Methcathinone Stats & Data

Methcathinone was first synthesized in the United States in 1928. The compound was subsequently patented by the pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis in 1957. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Soviet Union employed the substance therapeutically as an antidepressant, where it was known as ephedrone (Эфедрон in Russian). Over time, methcathinone became established as a recreational substance in the Soviet Union and later in Russia, where it developed a long history of non-medical use. International efforts to control methcathinone began in the mid-1990s when the United States government recommended to the United Nations Secretary-General that the substance be added to Schedule I of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances around 1994. Following this recommendation, China added methcathinone to its list of prohibited substances in 1995 and ceased any remaining pharmaceutical applications. The substance remains prevalent in central and eastern European regions, where it is sometimes misrepresented as the more widely recognized cathinone derivative mephedrone. It is also frequently synthesized clandestinely from over-the-counter medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

Effects aggregated from 13 experience reports (13 single-substance Erowid)

Each bar is the share of reports mentioning the effect; its whisker, and the band on the rows below, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind.

Too few reports for bars: these effects come from 13 single-substance Erowid reports, and a bar is drawn only from 20 reports or more. With fewer, a percentage cannot tell a common effect from a rare one. Counts are shown instead. Why 20?

Also reported in combinations. In the 4 Methcathinone reports where another drug was taken too, 0 mention hospital, emergency services or an overdose, 1 a seizure and 0 psychosis (too few reports for percentages). In the 13 single-substance reports: 0, 2 and 3. These are not in the figures above: they cannot be put down to Methcathinone alone, and a mention is not always something that happened to the writer.

From 7 of 12 recorded dose entries: those that state a weight (mg, g or µg), in routes with at least five of them. Values above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out; they can include real heavy doses and overdoses, not only mistakes.

Most common forms and preparations, as a share of the 9 reports that give one

Too few reports for bars: these forms come from 9 reports, and a bar is drawn only from 20 reports or more. With fewer, a percentage cannot tell a common effect from a rare one. Counts are shown instead. Why 20?

• Powder / Crystals 7 of 9

Redosing behavior across 10 reports