Well, Ain't That Just the Khat's Meow

By Mary Reynolds

“People in the Middle East use khat like we use coffee,” says Dr. Richard Glennon about the naturally occurring amphetamine found in the plant Catha edulis. The stimulant has been around for centuries, “They collect the leaves, make it into a drink and have it for breakfast.” It is more common, however, to chew khat leaves throughout the course of the day.

TV news junkies may remember Tom Brokaw lamenting the “Somali thugs high on khat” patrolling the streets of Mogadishu when the media and the U.S. were still interested in the now-unimportant country.

But khat has a little more kick than a cup of coffee; it’s an amphetamine stimulant. “The problem in the Middle East is that people end up spending most of their income on it,” says Glennon. Sounds like cocaine; acts like cocaine. Just a wee more potent.

Glennon, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at MCV, began studying the molecular structure of this breakfast drink plant in the 1980s. His research found that cathinone, the active chemical in the plant, is somewhat structurally similar to amphetamine. He made changes to the molecule to make it more active than cathinone. In fact, “We gave it the name, methacathinone.”

“Methacathinone is to cathinone what methamphetamine, or speed, is to amphetamine,” Glennon says. “Methacathinone is ten times more potent than cocaine.”

Soon after publishing his work, a Russian scientist contacted him and said that methacathinone was a widely abused drug in the former Soviet Union, second only to alcohol.

In the early 1990s, a midwestern ex-university student figured out how to make this drug. His “discovery” spawned metha-cathinone or “cat” laboratories throughout Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Inhaling, swallowing and shooting up cat created a major drug problem in that region.

Glennon worked with the DEA, explaining its effect on users in order to classify methacathinone as dangerous. According to Glennon, the DEA has closed down more than 50 cat labs in the past few years.

How did cat get to America? One can only speculate. The Michigan man who developed cat for Americans to abuse was of Russian descent and may have received the recipe from his relatives in the former Soviet Union. He is now in prison.

So, has cat come to Richmond?

There is no evidence that the drug is available here. Of course, the Times-Dispatch says ecstasy hasn’t hit Richmond, either. However, to show they are tough on drugs, City Council made methacathinone illegal in the city limits last June. “It’s a Schedule I substance [highest federal classification for illegal drugs], anyway,” says Glennon.