What is monkey dust?

Monkey dust is also known as MDPV and comes as an off-white powder which can be swallowed, injected or snorted.

It is from a family of drugs known as cathinones. While MDPV is man-made, a so-called “designer drug”, the cathinones include the naturally occurring stimulant khat, popular among some sections of the Somali and other West African communities.

Before 2010 cathinones could be bought in 'head shops', but they were reclassified as Class B drugs in legislation rushed through Parliament to tackle the rise of the drug, mephedrone, before a wider crack down on so-called “legal highs”.

They are chemically similar to amphetamines and have similar effects. Synthetic forms like MDPV can be made with various tweaks in their chemical structure and can cause unpredictable effects.