Experts call for legal highs guidance

The popularity of legal high mephedrone, also known as bubbles or miaow, has surged in recent months with children as young as 11 reported to have taken it.

Widely available on the internet for as little as £10 a gram, the drug is often sold under the guise of plant-food with users reporting effects similar to those of cocaine and ecstasy.

Several deaths have been linked with the drug but little is known about exactly how it works or the long-term effects it may have.

The drug is not currently classified, although the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is expected to advise the government next month that it should be banned.

Andrew Brown, co-ordinator of the Drug Education Forum, said it is essential that young people are educated about mephedrone and other legal highs. "(The government) could do more to make sure those that work with children have more and better information about these new drugs," he said.

He added that the ACMD is considering ways of changing the current system to better deal with the emergence of new drugs.

Lovisa Liyanage, assistant training co-ordinator at drug education charity Hope UK, said: "We need education systems so that when things come up, youth workers are ready to respond and know where to get information."

Mephedrone is already illegal in a number of countries, including Denmark, Finland, Israel and Sweden.