Outlawing zombie drug’s made it worse

ONE of the most disturbing images of recent days is that of a young lad, swaying against a background of graffiti, his body and mind paralysed by the powerful synthetic cannabis drug, Spice. He looks barely 20 — yet he seems already half-dead.

Spice isn’t new. It has been around for some time, on sale in so-called ‘head’ shops and on the internet — and has long been a major problem in prisons.

A couple of years ago, I asked a senior governor what the biggest cause of trouble in his jail was and he answered with a single word: ‘Spice.’ Partly because of this, the Government made possession of the drug illegal last year, a move that many thought would help eradicate it.

Except the opposite has happened. More and more people are succumbing to this stuff, which is as addictive as crack cocaine, has crippling withdrawal symptoms and can lead to severe hallucinations, psychosis and violent behaviour.

Meanwhile, the drug is getting stronger. Police officers in Manchester say the shift from shops to street corner has coincided with an increase in potency.

A single dose is now equivalent to up to 100 times one of organic cannabis — and can be obtained for just £5.

All of which begs the very difficult question: has criminalising Spice actually made the problem worse?

The fact is that criminalisation — whether it be texting while driving or drug trafficking — works only if you have the will and the manpower to police it.

This has not happened in the case of Spice. All we seem to have done is taken it out of the hands of amateur dealers and given it to professional criminals, who are clearly making a killing.