15/04/2010 - Shops warned over mephedrone ban
Businesses who may have come into contact with the party drug mephedrone are being reminded that the drug is being made illegal.
Trading standards staff in London have begun visiting shops and removing plant food suspected of containing the drug.
The Home Office announced the drug would become illegal from Friday April 16 and labelled it a class B drug.
Councillor Paul Bettison, from the Local Government Association, said: "Council staff have not been idle ahead of the change in the rules. Work has been taking place to ensure supplies of mephedrone are handed over to the authorities so that this potentially damaging drug is cleared from shelves as quickly as possible."
Possession of mephedrone will carry a sentence of five years in prison with a maximum sentence for dealing in the drug of 14 years.
The move to ban mephedrone, which is sold over the internet as plant food, comes despite the resignation of two Government drugs advisers over the issue.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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