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   Decision on drugs ban next month
Alan Johnson has said a decision will be taken on whether to ban products offering "legal highs", including mephedrone, early next month. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, now chaired by Professor Les Iverson, is currently gathering evidence before producing a recommendation for the government in March, the home secretary told MPs. During Commons question time, Johnson said the ACMD was treating the issue as an "absolute priority". Conservative MP Robert Goodwill had expressed his concerns that the "purveyors of these pernicious preparations" kept ahead of the law by modifying the chemical composition or marketing them in different ways. In response, the home secretary told MPs: "It is a priority, they are moving as quickly as they can, consistent with trying to ensure that they are not just dealing with mephedrone, they are dealing with the whole generic group so that we can't be fooled by the manufacturers moving around." Johnson said it was "very important to get a generic classification" to ensure all areas are covered and to prevent drug manufactures from "shifting around". He added: "We can actually make illegal a whole range and whole classification of these drugs." Conservative MP Christopher Fraser warned that some people were stockpiling legal highs in anticipation of a ban so that they could make a greater profit afterwards And shadow home affairs minister James Brokenshire said Professor Iverson had warned the speed at which mephedrone had become popular was "quite scary". A previous ban on legal highs came in to power in December as a result of health fears, banning substances including GBL and BZP. Mephedrone, also referred to as 'meow meow', is already illegal in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Israel, and is a controlled drug in Germany. Photo: Alan Johnson Source: ePolitix.com Copyright Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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