A LEADING narcotics expert has predicted the number of people selling danger drug mephedrone will be cut in half following the decision to outlaw it.

York drugs worker Paul Tye, who runs substance abuse programmes for adults and young people on behalf of the York Crime Reduction Initiative, says mephedrone is mainly used by young people and use of the drug in this age bracket exploded in the weeks leading up to the Government ban.

Between October and December 2009, the centre was working with four users of mephedrone – all under the age 18 – but by last month the figure had spiralled, with its team helping 14 teenagers who had turned to the drug.

Mr Tye believes peer pressure and the desire to try a substance they were being warned off played a part in the increased number of users.

He now feels its criminal image will steer them away from experimenting again.

He also says hardened drug dealers have chosen not to peddle mephedrone because it is chiefly used by under-18s, with the average supplier being a 17-year-old who orders the substance online to supply to younger teenagers, but who will now turn their backs on it after it was classified as illegal.

“They didn’t think they were committing a crime or doing anything wrong,” said Mr Tye.

“They didn’t see the other side and the young people who haven’t been able to sleep for three or four days, or the 14 and 15-year-olds coming up to exams who haven’t been able to sleep.”

Mr Tye believes as many as 50 per cent of the older teenagers who have been getting the drug online and supplying it to younger friends will stop now the drug has been banned.

And, because most users of the drug are underage, he does not fear that professional criminals could step in to fill the gap.

Mr Tye backed The Press’s campaign for a ban on the drug and the Government’s decision to classify it as a Class B substance, saying: “The Press and the Government have done the right thing.”

• HOME Secretary Alan Johnson has written personally to Steve Hughes, editor of The Press, outlining the steps taken to ban mephedrone. The letter, dated April 20, was in response to our Menace Of Mephedrone campaign and accompanying petition.

Mr Johnson said following implementation of the ban on April 16, the Government had taken a series of immediate actions.

“To limit the supply of mephedrone, other cathinone derivatives and all products containing thee drugs, the Government banned their importation and instructed UK Border Agency officials to seize and destroy shipments of mephedrone at the border,” Mr Johnson wrote.

He has also written to local authorities and police forces urging them to use powers to seize the substance.