Leafie article
Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) are marketed on the black market in the UK and around the world under names such as Spice, Mamba, and K2. SCs were designed to mimic the effects of cannabis by targeting the same receptors in the brain as the plant. These synthetic substances are often sprayed onto organic materials such as herbs and smoked in joints that are mixed with tobacco, or simply smoked in a rudimentary bong.
Users report feelings that are similar to cannabis but often much stronger. The harmful side effects of SCs are often extreme, with reports of nausea, palpitations, paranoia, intense anxiety, vomiting, confusion, poor coordination, and even seizures. The Office of National Statistics doesn’t collect data specifically on SCs, they include them with the New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) data. In 2021 there were 284 recorded deaths from NPS, an almost ten times increase compared to 2011, where there were 31.
Since the rise in SC use, multiple reports from around the UK, especially in town and city centres, mention people who appear to be frozen or to be walking around like zombies after taking synthetic cannabinoids. SCs are very addictive, with one user telling Wales Online, “It’s worse than heroin. Once you’re hooked on it, you’re f***ed basically.” Another user from Derby, who spoke anonymously said “I went back on the smack to get off spice as it was so addictive and so harmful, I felt like it was killing me”. The problem is aggravated by the relatively cheap price, with dealers selling SCs for as little as £5, making it attractive to those who live on the margins of society.
The dangerous drug is easy to make. There have been multiple convictions of people producing smokable SCs, distributing them from kitchens and garden sheds. Synthetic cannabinoids can be sprayed onto paper, making them hard to detect and easy to transport, resulting in what prison officers have called an epidemic in prisons. The problem was quelled when prisons started testing for SCs via their drug testing regime in 2017, it is still however a big problem that places a huge strain on resources both inside the prison and on the ambulance and A&E services that have to deal with overdoses. There were so many ambulance call-outs to prisons before more thorough testing was introduced that staff and inmates alike dubbed emergency responders as mambalances.
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