Campaigners are pushing for a review into the banning of ‘new drug on the block’ Mephedrone after the substance was reportedly cleared of any link to the recent high-profile deaths of Scunthorpe teenagers Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19.

The deaths contributed to a huge furore over the then ‘legal high’ when early reports suggested the boys had taken Mephedrone. But according to the BBC this week, toxicology records show that neither victim had Mephedrone in their blood when they died.

The government’s former senior drugs advisor Professor David Nutt, who resigned over government drug policy last October, commented: “If these reports are true, the previous government’s rush to ban Mephedrone never have had any serious scientific credibility.”

The current chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse Of Drugs (ACMD), Professor Les Iverson, responded by saying the ban was still justified: “The ACMD gathered evidence from a number of experts and thoroughly researched the cathinones [stimulants] including Mephedrone before making its recommendation.”