Legal high may be banned, says expert

Published on Tuesday 23 March 2010 22:21

MEPHEDRONE is likely to be made a Class B drug, the government's chief drugs adviser indicated yesterday.

Professor Les Iversen, the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), said his personal view was mephedrone was "amphetamines by another name".

However, in evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, he

defended the need to conduct research into the effects of mephedrone – known as M-Cat or Miaow Miaow – before it was banned.

Addressing the MPs he said: "I am not here to give my personal views … but as a pharmacologist these drugs are amphetamines by another name and I know that amphetamines are harmful.

"I think you can deduce my conclusions from that."

Amphetamines are currently a Class B drug along with cannabis.

Putting mephedrone in Class B would mean carrying the drug would be punishable with a jail term of up to five years and dealing it with up to 14 years in prison.

Prof Iversen said it was "remarkable" how quickly the fashion for taking mephedrone had grown.

Ministers faced criticism for not having banned mephedrone following the deaths of two teenage boys in Scunthorpe last week.

The families of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, joined calls from teachers' leaders for an immediate ban.

Police are also investigating the death of Lois Waters, a 24-year-old woman thought to have taken the drug in Norton, North Yorkshire.

Mephedrone was virtually unknown until early last year but it is now one of the most popular drugs in nightclubs and is widely available online.

It is usually a white or yellowish powder, which is snorted, but can also come in pills and capsules.