3:31pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
Ministers have been blamed for "delays" in banning a drug linked to the deaths of two teenagers.
An official review of the dance drug mephedrone, which The Press is campaigning to have banned, was put back because of fallout from the sacking of the Government's chief drugs adviser last year, it has been claimed.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said "political meddling" by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who sacked Professor David Nutt, had resulted in an "inordinate delay" in analysing mephedrone.
The Government is unable to ban the drug until the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) reports on its dangers, but Dr Les King, the scientist in charge of looking at the effects of the drug, quit over the sacking of Professor Nutt as ACMD chairman.
Police believe mephedrone contributed to the deaths of teenagers Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, in Scunthorpe on Monday.
It is sold online as plant food and is also known as "miaow miaow" or M-CAT.
Mr Huhne said: "The failure to classify mephedrone is a direct consequence of the Government's interference in the independent advice of its scientific advisers. If the Home Secretary hadn't meddled in the work of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs we would already have had their advice and the Government would be able to act."
The Press launched its Menace of Mephedrone campaign in January, after a sixth-former in Pocklington collapsed after taking the drug.
Business secretary Lord Mandelson reportedly said today that he had "never heard" of mephedrone, but said the Government would take any action necessary.
He said: "Now it's been associated with the deaths of these two young people the Government, as you would expect, will be looking at this very, very speedily, and very carefully, and we will take any action that is needed, any action that is justified to deal with it and to avert any consequences happening in the future."
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