WIGHT LIVINGHE was captain of the school football team and won the cup three years in a row.
But by the time he was 13, Mark McEwan was already a convicted drug dealer and by 17 was one of the youngest inmates at Parkhurst Prison in modern times.
Almost a decade on, Mark, now 28, has turned his back on crime and wants to make amends by using his experience to ensure young people do not repeat his mistakes.
He is channelling his energy into raising awareness to what he sees as the new heroin, a new danger drug on the streets — the so-called legal high, mephedrone.
The substance, which is already illegal in Israel, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, has gone from nowhere to fourth position in a study of clubbers’ drug-taking habits.
Mephedrone, imported from laboratories in China, is believed to have first entered Britain in 2008. By the summer, it was sweeping through clubs and parties throughout the country.
Mark claims the white powder, which has a whole host of street names, including meph, Drone, Meow and Bubbles, is worse than heroin, a class A drug, describing it as a mix between ecstasy and cocaine.
He says it is being taken by people of all ages and from all walks of life, oblivious to the dangers.
"Parents, particularly, don’t know how powerful it is. They buy it for their children because they don’t want them to go onto heroin but they don’t realise it’s just as bad, worse in fact," he said.
Mephedrone is sold as a white powder, which is usually snorted in a similar way to cocaine.
It is also found in capsules and pills or can be dissolved in a liquid. It can also be injected.
Mark said he was immediately hooked after taking it for the first time at last year’s IW Festival.
"I was 13 stone pure muscle before I took that stuff and within two months I had lost two-and-a-half stone," he said.
"If you snort one line, you don’t stop until it’s all gone.
"I assumed it was safe to begin with because you could buy it from a shop and was freely available on the internet.
"However, once I saw and experienced the effects I realised how powerful and addictive it was."
A recent survey for the dance magazine Mixmag found that 67 per cent of mephedrone users reported excess sweating, 51 per cent headaches, 43 per cent heart palpitations, 27 per cent nausea and 15 per cent cold or blue fingers.
Most of those side effects are common with other stimulants, such as ecstasy and cocaine.
Other anecdotal reports suggest heavy use can lead to paranoia, hallucinations and serious panic attacks.
Similar psychotic effects have been reported with heavy amphetamine use.
To warn young people of the dangers, Mark wants to set up his own foundation offering advice and support through music and other activities.
He has also started up a Facebook campaign, which already has 500 members, and is keen to go into schools.
"They need to hear from someone who’s been there and back a hundred times over. If I can save just one child’s life it will be worth doing this," he said.
"I wouldn’t wish anyone’s children to see the things I have."
As an ex-addict, Mark recognised the danger signs and, determined not to return to his old ways, pulled back from the brink, ridding himself of mephedrone for 2010.
Mark grew up in Forest Road, Newport, but now lives in Carisbrooke.
He was expelled from school at 13 after he was caught with a carrier bag of cannabis on school property.
"It was a total accident. Some lad had nicked the stuff from his old man and gave it to me," said Mark.
"I took it into school and gave some to some lads a few years older than me and one got caught smoking it and said it was mine. That was my last day at school.
"While all my friends were at school, I was left on the streets. I used to go to the arcade but they stopped kids going in there in the day time so I used to sit up at the park on my own on a bench, or I used to go around shoplifting.
"Where my mum and dad wouldn’t give me any money because they thought I would spend it on drugs, I had to thieve for my money. I never told them anything.
"I never really used to do drugs. I used to smoke cannabis and even when I did go onto heroin I hated it because it used to make me so sick.
"I used to think, what’s all the fuss about? A year down the line I finally realised I was addicted."
Mark said he fell in with the wrong crowd and, still only 15, found himself part of a huge heroin ring.
His role was to pick up the drugs from London and bring them back to the Island for £80 a day.
"This was a £6,000 profit a day business. At that age your eyes light up when you see all that money.
"I was too young, I didn’t have a clue. It wasn’t until I was nicked and I was told I could get seven years that it clicked.
"I spent a year on remand in Parkhurst, which was a still category A prison. I’ve never been so scared, it really changed my life and made me who I am today."
Mark, who was jailed for three years in 2001 after admitting conspiracy to supply heroin, says drugs ruined his life and with mephedrone legal, fears others could be sucked into a downward spiral of drug addiction.
As things stand, mephedrone is not controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. That means it is currently legal to buy and be in possession of the powder.
The legal position around selling it is more complex. It is against the law to sell, supply or advertise the powder for human consumption under the Medicines Act.
This is why most websites label the drug as a 'plant feeder’ or 'research chemical’ and 'not for human consumption’.
It also means a user could be breaking the law if they buy mephedrone in bulk and sell it to friends on the understanding it is to be taken as a recreational drug.
The government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has been asked to research the harms linked to legal highs such as mephedrone.
Prof Les Iversen, who chairs the council, told the County Press: "The ACMD are concerned about the diversity, prevalence and potential harms of substances that constitute 'legal highs’ and have already delivered advice to the government on GBL, BZP and synthetic cannabinoids, which have been found in products marketed as SPICE.
"We are now looking at the dangers of mephedrone, and the related cathinone compounds, as a priority and will report back to government as soon as possible.
"It is important to understand that just because a substance is legal, it doesn’t mean it’s safe to consume. Under medicines legislation, most of these legal highs are illegal to sell, supply, or advertise for human consumption."
Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk