Two dumb teenagers take too many drugs and drink too much alcohol and die.

The deaths of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, both from Scunthorpe are very sad. I’m very sorry for the parents but they gave birth to a pair who should win the Darwin awards. You do not combine a drug you do not know with alcohol. Even drugs sold over the counter say that, official advice can be found here. Life however goes on, new people die, new people get born. Shit happens.

They did not just combine their drugs they went way overboard.

Toxicology reports will not be available for two weeks, but police believe they may have consumed alcohol, mephedrone and the heroin-substitute methadone.

I’m going to admit that I have had meow-meow, I did it last weekend (not in Scunthorpe). It is a very pleasurable drug. If you are old enough to remember the early rave scene, think of the pills you got back then.

Meow-meow, M-Cat, Bubble, whatever you want to call mephedrone is highly pleasurable. It is very cheap and you do not need to buy it or involve yourself with some mad drug dealer. Not that dealers in real life are scary, this of course is yet another government myth.

As a high, it is exactly the same as MDMA powder. You will however be very unlikely to buy MDMA powder. If you try to buy MDMA powder you will end up with crushed up pills that have been mixed with all kinds of crap as well as a sore and possibly bloody nose.

It is perfectly legal to buy – but it as sold all over the internet as plant fertiliser. I’m not really sure how good at being a plant fertiliser it would be but never mind. Packages clearly say on it not fit for human consumption. The purchaser can then decide whether sprinkle it over their magnolias or snort it up like a line of coke.

Small quantities are between £5 to £15 a gram (including delivery – sometimes to the door on the same day). Large quantities, (wholesale amounts) which are imported from China come in at way below that price. I shared a gram with a friend, it cost him £10.

The reported short term side effects of people pulling their gonads off, etc etc are just that bollocks. I just do not believe the stories. It is relatively light to snort so nose-bleeds are not really a problem either, unless it is impure, but because you can buy it legally – online, it is not likely to be impure. Long term side effects from taking mephedrone are not known but one would suggest that is why you have the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

A tip – do small lines, it takes a while to kick in but it will and then you can keep the level topped up. It is more-ish in the same way a pack of pringles is but it is not addictive. You are not stressing if you do not have it. Again, like a pack of Pringles. This advice on the packaging (not the Pringles bit)- if it could have been sold for its real intended purpose – may have saved the lives of the two boys from Scunthorpe.

The problem is politicians refuse to listen to reasoned scientific consideration and prefer to make knee jerk reactions to newspaper headlines. With an election only months away this will only get worse.

So of course in steps Lord Mandleson of Darkness. Never one to shy away from a knee jerk reaction to win the support of the Daily Mail, a newspaper that hates him.

Mandleson is reported to have said,

Now it’s been associated very tragically with the deaths of these two young people, the government will be looking at this very, very speedily, very carefully and we will take any action that is needed.”

Other than the fact that you can not have both very carefuly and very speedily, it is worth pointing out that had politicians not have sacked Professor David Nutt for doing his job, a careful and non-knee jerk recommendation would have been available by now because he was reviewing the legal highs that are currently available.

Lord Peter Mandleson, voices his concern for the two young people, but not of course the thousands of alcohol related deaths that occur each year. Of course, his lobbyist chums would get upset.

There is a complete hypocrisy in UK drugs laws. Everyone knows that they do not work Everyone knows that prohibition doesn’t work. The public know it. Politicians know it, but think of the children. If it is in any way fun, but has a risk – ban it.

This hypocrisy is made worse because there are a large number of politicians who have taken drugs (and some still do).

This Nanny State approach does not work.

Rather than continually ban every new substance that comes on to the market why not properly regulate drugs, so as with prescription drugs, purity can be assured and dosage instructions can be offered?

If people can no longer believe Government stories about the dangers of things like mushrooms and cannabis, why would they believe politicians about heroin? The more the Government lies about drugs and the effects they have on people, the greater the problem they create in trying to deal with opiate based drugs.

The “war on drugs” is fake. It is not working and people do not believe the Government when they tell them all drugs are bad.

The war on drugs is also seriously hampering the real war going on in Afghanistan.

It seems completely stupid that we are out in Afghanistan dropping bombs on poppy fields so Afghan farmers can not make money (and therefore may have a somewhat begrudging attitude towards us as a result) when there is a World shortage of legal opiates. Worse this policy is continued because of someone with a name like Koolaid.

I’m not calling for the complete uncontrolled legalisation of drugs, however a properly regulated, taxed and quality controlled market would be a lot better than this continuing high cost failure of a policy known as the War on Drugs, or otherwise called prohibition.

It would remove the armed gangs from the market and would ensure that young people do not need to buy questionable drugs of questionable quality from questionable people.

So rather than the usual knee jerk reactions and calls for bans within days, isn’t it time for a sensible debate on drugs?