Comment on FR Doc # 2012-25509

As a social libertarian and a critic of the current drug policy in the United States, I nonetheless endorse the placement of methylone into Schedule 1. I have never used methylone, nor have I ever been around anyone who I knew to be under its influence. In preparation for this comment, however, I did read many accounts of its use on erowid.org (an international site cataloging individuals' experiences under the influence of psychoactive plants or chemicals). I also researched the drug in online articles and encyclopedias. Based upon my research, I feel that methylone is a dangerous drug capable of causing addiction, damage to the circulatory system, and possibly even death through overdose. A prominent theme of the experience 'vaults' on erowid consisted of elevated heart rate in a manner similar to that produced by amphetamines. Unlike amphetamines, however, there is little to suggest that methylone has any medical benefit. Although it was originally patented as an anti-depressant, I could not find any evidence of it ever having been prescribed by a medical doctor, nor could I find any account of an individual claiming to benefit from its regular use as an anti-depressant (even without a medical recommendation or prescription). Instead, nearly all erowid users claimed to be using it solely for recreation and alarmingly, although perhaps not surprisingly, many of these individuals did not seem even remotely well-informed about the drug generally or about the dosage or purity of the methylone that they took. Furthermore, descriptions of its effects varied significantly-- from euphoria to irregular heartbeat, anxiety, high blood pressure, jaw-clenching, muscle spasms, depression, and vomiting. Accordingly, I think methylone should be classified as Schedule 1 precisely because of the lack of knowledge surrounding it combined with its high potential for causing damage or overdose in users. Such classification would follow similar classifications of the drug in Europe.