A number of psychostimulant-like cathinone compounds are being sold as “legal” alternatives to methamphetamine or cocaine. The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether cathinone compounds stimulate motor activity and have discriminative stimulus effects similar to cocaine and/or methamphetamine. 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), methylone, mephedrone, naphyrone, flephedrone and butylone were tested for locomotor stimulant effects in mice and subsequently for substitution in rats trained to discriminate cocaine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) or methamphetamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) from saline. All compounds fully substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine and methamphetamine. Several commonly marketed cathinones produce discriminative stimulus effects comparable to those of cocaine and methamphetamine, which suggests that these compounds are likely to have similar abuse liability. MDPV and naphyrone produced locomotor stimulant effects that lasted much longer than cocaine or methamphetamine and therefore may be of particular concern, particularly since MDPV is one of the most commonly found substances associated with emergency room visits due to adverse effects from taking “bath salts”.

Mitigation ameliorates the impact of natural hazards on communities by reducing loss of life and injury, property and environmental damage, and social and economic disruption. The potential to reduce these losses brings many benefits, but every mitigation activity has a cost that must be considered in our world of limited resources. In principle benefit-cost analysis (BCA) can be used to assess a mitigation activity's expected net benefits (discounted future benefits less discounted costs), but in practice this often proves difficult. This paper reports on a study that refined BCA methodologies and applied them to a national statistical sample of FEMA mitigation activities over a ten-year period for earthquake, flood, and wind hazards. The results indicate that the overall benefit-cost ratio for FEMA mitigation grants is about 4 to 1, though the ratio varies according to hazard and mitigation type.