I’m sure most of you reading this will be very familiar with party drugs, social drugs, unsociable drugs, uppers, downers, hallucinogenics and mind exploring drugs.
 If you’re not familiar and do not want to be, I’d bet a tenner that you’ve witnessed at least one embarrassment at a party, in a club or on the street whose taken too many pills and is shrivelling up in the corner.

The latest overwhelming ‘trend’ is Mephodrone, the drug has grown in popularity and absolutely exploded on the scene at clubs and parties. The legal high has swept over our city and is been believed to have been purchased by people who’d never tried any illegal drug in their life. Supposedly, kids as young as 12 have been buying the legal white powder for £10-£15. Mephedrone will be illegal in a fortnight.

Legal highs have been available for years in paraphernalia shops such as Dr. Hermans and stalls at festivals. The fear that Mephedrone has driven into the government’s drug advisers, after causing up to 25 deaths in Britain, is sending them wild. The investigation recently launched into the availabe legal highs in Britain is currently the talk of most tabloids.

It’s safe to say that this is only just the begining of the legal high boom. The tabloids and drug advisors have already moved onto a new drug that has been reported of growing in popularity faster than Mephodrone. It’s name is NRG-1.

There is almost no information about NRG-1 on legal high forums, drug forums and even on wikipedia. Which either shows that the drug is umpopular or that even less is known about it than. It’s formal name is Neuregulin-1 or Naphyrone, other names include ‘Energy’ or ‘Rave’.

A user of NRG-1 featured a report on a forum about his experience taking the substance. He did it due to the lack of information on NRG-1 and to inform other curious members of the forum the effects of NRG-1. He claimed that it’s a very sticky powder, he ingested it nasally and reported that he felt energetic and wide awake but at no point high.

Comments from other users mentioned experiences of slight euphoria and others claimed it simply felt like they’d had a lot of Mephodrone however many of the users said the side effects were horrible and the worst they’d ever experienced.

In contrast to reports of users, The Sun newspaper decided to write a very dramatic feature on this drastic discovery of another new and harmful popular legal drug to terrify parents in Britain. “Its thirteen times STRONGER than cocaine and twice as ADDICTIVE as heroin.” The classic tabloid emphasis on those words really makes this statement to seem just that tiny bit more truthful however the comparison between the users report and the Suns portrayal contrast starkly.

“It is the worst drug ever to hit the shores of Britain. It makes meow meow look like baby powder." claims the Sun's source Dave, “It causes paranoia and suicidal tendencies and permanently alters brain chemistry with horrifying consequences.” This seems to be a very over dramatic description of a come down and generally seems to be the crack with most stimulants, excuse the pun.

The Sun contradict themselves in the article; claiming it can be compared to a ‘mega speed-ball’ which is crystal meth, cocaine and ecstacy combined. But, they continue to describe how shocking this drug is and how its chemical compound is ever so slightly different to Mephodrone and both are ‘terrifyingly similar’ to ecstacy.

From what I’ve read about NRG-1, it’s difficult to imagine a bunch of people at a dubstep or drum and bass night floating around and dancing on this drug. Users claimed that they didn’t feel like dancing as such, just the average chatty and awake effects of other popular stimulants and amphetamines. The drug supposedly can cost 10p to make and just a mere 25p to buy. The best part is, The Sun claim you can make it with chemicals from school science labs and with a Chemistry GCSE. Exaggeration is an understatement.

NRG-1 is now considered the upcoming mephadrone replacement by the South-East Asian manufacturers and with its cheap price I’m actually quite curious to see if this does grow in popularity. If this drug does make users ‘feel like God himself’ for 12 hours then what is unattractive about that? Maybe it’s the comedown The Sun have described as ‘going to hell’. After you’ve been God for 12 hours, users will feel like they want to kill themselves for THREE days." Once again, exaggeration is most definitely an understatement. I also used the capitalizing emphasis there, so you all believe it is true.

All in all, everything we enjoy is bad for us in someway, I can’t even eat a footlong Subway without being told it’s packed with salt and is really bad for me. I’ve read enough to say NRG-1 seems like it has awful side effects, makes you feel grim and just isn’t worth bothering with. For now, stick to what we know about. Hopefully your cocks won’t fall off, your livers wont deteriotate and all your teeth won’t fall out due to abuse or benders on legal highs.

ORIGINAL SUN ARTICLE