We're not just talking about mephedrone, we're talking about a wide range of odd drugs.

I agree that main stream reporting on drugs is generally awful.

> its rarely the drug that makes someone crazy, it just amplifies existing mental health issues.

Since we're talking about novel compounds and there's no ethical way to design an experiment I'm surprised at the firmness with which you make your statement.

There are a range of options.

People with existing MH problems could be worse if they didn't take drugs.

People with existing MH problems could make those problems more severe by taking drugs.

People with underlying MH problems could make those problems more likely to surface by taking drugs.

People without risk of MH problems could cause MH problems by taking drugs.

[Obligatory drugs disclaimer: I'm firmly pro-legalisation of most drugs. Things like mephedrone wouldn't be used if other drugs were legal.]

The main point is very little is known about these drugs regarding potential for abuse or potential to cause psychosis or mania. Most of the media reports have proven to be inaccurate or anecdotal from small sample sizes.

Secondly, McAfee has denied any long term use of the drug on Joe Rogans podcast and said his reports were one-off experimentations.

So both of those combined means that saying his use of bath salts is a good indicator that he may have committed the crime is wildly speculative.

Strain anything hard enough and it will deform/break - at which time you can point at the failure and say "see? There was a defect/issue here!"

Inject enough disruptive chemicals in a finely tuned highly complex chemical process (your brain) and you'll screw it up.

Any existing mental health issues will, of course, become soon apparent. Lacking any (and nobody is mentally perfect), screw with brain chemistry long enough and there will be.