Mephedrone to be banned within weeks

DANCE drug mephedrone will be banned within weeks, British home secretary Alan Johnson announced yesterday.

The legal high, which has been linked to up to 25 deaths in England and Scotland, will be banned and made a Class B drug, he said. A ban on importing the drug came into immediate force.

The announcement came after Johnson was given a report backing a ban on mephedrone – also known as M-Cat, “Miaow Miaow”, or Plant Food – from Professor Les Iversen, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Speaking at the Home Office after talks with Prof Iversen, Johnson said he had accepted the council’s advice.

The ban will cover not just mephedrone but all similar substances in a group called cathinones, he said. It is likely to come into force by the end of April, he said.

“As a result of the council’s swift advice, I am introducing legislation to ban not just mephedrone and other cathinones but also to enshrine in law a generic definition so that, as with synthetic cannabinoids, we can be at the forefront of dealing with this whole family of drugs,” he said.

“This will stop unscrupulous manufacturers and others peddling different but similarly harmful drugs.

“My department will lay the necessary Order in Parliament (today).

“The Government is determined to crack down on these so-called legal highs and we must all play a part in ensuring children and young people know about their dangers.”

But the mother of a student killed by legal highs dismissed the home secretary’s promise to outlaw the drug as pointless, adding: “The crazy chemists are still running rings around politicians.”

Maryon Stewart, whose 21-year-old daughter, Hester, died after taking the dance drug GBL, subsequently made illegal last year by Alan Johnson, said equally dangerous products were likely to be ready to hit the market as soon as mephedrone becomes a Class B drug.

Ms Stewart, who is campaigning for the Government to introduce US-style laws banning all legal highs for a year while scientists assess their dangers, said: “It is absolute nonsense trying to ban the substances one by one.

“The crazy chemists are still running rings around politicians. It is beyond belief.

“We are limping along waiting for these drugs to become popular before making them illegal. It is a completely backward and pointless approach.”