Killer had taken street drug linked to serious violence
The banned drug taken by Liam Hay before he murdered Anthony McGladrigan has been linked with other acts of extreme violence.
M-Cat – the street name for mephedrone – is a laboratory-produced synthetic stimulant which has similar effects to cocaine.
The powder which is often cut with local anaesthetic benzocaine was banned in 2010 after it was linked to a number of drug-related deaths.
A governmentbacked study published in 2014 found habitual users of M-Cat are prone to violent behaviour, even if they had never been aggressive previously.
Austin Smith, policy officer at the Scottish Drugs Forum, a national resource of expertise on drugs, said: “The key issue is the user’s underlying mental health. Someone who has problems with psychosis or the potential to be psychotic may become psychotic under the influence of stimulants.
“Temporary psychosis may occur with people who have not slept for long periods due to the effect of stimulants.”
The 2014 study which linked M-Cat with violent crime was carried out by Professor Fiona Brookman, director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of South Wales.
The research was based on interviews with dozens of M-Cat users, as well as drugs workers.
Professor Brookman discovered that many M-Cat users had never exhibited aggressive or violent behaviour until they used mephedrone.
She said: “Interviewees were very clear in their own minds that mephedrone had a direct and significant influence on them becoming involved in acts of violence.
“This, they reasoned, must be the case as they were either not usually violent or would not normally have been violent in relation to such trivial triggers.
“Many experts shared this view based on their long-term work with abusers of a range of drugs.”
She added: “Just over 40% of those who took part in the survey and over 75% of those interviewed, reported engaging in violent crime as a result of their abuse of mephedrone.”