THE deadly “legal high” drug mephedrone is being bought and sold in and around North Yorkshire schools, according to a local police sergeant.

As The Press’s campaign to outlaw mephedrone enters its second week, Sgt Geoff Crocker warned: “A lot of parents may think it’s safe because it’s legal, but it’s anything but.”

He said: “We know people are buying the drug as plant food and then selling it on. We know it’s being sold around schools and, in some cases by pupils in schools.

“There are so many types of legal high and the one that’s most prevalent at the moment is mephedrone.”

He said those who sold the drug were using the internet to market the product, which can be sold legitimately as plant feed.

He said: “Because it’s legal to buy this plant food, internet companies will pretend to be selling garden forks and greenhouses but when you try to buy one it’s out of stock and the site is a front to sell mephedrone.”

Sgt Crocker, who is based in Harrogate, said the presence of the drug was no more prevalent in the town than anywhere else in North Yorkshire, but said the force had been working closely with schools and the council to educate people.

He said: “We are finding a lot of kids are shying away from it because the way to take it is by snorting it and they see it as a drug.

“The refreshing thing is a lot of kids want nothing to do with them.”

However, he said: “We know it causes nose bleeds and turns limbs purple and we know there’s been a death in Durham.

“We know it grows plants very nicely, but we don’t know what it does to the human body"

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