MEPHEDRONE BAN IN CHAOS AS DRUGS ADVISER DR POLLY TAYLOR QUITS

A key government drugs adviser resigned just hours before Alan
Johnson, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce a proposed ban on
mephedrone.

Dr Polly Taylor is the sixth member of the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs to resign since the sacking of the chairman, Professor
David Nutt, last year.

The move will come as a blow to Mr Johnson who is due to meet with his
chief drugs adviser, Professor Les Iversen and is understood to be
likely to accept his advice that the drug be placed in the Class B
category.

Dr Taylor's departure could derail plans to pass a ban through
Parliament before the expected start of the general election campaign.
Parliamentary rules require that before a drug can be reclassified the
Government must consult a "properly constituted" advisory council,
which should include a vet among its members. The Home Secretary
cannot act on its advice if the council does not have a full set of
members.

Professor Iversen said the advisory council was "saddened and
disappointed" by the resignation of Dr Taylor. But he said it would
present its advice to Mr Johnson as planned at 4pm this afternoon.

He said there were "serious concerns" about mephedrone and the
council's research meant it was ready to present its conclusions to
ministers.

He said: "There are genuine public concerns about mephedrone and other
cathinones. It is important to give the Home Secretary and the public
considered evidence that we have gathered."

In a letter to the Home Secretary, Dr Taylor, the only veterinary
consultant on the council, said she feared that 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."

The families of teenage victims have called for a ban on mephedrone
which is marketed as plant food and sold on the internet as a "legal
high". It is also know as miaow-miaow.

Professor Iversen told MPs last week: "I am not here to give my
personal views... but, as a pharmacologist, these drugs are
amphetamines by another name and I know that amphetamines are harmful.
I think you can deduce my conclusions from that."

Last week 24-year-old Lois Waters from Norton, North Yorkshire, became
the latest person to die after taking the drug. Her death followed
those of Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, in Scunthorpe,
Lincolnshire.

The advisory council, which Professor Iversen chairs, is required to
present a full report on the dangers of mephedrone before a ban can
come into force.

This is unlikely to happen until after Easter, according to Home
Office sources. Once the report is passed on, the change in the law
would have to be approved by both houses of Parliament and the Privy
Council.

Critics alleged there was a delay in banning the drug.

The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said work by
the advisory council on the dangers of mephedrone was put back because
of resignations from the council, which included the expert in charge
of research on the drug.

The Liberal Democrat Science spokesman Dr Evan Harris said today that
he Government had "shot themselves in the foot".

He said: "The 1971 Act is very clear that, before the Government
criminalises thousands of people by banning a drug, they must take
advice on drug harm and other matters from a legally-constituted
advisory council.

"The Government have shot themselves in the foot.

"They were warned repeatedly by me and major scientific organisations
that, unless they pledged to allow their unpaid independent scientists
the freedom and independence to give their advice without fear of
reprisal by politicians, they would face more resignations.

"Scientists are simply not prepared to be treated like Professor David
Nutt was.

"If it is necessary to act urgently to ban mephedrone then, in
provoking this resignation by his refusal to respect the scientists
who offer advice, the Home Secretary will now be forced to wait a
delay while the council is properly constituted.

"This episode tells us what we should have learned from the BSE
disaster -- if we treat scientists badly, then the Government will not
get the best advice and we will all suffer as a result."

The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is a completely
chaotic situation. Alan Johnson has had months to sort out the
problems on the council and to get it back into a position where it
can do its job properly.

"If he has failed to do so, and as a result made it impossible to deal
with drugs like mephedrone, then it is an enormous and unacceptable
failure."

Professor Iversen said the selection process for a replacement for Dr
Taylor had already begun as her term of office was coming to an end.
Interviews, he said, would take place "as soon as possible".