Mephedrone is a banned substance from today (16 April) which means that anyone caught in possession of the drug could face five years in jail.

From today (16 April) the drug mephedrone, with the street name meow meow, will be banned and given a class B status – the same as marijuana.

Following a number of high profile deaths which have been linked to the drug – a plant food derivative– the government has taken quick action to ban the substance which has grown in popularity amongst teens.

According to a survey in dance magazine Mixmag mephedrone was the fourth most commonly used drug in the past month with 41.7% of respondents claiming to have taken the drug.

The government’s decision follows advice from the Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) that mephedrone and the family of cathinone derivatives are dangerous drugs and should be classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Chair of the ACMD, Professor Les Iverson, said: “The advice we have provided to government is generic legislation encompassing a wide range of cathinone derivatives. This is, as far as we are aware, a world first for the cathinones.”

Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who secured the agreement of Parliament on the ban, said: “Mephedrone and its related substances have been shown to be dangerous and harmful, but it is right we waited for full advice so we can take action that stops organised criminals and dealers tweaking substances to get around the law.”

The decision to control mephedrone as a Class B drug means that anyone caught in possession with it could face a prison sentence of up to five years, and dealers could receive up to 14 years imprisonment.

Two of the government’s drug advisors working for the ACMD have quit over the drug ban. Eric Carlin said in his resignation letter to the Home Secretary: “We had little or no discussion about how our recommendation to classify the drug would be likely to impact on young people’s behaviour. Our decision was unduly based on media and political pressure.”

An article in The Lancet argues that by banning mephedrone it will quickly become popular with criminals who will take the sales underground and market it illegally. In Sweden where it was classed as “hazardous” in December 2008, the number of new cases related to mephedrone has risen, with designer versions of the drug – including methodrone – also on the rise.

Carlin has expressed his own concerns about the potential criminalisation of young people by the ban.

So far the deaths of 25 people in the UK are being linked to the drug.