MEOW MEOW BAN 'WITHIN WEEKS'

DANCE drug mephedrone - known as meow meow - could be banned within
weeks, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said today.

The 'legal high' mephedrone has already been linked to 25 deaths in
England and Scotland.

Mr Johnson said it would be banned and made a class B
drug.

A ban on importing the drug has also been introduced from
today.

The Home Secretary's announcement came after he was given a report
backing a mephedrone ban by Professor Les Iversen, chairman of the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

The ACMD said 18 people in England and seven in Scotland had died
after taking the substance.

Chief government drugs advisor Professor Les Iversen told a meeting of
the council that it was still unclear whether the drug caused the deaths.

But, he added: "I'm sure that you like us are quite alarmed by these
increasing statistics of possible deaths attributed to this drug."

Resigned

Plans to ban mephedrone were thrown into doubt earlier today after a
leading government drugs advisor dramatically quit.

Dr Polly Taylor resigned from the ACMD just hours before Home
Secretary Alan Johnson was expected to announce a proposed ban.

She is the sixth advisor on the body to quit since Professor David
Nutt was sacked last year after he claimed ecstasy was less dangerous
than alcohol.

Mr Johnson is expected to accept Professor Iversen's likely advice
that mephedrone should be made a class-B drug.

It was unclear whether the council could issue the government the
necessary advice ahead of a ban without Dr Perry but the Home Office
insisted the council can still fulfil its duties and it would act on
its recommendations "immediately".

The change in the law was expected to be passed on April
8.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, Dr Taylor, the only veterinary
consultant on the ACMD, hinted at the demise of Prof Nutt by saying
she feared the panel's advice was not being treated
independently.

She wrote: "I feel that there is little more we can do to describe the
importance of ensuring that advice is not subjected to a desire to
please ministers or the mood of the day's Press."

Mephedrone has been blamed for a string of deaths in recent
weeks.

Last week Lois Waters, 24, from Norton, North Yorks, became the latest
person to die after taking the drug.

It followed the sudden deaths of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas
Smith, 19, in Scunthorpe, Humberside.

After a change in classification to class-B, dealers will face up to
14 years in prison.

Meanwhile a TV probe revealed Chinese chemical factories are planning
to get round a ban by producing new 'legal highs'.