A man who has tried a "legal high" being linked to a death has warned others not to take it.

The body of 24-year-old Michael Bishton was found by a fisherman off Whitecliff Bay, near Bembridge, Isle of Wight, on Saturday. He had plunged 300ft to his death.

Mr Bishton is known to have taken the substance Ivory Wave – which is sold as "soothing bath salts" – a number of times and had told his family he had suffered hallucinations.

Experts said the salts contained MDPV, a stimulant similar to ecstasy.

Hospitals have seen several cases of people affected by the drug in the past week.

Doctors warned its effects, which include hallucinations, heart palpitations, paranoia and insomnia, could be worse than mephedrone, or meow meow, which was banned this year.

Now, a man from Leicester, who is in his 20s and asked not to be named, urged anyone contemplating trying Ivory Wave to think again.

He snorted the drug on a night out with friends.

They paid £15 for a packet, which was sold legally as bath salts from Scorpion tobacconist, in Narborough Road, Leicester, in January.

He said he and his friends took a few lines of the drug after drinking lager before going to a nightclub.

But after a very brief high, he started suffering from fever-like symptoms and started worrying they could be in trouble.

He said: "At first we were quite lively and really chatty – perhaps a bit more so than normal – but other than that there were no real noticeable effects.

"Then all of a sudden my temperature was going from one extreme to the other and I felt like I was constantly about to throw up.

"We all started feeling pretty dodgy and had a few bottles of water to see if that helped but it didn't really so we went home.

"I was worried I might get worse and have to go to hospital and I suppose we were all becoming quite paranoid and anxious.

"The fact we couldn't get to sleep wasn't helping the matter either.

"The only reason we even tried it was because there were a few horror stories going around at the time that ecstasy pills being sold in Leicester were dodgy.

"Looking back, buying this stuff was far more stupid. It could have been a lot, lot worse.

"I think we were lucky to get away with feeling ill for a couple of hours.

"I definitely wouldn't go anywhere near something like that again and I would advise people to stay well away."

A spokeswoman for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said there had been no recorded cases of people being admitted after taking Ivory Wave.

Other hospitals around the country have reported patients coming in with acute paranoia.

The owner of Scorpion said he stopped selling Ivory Wave "two or three weeks ago".

He said: "Like all chemicals it can become very dangerous when mixed with other drugs.

"That's when bad things can happen. I was very sorry to hear about the death of that man."

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