be aware that they're taking an illicit drug, and don't know what harm will be caused to them in the short term or the long term."
Hospitals are now aware of the new threat.
Auckland City Hospital has reported anecdotal evidence of emergency department admissions turning up "out of it" after taking new types of ecstasy-style pills.
Police concerns are shared by health and drug experts, especially given the lack of research into meow meow's long-term effects.
However, shocking new research published this week showed mephedrone use causes lasting brain damage.
A University of Sydney study examined the effects of daily mephedrone injections in rats over 10 days.
"We found a substantial memory impairment in animals that had been given the higher dose of the drug," lead author Craig Motbey says.
"This is concerning because it confirms earlier hints of memory problems in human mephedrone users. The fact the impairment was still there many weeks after the end of the drug treatment suggests that this damage may be permanent."
Users frequently re-dose throughout a mephedrone session, often continuing until supplies of the drug are exhausted, Mr Motbey says.
The NZ Drug Foundation agrees.
Mr Bell said users have reported the drug being "very more-ish" with strong cravings.
"People are using these drugs as an ecstasy replacement, but the result is very different. They're more like an amphetamine, rather than the loved-up feeling of ecstasy," he said.
"Frustratingly, people are still quite happy to use these products while being completely naive to the risks."
WHAT IS MEOW MEOW? Class-C drug mephedrone. Its chemical formula is one molecule different to ecstasy.
ALSO KNOWN AS: Bubbles, drone, white magic.
HOW IS IT SOLD? The white, off-white or yellowy powder is used to make ecstasy pills or tablets and is being sold by criminal gangs or groups for between $40 and $90 per pill.
WHAT ARE THE DANGERS? It can cause elevated heart rate and blood pressure, tremors and convulsions, memory loss, paranoia and depression. It has been linked to more than 100 deaths across Europe.
