Meow Meow: Russia’s Mephedrone Teen Crisis

“Meow Meow: Russia's Mephedrone Teen Crisis” exposes the growing problem of mephedrone use among Russian teenagers — a synthetic drug known as “meow” or “the poor man's cocaine.” This BBC Eye investigation follows the entire drug chain: from Chinese precursors, to Russian production labs, to the lives destroyed by addiction.

BBC Eye takes viewers inside the hidden world of dealers, chemists, and addicts. With rare access, the film tells the story of “Maxim”, who entered the drug world at fifteen and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He vanished in Ukraine after joining the Russian military.

We also meet Olya, a teenage girl whose life was consumed by mephedrone. To sustain her addiction she began selling her body. After a failed attempt to get clean, she slid into heroin use. In November 2024, she was arrested for dealing and sentenced to six years in prison. Olya’s story lays bare how exploitation, addiction, and desperation intertwine — and how quickly young lives unravel under the weight of drug dependency and punitive justice.

Through an interview with “Sam”, a former underage trafficker turned remote lab supervisor, we glimpse the scale and sophistication of the drug trade. Sam speaks from outside Russia, where he now oversees mephedrone production on an industrial scale.

Renat Kuramshin, a former anti-drug officer, maps the trafficking route of precursors from China into Russia - a shadow economy that thrives on scale, anonymity, and impunity.

Technology has supercharged this crisis. Unlike in the West, where darknet drugs are typically mailed, Russia’s distribution system relies on “dead drops” — GPS-tagged caches hidden in public spaces. These rapid, anonymous pickups allow users to access drugs within hours. Behind this system are sprawling darknet markets and encrypted Telegram channels, where vendors recruit teenagers as couriers — or “cladmen” — with promises of fast money. As law enforcement arrests thousands of these low-level runners, the system simply regenerates.