Daily Telegraph Moral Panic Journalism and Mephedrone Pushing

On the 17th March Daily Telegraph hack Heidi Blake wrote about Mephedrone and the dangers it presented; which she claimed, following the Telegraph editorial line required an immediate ban. Her article went under the headline Mephedrone: the truth about 'miaow miaow' In the article Blake claimed that:

In November Gabrielle Price, 14, of Worthing West Sussex, died after allegedly taking the drug.

What Blake didn't say was that in December, less than a month after Gabrielle's tragic death Sussex police announced that following toxicology tests:

It has now been established that death resulted from cardiac arrest following broncho-pneumonia which resulted from a streptococcal A infection.

As it was clear that Gabrielle's death was from natural causes, and had nothing whatsoever to do with Mephedrone or any other drug, there was no need for a full inquest.

I therefore saw a certain irony when my attention was drawn to th screen shot below posted on the web by badjournalism. It shows a search for stories on mephedrone on the Daily Telegraph website. As well as these stories the viewer is also directed to a number of suppliers of the drug. These are paid adverts provided by google. So although the Telegraph demands an immediate ban in the meantime they are happy to earn their referral fees from the pushers.

As you can see Heidi Blake story is shown up by the search which looks like it was done on the following day, March 18th.

The Telegraph has subsquently run a story revealing the Government's tax revenue from the plant food/ drug was £584,303.  How could they make money off the pedling of this evil? A case of throwing stones in a glasshouse methinks.

Hattip badjournalism