'You feel invincible, but I hated the person I was'

"I HAD problems in my life at the time and I saw it as a solution.

"It went from there. I went from doing it on the weekend to whenever I had a problem, doing it most days. Having a line made it better.

"It would be brilliant. It is like power. You feel you are the best and can do anything. It's like coke and MD (MDMA — ecstasy). You feel cocky like being on coke, and you get the rush.

"You feel happier, but it is fake happiness. It is the drugs saying you are happy.

"You get two people who hate each other, they have a sniff and then they love each other, they're cwtching and everything.

"And that is how you make fake friends — if you are sober you may not like them.

"Most of the numbers on my phone were dealers. Dealers want to sell it quickly, so they will deliver it to you in five to ten minutes.

"But since I have been clean they have told me what is in it. There would be cement, bleach, shattered glass, even the heroin substitute methadone.

"If it is pure it will be dirty yellow. The joke is it is cat urine. People see it as pure if it has crystals, so that is what the glass is in there for.

"And there is also the risk of hepatitis. People shove a note up their nose, and it bleeds, and it gets passed on.

"In some places now it is called 'cheeky', because people were cracking down on it and you would have undercover police about. Instead of asking for Meow, you would go to people and say, 'Have you got a bit of cheeky?'

"I've seen a boy OD on it, and it is horrible, and I lost a friend from it last Christmas.

"Someone offered it to him, and he had loads of it, mixed it with drinks and everything. He had a heart attack and died. And another person I know died a few months ago. He was a rugby boy, and gone into town, had a few pints and was sniffing, and just died.

"I lost family and friends because I was using it. My real friends did not want to know me.

"I had fake friends. I was changing for the worse. You do feel invincible, but I hated the person I was.

"My real mates were crying to me, saying, 'You are going to be dead if you carry on'.

"That hit me for six. I had to change, and I told my mother. We had a heart to heart, and she was crying too, but she supported me.

"I had to stop seeing my friends, I did not want anything to do with it.

"I have a good relationship with my mother now. She has seen me change. My real friends like me now I am clean. If you move in that crowd, it is a vicious circle, because people just keep coming back to it.

"The last time I had it I thought I heard one of my friends say they were going to 'tax me' — tax means they are going to rob you. But I did not know if it was me or my paranoia.

"It is the most popular drug now.

"At times I still want it, but I take a step back, and look at what I was like, and where I am now, and I stop myself.

"You are aware of what you have built up since you stopped taking it, and how it is selfish.

"If anyone is thinking about taking Meow, you have to stand your ground."

"I started when me and a friend were looking after the dog of a drug dealer, and he gave us a quarter of a gram to have. It was when it first came out, it was still called Mcat at the time.

"It costs about £10 a gram, sometimes now £15.

"We were doing ketamine, which is £20, so it was cheaper. For £20 you get two grams of Meow instead of one of ketamine. And now you can't get ketamine any more, because dealers don't deal it.

"A gram might last an hour and a half for me, depending on how good it is. I have bashed up half a gram lines.

"I've been in clubs where people are chopping it out on the end of bar.

"You get a euphoric rush, and you are king.

"It is the most popular drug of our age. Some older friends are into coke and MD, but you need more money for that.

"It is s*** being around people who are on it. You do not get it, you are outside the circle. You do not get half the things they are talking about, you can talk gibberish.

"You don't have to go to a club to get it, you can just go outside now, up the road. Walk into a pub, or ask anyone aged 17 to 22 years old if you can get some.

"I have a list of 50 to 70 weed dealers I could call and ask for any drug and they would get it.

"It is easier to get than alcohol, because you do not have to leave your house. They want to sell it so they will bring it around immediately.

"I was doing it for years, every day I would have some quick lines. But I do not like being around people who do it. I got to the point where I was sick and tired of it."