ADVISER QUITS AMID LEGAL HIGH ROW

A key government drugs adviser quit just hours before Home Secretary
Alan Johnson was expected to announce a proposed ban on mephedrone,
it has emerged.

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 advisor, Professor Les Iversen and is understood to
be likely to accept his advice that the drug be placed in Class B.

Dr Taylor's departure could derail plans to pass a ban through
Parliament before the expected start of the general election
campaign. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which
Prof Iversen chairs, is required to present a full report on the
dangers of mephedrone before a ban can come into force. But 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, which has been linked
to a series of deaths in recent weeks.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said work by the
ACMD 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. In a letter to the Home Secretary, Dr Taylor
said she feared 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."

Parliamentary rules require that before a drug can be reclassified
the government must consult a "properly constituted" ACMD, which
should include a vet among its members. The families of victims have
called for a ban on mephedrone, which is known as Plant Food, or
Miaow Miaow and sold on the internet as a "legal high".

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.