NHS Opens Clinic For 'Club Drug' Users As Fake Ecstasy Surfaces

The UK-based National Honor Society (NHS) opened the first-ever clinic targeted to helping users of so-called 'club-drugs,' such as ecstasy, which has grown higher in recent years, in London.

Doctors say that the treatment at the new clinic will offer for those with problems caused by 'club drugs' such as ketamine, ecstasy, mephedrone and other legal highs.

Users of such drugs may think treatment services are geared towards crack or heroin and not seek help, UK researchers said.

The health risks associated with excessive use of club drugs are under-estimated by many people, Dr. Bowden-Jones, the clinic's founder, told BBC News most existing services focused on alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine use.

The first clinic was opened in Camberwell in 2009 by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Little is known about the potential problems of the newer drugs, said Jones.

The new clinic, set up in Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London, has specialist treatments conducted by doctors, nurses, psychologists and drug workers.

Scientists have known for years that the nightclubbers' drug, Ecstasy, as well as, other psychotropic drugs suppress the growth of over half of all white blood cancer cells.

New research proves that Ecstasy may kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they noted in the journal, Investigational New Drugs.

In August, American researchers also chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place, thus reducing the toxic effect on the brain.

An earlier study showed all leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells could be killed in a test tube, but any treatment would be a decade away.

Together, we were looking at structures of compounds that were more effective, said John Gordon, a professor at the University of Birmingham's School of Immunology and Infection.

BBC News reported in August, one variant increased cancer-fighting effectiveness 100-fold, meaning if 100 grams of un-modified ecstasy was needed to get the desired effect, only one gram of the modified ecstasy would be needed to have the same effect.

Against the cancers, particularly the leukaemia, the lymphoma and the myeloma, where we've tested these new compounds we can wipe out 100 percent of the cancer cells in some cases, Gordon said.

Fake ecstasy tablets that render users angry and aggressive have landed at least eight young Aucklanders in hospital needing sedation.

The Middlemore Hospital in Manukau reported half a dozen cases of drug-takers seeking emergency treatment last week after taking pills known as red rockets that they believed were ecstasy.