A concerned parent has issued a warning to others after witnessing the effects of a dangerous legal drug first hand.

Lee Gold, the founder of PeeWees hairdressers which has a salon in Kensington Gardens, Brighton, has sent an email to all his customers after his eldest daughter was admitted to hospital at the weekend after she unwittingly took the legal high mephedrone, known as mieow or meow.

The same drug has been linked to the death of 14-year-old Gabi Price, from Worthing, who died in hospital on Saturday after suffering a cardiac arrest at a party in Birdham Road, Moulsecoomb.

Friends who were at the party said they had watched her dying after she had taken the drug.

Mr Gold said his 16-year-old daughter went out on Saturday night and that he received a phone call during the early hours of Sunday morning to say that she was in hospital.

The email goes on to say his daughter had unknowingly consumed the drug during the course of the evening.

Mephedrone is a stimulant drug with effects similar to MDMA, producing euphoria, alertness, talkativeness and feelings of empathy.

It can also cause anxiety and paranoid states and overstimulate the heart and nervous system to cause fits.