DANGER drug mephedrone could have contributed to almost 100 deaths in the last two years — nearly one every week.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said 42 deaths have been caused or contributed to mephedrone, also known as M-Cat or Miaow Miaow, and the former “legal high” — which was outlawed last year after a campaign by The Press — is also linked to 56 deaths still being investigated.

A report by the advisory council also found that deadly substances such as mephedrone, as well as other now-banned former legal highs including Ivory Wave, Spice, Naphyrone, and GBL, are often sold by students making a “quick buck” rather than by hardened drug dealers.

Lois Waters, 24, of Norton, died in March last year after taking the drug with a friend.

An inquest later found that the now Class-B drug, a stimulant like ecstasy, was likely to have contributed to her death.

In the wake of the latest figures, ACMD committee chairman of Professor Les Iverson called for tough laws to make it easier to outlaw “legal highs”, saying: “Users are playing a game of Russian roulette.

“They are buying substances marked as research chemicals.

“The implication is that you should do the research yourself to find out whether they’re safe.

“There’s a whole group of people who have started using drugs who before would never have dreamed of doing that.”

Surveys show as many as two in five clubbers have taken miaow miaow.

Prof Iverson said Britain must introduce an American-style “analogue” law which automatically bans any substance that has a similar effect to illegal drugs.

He also called for a crackdown on shops who label “legal highs” as plant food or bath salts.

Prof Iverson said research showed some people given miaow miaow “had to be physically restrained and sedated” and other side effects include paranoia, psychotic symptoms, heightened aggression and heart and blood-pressure problems.

The Press was the first newspaper in the country to campaign against mephedrone in January last year after a student at Woldgate College, Pocklington, collapsed after taking the drug. During our ten week Menace of Mephedrone campaign, we spoke to parents and relatives of young people who had taken the drug, and to drugs workers who worked with young people and saw what it could do.

We handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street signed by hundreds of our readers calling for the drug to be declared illegal.

It was banned by Home Secretary, Alan Johnson.