A 20-year-old British woman died earlier this week after ingesting the legal drug known on the streets as “meow, meow”.

Although friends of Steph Howard said she became ill after someone spiked her drinks with the drug, police believe she voluntarily took them.

Last Saturday, Howard was rushed to a hospital in Lancs after she fell unconscious after ingesting the mephedrone, which can legally be sold as plant food.  Three days later she was dead.

Police arrested a 22-year-old woman and a twenty-six year old man and charged them both with supplying a controlled drug.

Last November a Brighton teenager died after taking the same drug.  However, after an autopsy a coroner ruled her death as cardiac arrest.

Last month, a teenager boy in Hertfordshire died after ingesting the drug at a house party.