CARTOON porcupines are the latest weapon in Oxfordshire’s battle against recreational drugs.

Oxfordshire’s Drug and Alcohol Team (DAAT) is using the video sharing website YouTube to reach more people and let them know about the darker side to drugs.

Three animated videos costing £5,500 each have been uploaded to help explain the effects and risks to body and mind of taking ketamine, mephedrone and cocaine .

They feature cartoon porcupines which act out the effects of taking the drugs while a narrator reads out a message.

The porcupines are shown collapsing in puddles of urine with their eyes rolling and eventually are shown passing out and, in one, dying.

Jo Melling, a coordinator from DAAT, said the videos were a way of reaching a wider audience and were mainly aimed at the under-30s.

She said: “It’s a way of thinking outside the box.

“Health messages need to be multi-media these days.

“At the moment we only work with a handful of mephedrone and ketamine users, probably about 50 across the whole county.

“But we do know from our links that these drugs are widespread in things like free parties, and the pubs and clubs of Oxfordshire.”

Former addict Dr Dickon Lush, from Summertown, Oxford, said he thought the videos were a good idea but did not address some of the more serious implications of the drugs.

Dr Lush started drinking when he was 13, going on to experiment with LSD and cannabis, before moving on to opiates like morphine and heroin for nearly 20 years.

The father-of-two, who has now been clean for 19 months, said: “I thought they were quite witty at first.

“I think it’s quite good they’ve shown the two sides to mephedrone and warned people you could have a good time, but you could have a really bad time.

“They warned of the nose bleeds mephedrone users can get, but I thought a more serious health warning should be the circulatory problems people have reported.”

He said there had also been reports of people having traumatic hallucinogenic flashbacks, adding: “That to me is more worrying.”

In conjunction with the launch of the videos, DAAT has also produced a range of posters and will be holding awareness events in all secondary schools and university freshers’ fairs in September.

Ms Melling said she hoped the money spent would be recouped as organisations from across the world were asking for copies of the posters and videos to show at schools and conferences.

She added: “It’s so important people understand the risks of recreational drug use.

“These drugs can do massive harm to both users and those around them. These short animated films aim to make people stop and think. They are funny cartoons with very serious messages.”

Users of the Oxford Homeless Pathways, formerly the Oxford Night Shelter, in Luther Street, also gave their opinion on the videos.

Nick Williams said the vidoes were a good idea, but added: “The list of side effect-gives an inaccurate impression of taking mephedrone.”

Fellow service user Michael Glavin added: “They probably would not act as a deterrent, it needs real people to get point across.”