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- BBC Radio Host Dies: The party drug mephedrone caused 53 year old George Wembley to suffer a fatal heart attack
- Mephedrone: Is now an illegal substance in the UK, following a slew of deaths linked to its use.
Designer Drug Mephedrone (Meow Meow) Gives BBC Radio Host Fatal Heart Attack
George Webley, known on air as Big George, died from a fatal heart attack after taking the designer club drug mephedrone, which is also popularly known as meow meow.
A coroner’s inquest report released today revealed that the 53 year old BBC radio show host died in May from a fatal heart attack after taking the illegal stimulant, mephedrone.
The father of four awoke his wife Sheila after midnight on May 7th of this year with cries for help. When she found him downstairs he was on the floor and struggling for breath. She called paramedics and performed CPR while waiting for their arrival, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Webley had survived a previous heart attack at the age of 38.
In a statement, Milton Keynes Coroner Thomas Osborne reported that the cause of death was long standing heart disease that was aggravated by his use of cathinones (mephedrone), saying, “It’s more likely than not the final event was caused by those drugs in his system. It is wrong to record natural causes. The verdict is he died as a result of misadventure…an action that went wrong and led to his heart attack and subsequent death.”
The designer drug mephedrone is a member of the cathinone family of drugs, which work similarly to amphetamines. Mephedrone is currently an illegal class-B substance in the UK, after being scheduled in April of last year following a number of deaths that were linked to the use of the drug.
In addition to hosting Three Counties Radio on the BBC, Wembley also worked as a composer and had arranged the music for the programs, Have I Got News For You and The Office.