PM HINTS AT BAN ON DRUG

GORDON Brown has given his strongest hint yet that The Press will win
its campaign to have the danger drug mephedrone banned after the
Prime Minister is handed a crucial report from advisors on Monday.

Mr Brown has suggested the Advisory Council On The Misuse Of Drugs
will recommend that mephedrone should be made a Class B drug.

The move follows a number of deaths linked to the "legal high"
including that of 24-year-old Lois Waters, whose inquest was opened
and adjourned in Scarborough yesterday.

Other fatalities include Louis Wainright, 18, who died in the
Scunthorpe area last week, and the latest victim -- Joslyne Marie
Cockburn, 18, -- who died after a night out in Newcastle.

Yesterday, York MP Hugh Bayley signed a Parliamentary motion calling
on the Government to bring forward an urgent review of mephedrone. He
said: "It is clear that this substance is very dangerous, and can
have tragic consequences. I want the Government to urgently review
mephedrone to make it a controlled substance and to better educate
young people about the dangers of using 'legal highs'.

"The Government and the independent drugs advisory group need to act
fast to prevent any further tragedies."

Mephedrone comes in crystal, powder, capsule or liquid form and is
more commonly known as meow, bubbles, M-CAT or 4-MMC. It has led to a
rising number of users in the city being rushed to the accident and
emergency department at York Hospital. Symptoms include paranoia,
anxiety, palpitations, increased heart rate and convulsions. A
spokesperson for York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have
treated a number of people over the past few months that have taken
this drug, and we are continuing to see a handful of people a week
in our emergency department, mainly at weekends."